Grain Storage

[Doc]

Monday night I was out in my brauhaus and opened the cupboard where I keep my grain and aarrrrgh mouse droppings. And a little hole in my sack of Trad Ale Malt.
The little buggers had made a hole in the bag and started on my grain. Looks like I had caught them after the first night as there weren't too many droppings around and not too much grain husks.
I taped up the hole and put that bag in another old grain bag and taped that up.

Then put down a rodent bait which is about 4cm/sq.

I went out last night and my grain bag is fine but the little buggers had eaten the entire bait. Not a lot of droppings around either. The grain bag was also still intact.
I put down another bait and cleaned up the droppings.
There should be some dead mice around

Anyone else had problems with rodents and you grain ?

Doc

 

[Andrew Clark]

Hi Doc,
Up here in Queensland we have a chain of stores called The Warehouse ( a $2 shop) they have 60lt rectangular plastic containers with lids and little wheels on the bottom, and the lid locks down. I use these to store all my grain and the best part is the price $20.
Regards
Andrew

 

[PostModern]

I have had the odd rat and mouse in the garage. They feed on the compost heap, the bastards. Anyway, I strongly recommend that you use traps over baits. That way you know where the body is.

In my experience, when they die of bait, it's invariably in some inacessible place that you can't see but can smell. There was one exception at my house involving a Norwegian rat that came out to die in the living room while I was at work. The Mrs was not impressed that she had to finish it off with a broom.

 

[Murray]

I had a bag of munich attacked by weevils. :angry:

Now I store my grain in sealed containers I get from work when empty.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Hi Doc,
Up here in Queensland we have a chain of stores called The Warehouse ( a $2 shop) they have 60lt rectangular plastic containers with lids and little wheels on the bottom, and the lid locks down. I use these to store all my grain and the best part is the price $20.
Regards
Andrew

I get my containers from Bunnings. I think they are 50 litre and cost me $8 each

TDA

 

[dicko]

G'Day all,

Doc, those bins that TDA mentioned are great, They hold a full 25kg and the lid locks on.

Just on your mouse baits, There are two types of baits for rodents.
For want of a better description one is an almost instant death and the other is a lot slower death benerally 5 - 7 days.
The reasons for these are that within the rodent family there is a "pecking order" and that means that the dominant animals eat first so if the less dominant see the others dying after eating a certain food they know not to eat it and therefor you only kill some of the population.
If you have used the slow type the whole family generally eats the bait over a period of a week and you get a better kill rate.
With the slow type the animal usually starts to get pretty thirsty and goes off looking for water and quite often dies away from the area where they were first baited, so you dont see dead bodies or at least not many.
Probably bored some people with this post but the explanation may help with rodent control.
Cheers

 

[Batz]

I store all my grain in sealed buckets , but then these I get very cheap

:blink: :unsure:

 

[johnno]

Bloody pests!
I live in the inner city and still get them every now and then. They will be a pain when I eventually start with grain. Got to get one of those bins to store in.
The last mouse I had got sneaky and wouldnt take the trap. Well after a few weeks it got too confident and would start sneaking aroung when we were up.
Waited for it one night and blocked its escape route.
The broom did avery good job that night.

 

[big d]

well my grain bags are currently used as a foot rest as they reside right beside the computer in the spare bedroom.cost too much to get up here and live in the heat/tropics so they are mothered in the a/cond house.took the wife ages to get used to living with 100kg of grain though. <_<
when i buy an a/c for the box/storage room they can then safely reside there.

 

[Batz]

Mine all lives inside too big d

Is the cause of some friction now and then

 

[Doc]

I keep most of my grain in the laundry high up on a strong shelf.
However the large sack of base grain is hiding, um stored in the brauhaus where there is more room
Stored it in a large plastic bin last night as when I checked the second bait the little buggers were well into it as well.
So I'm guessing it is the slow killing bait. Hopefully then BBB's advice will stand true and they will die somewhere away from my shed or maybe even the neighbours bastard cat will find them.

Beers,
Doc

 

[big d]

hey batz
as long as the wives dont tell us to sleep on the grain bed then we should be right

 

[deebee]

I get heaps of rats in my vege patch and accept I will never get rid of them but I can control them.

Every few months I pick anything nearly ripe in the vege patch and put out about 6 traps with peanut paste or scatter different baits of different types in different places. Keep changing tactics coz they are smart. Wear gloves when handling traps and baits to keep your smell off them, try different baits, put baits in different places. After a big assault they disappear for a couple of months then come back. I caught a big grey bugger in a trap the night before last. I hate em.

I can relate to PM's post. Some rats died in their nest in the ceiling space above our toilet. It was a relief when someone did a really bad **** in there to partly disguise the rank stench that haunted that room for at least about 3 months.

Another tip - use plastic traps because the wooden ones absorb blood and the general smell of dead rat and once it has caught a rat you'll never get another one to go near it.

Another option I've never been able to look into in the burbs is those little ratshot cartridges that you can fire out of a 0.22. Like a mini shotgun. That would be nice.

I hate em.

 

[Doc]

Went out to the brauhaus this morning and knew there had been mischief as soon as I opened the door. I could smell the little bastards.
Opened the cupboard and there were two comatosed field mice.
Comatosed one minute dead the next :lol:
Hopefully they are the two that have been causing me problems.

The interesting thing is that they had only got about a third through the second bait, and had then started on eating the lino I had on the bottom of the cupboard.

Hopefully also now that the grain is in a sealed large plastic garbage bin the temptation will be gone for any further visits.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Batz]

As I said , all stacked in our computer room , wife calls it the grain silo now !

 

[Batz]

Got a couple hidden here too

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Bunnings have 50 litre storage bins with wheels for sale this week at $6 for anyone wanting to keep rodents out of your precious grain.

TDA

 

[Wax]

TDA,

Would those 50L bins hold a 20L keg? I want get portable with my kegs. I was thinking something like a little sulo bin, keg inside, packed with ice. If these containers would fit a keg it would be $6 well spent.

 

[wedge]

Thats what i did wax, lot cheaper in the short run and your beer gets a lot cooler for longer.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

TDA,

Would those 50L bins hold a 20L keg? I want get portable with my kegs. I was thinking something like a little sulo bin, keg inside, packed with ice. If these containers would fit a keg it would be $6 well spent.

They are rectancular in shape and about 40 cm high so you could fit a keg Wax but only the bottom half would be in ice. You would be better off with a garbage bin IMO.

C&B
TDA