repelling mice during boat storage

beezee28

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 3, 2004
Messages
804
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I say the green cube would be better because the mice/rat would go and look for water and die somewhere else and not in your boat. If they die in your boat, it would be messy and the smell would make you not go boating in that boat...
 

newhewes

Seaman
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Messages
56
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

Just had a pack rat in the boat. Chewed up the wiring harness from the controls to the motor and the transducer wiring. Chewed them in half. Started on the steering wheel. Lovely little critters but enough is enough. Have tried both moth balls and dryer sheets and neither seem to work. Now I am using a live trap, very humane. The only problem is that when I release the vermin the dogs like to chew them up. Oh well.
 

Kiwi Phil

Commander
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
2,182
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I think the green cube is the same as our Ratsack pellets (green), and they go looking for water, so normally never die where they live.<br />Works a treat for me. Leave it permanently in the big shed and in the propogation tunnels.<br />Wouldn't use anything else, although am wndering about anti-freeze (if it's available here).<br />Cheers<br />Phillip
 

swist

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
678
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

Try www.shake-away.com. It's fox urine in powdered form. For the first time in several years I had no trouble wih rodents (my boat is stored in the woods! couldn't be a worse situation, nut it's my only alternative to paying a boatyard $500!). You just put some on paper plates inside the boat, and spread it on the grounf around the boat. Causes rodents to think a fox is around and they stay away.
 

rnsi

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
104
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

swist-<br /><br />How does you boat smell in the spring?
 

tomatolord

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 1, 2004
Messages
548
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

no one mentioned the dead rat!<br /><br />if you kill one and leave it there the other rats will avoid the area...this what airports do, they shoot a deer and or goose and leave it at the end of the runway, the deer/geese avoid the area<br /><br />This works until the carcass is rotted away<br /><br />or <br /><br />minature electric fence so the rats can crawl under it?
 

rnsi

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
104
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I was on the lake last weekend, and my boat has only been sitting in my yard for a week. Went out yesterday to wash and wax, and the squirrels already started making a home. They started a nest behind the gas tank, and chewed through two more life vests.<br /><br />I wanted to repel them, but now I've had it. I'm gonna start killing. Part of the problem is my neighbor likes to feed them.<br /><br />Does the green rat poision work for squirrels?
 

MFG197

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 26, 2002
Messages
236
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I use mothballs. Has anyone tried those electronic boxes that emit the ultrasonic frequencies? Oh I think they cost like $19.95
 

lakelivin

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Aug 19, 2004
Messages
1,172
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

For those going the poison route, please be careful to choose and place the poison so as to avoid potental access by pets!
 

swist

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
678
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

By the spring the fox **** smell is gone. I had no problems at all.
 

jtexas

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
8,646
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

Speaking of pets drinking anti-freeze, I remember hanging out at my Uncle Pete's service station (remember "service stations?") as a kid, one day a stray cat wandering by jumped up on a workbench and started lapping up gasoline from a small container. After a couple minutes it started running full tilt around the station; must have gone around 4 times when it suddenly just stopped and collapsed. I asked Uncle Pete if it was dead. <br /><br />"Nope, just out of gas."
 

NYMINUTE

Captain
Joined
Oct 6, 2003
Messages
3,298
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

Tried the Anti Freeze in a bowl in my shed. Got 2 moles the first night. Boat sits 400' away from shed, Plan to kill em before they discover it. Thanks for the idea.
 

markvan

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
150
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

Anti freeze works the best - tried dryer sheets, moth balls, zest soap, if any animal rights activists want to pay for the damage these rodents do to my boat I will be glad to switch to something more humane, until then............prestone all the way. Beside it gets very cold here in northern alberta, I figure if it doesn't kill them it at least keeps them form freezing!!!!!!!!!
 

BoatBuoy

Rear Admiral
Joined
May 29, 2004
Messages
4,856
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I have never had a rodent in the house since I got a cat. It seems they know a cat's around and move on. I wonder if emptying a soiled litter box into an open container and leaving in a boat would work - much as the fox urine. Surely you have a friend/neighbor who would loan you some used litter.
 

fixin

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 23, 2004
Messages
775
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I've heard plastic snakes work,but you have to move them around.
 

rnsi

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
104
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

You sit in the boat all winter moving a plastic snake? Just hand me my gun.
 

CalicoKid

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 27, 2002
Messages
1,599
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I've read that the gas evaporating from mothballs (ethylene???) can cause corrosion to some paints and metals. I wouldn't use them. I use D-Con packs. Yellow paper pouches of poisoned food pellets. I tuck them in corners and under seats etc. and even stick one under the outboard cover. Some have suggested stuffing a pack or two in the trailer frame too. Keep pets and kids out of a baited boat!
 

jtexas

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
8,646
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

Originally posted by rnsi:<br /> You sit in the boat all winter moving a plastic snake? Just hand me my gun.
Do you plug each hole as you go, or wait until spring, mix up a biiiiiig batch of MarineTex, and do 'em all at once? :D :D :D :D
 

drbobp

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Oct 3, 2004
Messages
46
Re: repelling mice during boat storage

I had an unusual mouse bait. In my car I would leave Luden's cough drops (wrapped in cellophane) in my console. Each morning I would find one empty wrapper on the floor....no other mess that I could see. Put out a mouse trap baited with an opened cough drop (wild cherry) and got the perpetrator. Don't know if the ones in boats would go for the same bait...but maybe.
 
Top