Help please - mice using har bar as a toilet (no traps or poison tho)

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LouandBee

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Hi,

Anyone know of anything I can do to keep mice out my horses hay bar - it's smelling very mousey! My mare has soaked hay so I'm surprised the mice bother with it but there's a drain just outside the stable which seems to be where the little gits are coming from and using my stable as a thoroughfare. I've now started using a big tub trug in the bottom of the hay bar to stop the hay getting peed on but the smell is very strong under the trug!

Any tips would be much appreciated. Is there some sort of chemical or powder I can put at the bottom that the mice won't like but that won't put off my mare at the same time?

Sorry but don't agree with poison or traps and can't really use them anyway as it's not my yard.

Many thanks
 
Have you tried humane traps? They simply let the mouse in, but don't let them out. They'll only die if you forget about the trap!

You can then take them somewhere else and let them go. I'm not sure how well mice find their way home, so whether that'd be something you could do or not, I don't know.

We had to get a cat to stop mice and rats etc and it's worked a treat, but you say it's not your yard, so I guess that's not helpful :P
 
tallyho! said:
Jack Russell's.... Or cats.
Click to expand...

Ditto Cats- we have 10 cats and NO mice unless you count the headless ones we sometimes get as presents :o

If that's not possible - is there any way of blocking the offending drain to the mice with some mesh or something but so the water can still get thru?
 
Thanks everyone. We have two cats on the yard but they are fed well which probably makes them a bit lazy.

Think I will try a grill over the drain and failing that, use that expandible foam stuff to block every tiny hole in this particular corner of the stable.

I don't really want to mention it to the yard owner as I know he'll put poison all over the place and I can't stand to see the poor mites dying like that - fluffy bunny I know!
 
Well fed cats make the best hunters, our neighbor has four fat cats, I have seen one bring home a rabbit nearly bigger than the cat, it was really on it's tip toes carrying it, we had a rat run at the back of our cottage and at one point the rat had more dog food stashed than the dog had, I'm sure it was planning a party, (all you can eat) the only thing that stopped the beggar was that expanding foam filler
 
Is it that you don t think its nice to kill them?
If you kill these one or two now its a lot better than being over run with them later and having to kill dozens.
If you really really don t want to kill them try putting up a notice saying "mice not welcome"
It won t work but at leat you ve tried.:D
 
If you have vermin on your yard then its the Yard Owner's responsibility. Get them to call the experts in who will ensure that the right solution is found. If it means poison then they will use the right stuff and put it in the correct containers and the right dosage. If you start doing your own solution you could end up causing a bigger issue.
 
luckyoldme said:
Is it that you don t think its nice to kill them?
If you kill these one or two now its a lot better than being over run with them later and having to kill dozens.
If you really really don t want to kill them try putting up a notice saying "mice not welcome"
It won t work but at leat you ve tried.:D
Click to expand...

sorry but that made me chuckle :-)

are you sure it is mouse that you can smell, just seems strange theyd go in there for the loo :-/
 
Thanks again for the ideas. I know I sound very soft but I don't go along with the idea of killing anything that causes me a minor irritation, unless it's a fully grown human being;)

I'm pretty sure it's the mouse pee that's smelling, or rat pee. Very distinctive smell and very different to horse pee.

Think I will give it a good scrub at the weekend and block the holes in the corner with expandible foam. Hopefully that will stop them using this particualr corner of the stable.
 
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