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Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 25 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,220 posts, read 17,105,490 times
Reputation: 15539
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Your yard is too large an area to try and mouse proof seeing they can go over, under or through fencing. You could establish a feral cat colony but that comes with its own problems. Notify the town of your neighbors yard condition and the conditions you observed, get those bait boxes like you see at public restaurant dumpsters and place them along the perimeter of the property near the fence no reason to attract them near your house. Good Luck..
Hello all, this summer we discovered that the house we bought last year has a little rodent issue, aka field mice or whatever else they call them. My backyard has old wood fence on 3 sides, 3 neighbors. The neighbor on the right is aware of the situation and they have told me they take precautions by spraying the surrounding perimeter and their fence with repellant. The neighbors on the back center I have not talked too.
The neighbors on the left are an old couple that like to feed wild birds, you see where I'm going I hope. Originally we thought that it was an area issue so I started cleaning everything I had in my backyard and try to maintain the backyard clean. I started using repellant which didn't do anything. Then I fortified the fence of my right neighbor with thin wood planks and will do the center and left part of the fence next. We did get an exterminator and that was a waste of $500.
One day we went over at the backyard of the left neighbors, the old couple. And as we were talking, mice were walking and running all over their yard going from their old shed to their neighbors then back to the shed. I noticed a lot of "holes" around their wooden deck and shed. The whole place looked like it was infested. Meanwhile when we first told them they denied it now that we have mentioned it many times and been in their yard they don't deny it. When we told them that the bird food they use attracts mice if not cleaned they didn't take that well and said they like their birds.
I'm now seeing activity in my yard, holes on the ground near the fence etc. In the future I will replace the fence with some material other than wood but for now what are my options? The mice are only outside in their yard but pass through our yard by digging under the fences. We have 2 little kids that want to play in the yard but we haven't let them out much because we don't like they to leave the door accidentally while going in and put and risk a mouse going in the house.
Is there some town agency that will help with this? Am I alone on this fight we the mice? This is in Merrick by the way.
I hope someone out there has some good feedback for me, I appreciate your assistance on this.
Just wanted to give you guys an update. I got the Victor mouse traps, the old school ones. I set them up along the fence and caught 5 mice in 1 week! I was catching one of them every day or every other day. I have caught in total about 7 or 8 now, lost count. The 1st 5 were big, the last 2 I caught were little ones. The neighbor must have seen I was all worked up about it and looks like he started to use traps or poison too because they told me they also found a dead one. For the past 3-4 days I have not seen any activity at all. I did also purchase the black boxes that you lock the poison inside . Found a deal on Amazon and was just delivered 2 days ago. I have no set these traps as well and loaded them with the green poison bars.
One year, I thought it would be nice to feed the birds outside of my window so I could watch while I worked. Well, I quickly found out that was not a good idea. Within a week, rats began congregating with the birds on the ground, catching the seed that fell out of the feeder. Neighbors began seeing them. I quickly removed the feeder. I called the health department and they explained that rats live in the ground. They don't usually come into the house. They are opportunist, so anything left out to eat, they will go for it. At the time, I had three dogs. The rats could have cared less. Once the source of food was gone, so were the rats. My guess is the bird feeder is the source. Have someone from the health department explain the issue to the couple. Good luck.
I don’t ever put food in my bird feeder between April to November. If you do, you will have rats or mice. I don’t know if mice hibernate, but I’ve never seen any in the winter months.
OP, if you got a small terrier and let it outside each day, I doubt you would have a rodent problem anymore.
Fencing to keep out or at least severely deter rodents can work if right sort and done properly.
Base for several feet upwards and few feet down must be of a sold but hard smooth material.
Rats and mice can easily climb brick, cinderblock and other surfaces with coarse surfaces. Thus you want something smooth at least last "mile" or so upwards so even if rodent starts climbing up they cannot get hold further up. Without ability to gain traction, they cannot climb further.
Alternatively nongalvanized or galvanized and/or stainless steel wire mesh can work if started several feet below ground, then after several feet upwards topped off with a wide band of sheet metal can work as well.
If there is a consistent food source all year long, the rodents won't migrate away. Once the source is gone for good, they will move on searching for another source.
The source could be something like a compost heap, bird feeder, or some do-gooder who thinks they're helping the wild life by maybe throwing out kitchen scraps. Sometimes it's impossible to figure out.
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