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i recently moved house, coming from somewhere that had no issues with rodents. I quickly discovered we had mice in the new house and had to do a bit of a cleanup a few times after they chewed their way though grain bags.

Most of my grain is stored in those Bunnings buckets (pictured) - air tight, food safe, convenient etc. I moved the 25kg grain bags into some plastic bins from Bunnings - "problem solved!" said I, self-congratulatorily.

I double-checked this morning - as I had been caught out on two previous occasions by the mice finding grain that I didn't know I had (still in boxes after the move and so on).

And this is what I found.

I'm utterly stumped as to what to do next. We might have to move house.

Suggestions welcome.

Note that I put down some poison/bait a few weeks ago - but they're not going to touch that while there's grain around.

IMG_0401.JPG
 
Little fuckers!!

That's all I've really got to say.
 
Jeepers!!

Maybe get a couple second hand corny kegs and store the grain in those? Steel is a little harder to chew through... Buy a cat and set lots of mouse traps. Good luck!
 
Traps are better than poison.

Apart from the utter nastiness of how poison works, rodents will die, rot and stink in unknown places till you eventually find and scrape up their putrid remains. Traps are bang, corpse disposal, reuse

Works best if you have multiple locations (like 10+).

I can also vouch for the efficacy of cats.
 
manticle said:
Traps are better than poison.

Apart from the utter nastiness of how poison works, rodents will die, rot and stink in unknown places till you eventually find and scrape up their putrid remains. Traps are bang, corpse disposal, reuse

Works best if you have multiple locations (like 10+).

I can also vouch for the efficacy of cats.
i use steel bins for my grain.
other than a cat have you tried a small dog like a jack russell they were originally a rat dog. i know that mine has caught a few ether rats or small possums.
 
Greyhounds are great mouse hunters too
Mine loves a rodent as a midday snack
 
Metal bins from Bunnings alone wouldn't be air tight, which would allow moisture and insects to get in.

You'd probably need to use airtight plastic bins and place inside the Bunnings metal bins
 
Re cats: we have one. He's snoozing here on the couch beside me. He also has a reputation for having a "what do you want me to do about it?" expression as mice frolic in front of him. Given how well tooled-up these rodents are, I'd be more afraid that if I put him in with them, I'd find him boiling in a pot on the stove as they 'send me a message'.

Poison - was under the impression that the particular poison used makes the mice incredibly thirsty and they go outside to seek water and die doing so. Will have to look into it - I have no aversion to chucking corpses in the bin - in fact I think I'd be celebrating at this point.

Steele bins - I'm a little reluctant on his - I think I probably have approx 20 of these plastic buckets - of various sizes- for all my specialty grains. It would take a lot of steel bins. Maybe I need to get some sort of big metal box that can hold multiple buckets?
 
Living in a rural environment mice can sometimes be a problem, grain for the chooks etc only adds to the problem.
I have tried many baits but this is by far the best, use this for a week or two and most of your mice will be gone. Then just leave some near your grain and top up if needed.

http://www.animalcontrol.com.au/mouseoffBd.htm

As you can see it is also a grain. All the usual safety precautions will apply to using poison bait of course.
I buy mine from A.G. stores.

Batz
 
Can't you build an enclosure around the bins covered in rodent proof mesh?
 
We're sort of semi rural here and the grain sits in a big old fibro garage shed in the corner of the yard that would easily fit a bus so it should be rotten with rodents.

Those yogurt bins / handy bins are pretty thin plastic, I've always used Willow 60L bins that you can just drop a whole sack into, you'd need to be a velociraptor to chew through that; never had a day's problem with pests. They are surprisingly cheap, often on special at Bunnings.

willow bins.jpg



As a precaution I leave a few trays of ratsak nearby to distract them, sometimes find a dead critter in the corner.
 
What's the consensus about what to put on the traps? Just a few pieces of grain?
 
In my experience, rats are too cunning for traps, give them some green pellets to chew on and they'll die whilst trying to get to water.

Another problem though, is that it won't be long until another bunch of rats move in.

I've given up on killing them and just make sure my garage is rodent proof.
 
Black Devil Dog said:
In my experience, rats are too cunning for traps, give them some green pellets to chew on and they'll die whilst trying to get to water.

Another problem though, is that it won't be long until another bunch of rats move in.

I've given up on killing them and just make sure my garage is rodent proof.
Mine's the opposite. Poison definitely works but you only know 2 weeks later when the smell in the crockery cupboard alerts you. Traps only work if you have a heap of them though cos rats breed like.......rats
 
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