Been awhile since the wife and I fired up and ran the layout. Suddenly there were several switches that wouldn't throw one way or other. Little investigating showed several fine Z stuff motor wires chewed (plastic must have something delicious). Meanwhile wife observed a gondola of Hersey Kisses were AWOL and some wrappers were found here and there on layout.
Bought out the mouse traps and day later a pair of culprits were dispatched to where ever rodents go.
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Haven't had any mice in my train building this year but i have been catching them in the house. Mice love chewing on wiring for some reason. 2 years ago had one in my train building, the little devil filled the breaker box full of fiberglass insulation. Lucky i didn't have a fire. Found where he got in and plugged the hole, no mice in that building since. Seems to be a good year for mice, wife works at Wal-Mart and is selling a lot of traps.
There is one mouse that hides somewhere in the walls and comes out to mess up the scenery on my model railroad.
Andrew
It's Crissy the Christmas Mouse. Creating havoc in rrman's house!
Maybe its time for a Halloween black cat.
someone told me they chew the wires because there's salt in the wrapping? 
Back in my college days, I rented a one-room converted garage in some guy's backyard, but two mice lived there first, I discovered, in due course, and I didn't want any roommates. They seemed to like to come out at night and scratch around. I soon came to experience there was nothing quite like the satisfaction of hearing the CRACK of a mousetrap on their little necks. They were smart, though, avoiding the traps I first set with my hands - detecting my scent, I concluded. So, I set the freshly washed traps with two pairs of pliers. That night, Crack! Crack! Problem solved.
P.S. Be careful, what appears as chocolate sprinkles on the kitchen counter are NOT what they might seem to be (my first clue I had visitors,) esp. if you realize you don't have chocolate sprinkles in the house.
After our cat died, we saw a mouse in the garage of the house we just moved from a couple years ago. Set traps and thought we had gotten rid of all the mice at that time. When we moved a few years later we found a bunch of Dove chocolate wrappers behind some boxes in the basement. The boxes contained old vinyl record albums and had been sitting there for many years. The mice seem to like chocolate. At least they have good taste, who doesn't like chocolate? 
Anyway, I would suggest continuing to set the traps for a while as you might not have gotten them all? I don't think we did, or else they came back and we didn't notice them the next time? Chocolate might be good bait, either Dove's or Hershey Kisses as was stated above.
About once a year; normally in the fall during our first cold spell, I'll see evidence that a tiny four legged rail fan has been on my layout. Our house sets next to a ravine and some woods and I have concluded they follow the A/C line through the wall and into the basement.
I've stuffed steel wool in the cap through which the A/C lines run and spray "Critter Ridder" on the hoses themselves. This seems to have discouraged all but the most ambitious mice from getting into the basement. For them, I have several traps positioned around the exterior walls that have been baited with peanut butter.
When one of the traps does its job, I toss the tiny corpse into the ravine as a snack for a snake and as a warning to any other rail fan mice. ;-)
Curt
For some odd reason, I tend not to have mice around the layout.
Can't figure out why! 
Mitch
Can we safely assume that now "not a creature is stirring" at the rrman house? 
You're lucky it wasn't a...
When my dog died years ago, we got a couple of those little invaders. They evaded the traps. Adopted a cat from Petsmar's Sunday Cat Adoptions about a month later and he sent them a "Godfather" message a couple of days later. Fortunately the wife was out of town when he got the critter -- wasn't pretty. Apparently, the mice can smell the presence of certain predators. If I have a separate train building, I'll make sure that a feral cat has food and water dispensers next to it.
Some critters got into the local club's layout and ate the glue anchoring the forest. It looked like a tornado had hit and knocked over all the trees. Not the look that they were happy with though!
Several years ago a neighbor brought home a very thick hand cut Christmass tree. Set it up and ran a simple circle and a few buildings around the base. Within days the wiring to the trains and tree lights were chewed on and ruined. He found chocolate sprinkles all over the place. He set traps and over the holidays caught 3 adult and 6 smaller mice. After New Years he removed the tree and found 3 separate mouse condos in the tree. Ever since I take my tree out into the yard and hose it off making sure to check the thicker parts for critters befor bringing it inside.
M. Mitchell Marmel posted:For some odd reason, I tend not to have mice around the layout.
Can't figure out why!
Mitch
The best mouse catcher ever created is the cat! I have had mice avoid a trap but never got away from the living mouse hunter. Caught one mouse at night and the others were too scared to go near the traps after that, so I brought in the local alley cat and within two days no more mice.
A mouse trap only catches the slow or stupid mouse. A cat will catch all the mice in a day or two.
Lee Fritz
I like having mice in an aquarium where you can see them but not running loose in the house. For those who like Crissy the Christmas mouse; keep her under cover or she is cat food.
Also field mice can bring in disease with them, so keep the loose mice at bay with the cat. A cat can smell a mouse a good distance away from him, even through a wall, and won't quit until they catch the mouse. A cat over 6 months old is better at mouse hunting as he will kill & even eat it, but a kitten(cat under 6 months) may only play with the mouse and give the mouse a heart attack because of fear.
Lee Fritz
Our dog has caught more mice than our two cats combined!!
So far no signs of mouse activities on the layout. Plenty of "Catzilla" damage from time to time though. 
juniata guy posted:About once a year; normally in the fall during our first cold spell, I'll see evidence that a tiny four legged rail fan has been on my layout. ...
When one of the traps does its job, I toss the tiny corpse into the ravine as a snack for a snake and as a warning to any other rail fan mice. ;-)
Curt
Nice touch.
Interesting how an attack on the layout awakens the primitive man that lurks within us!!
Cooper Eastman posted:Re: "Bought out the mouse traps and day later a pair of culprits were dispatched to where ever rodents go." -rrman
Can we safely assume that now "not a creature is stirring" at the rrman house?
You're lucky it wasn't a...
That's funny because the wife and I just finished watching this last night!!
illinoiscentral posted:Maybe its time for a Halloween black cat.
we have that covered, plus he has two other colors for backup.......
handyandy posted:Our dog has caught more mice than our two cats combined!!
So far no signs of mouse activities on the layout. Plenty of "Catzilla" damage from time to time though.
Even Catzilla could not catch the mouse in Mouse Hunt. Maybe you should throw a piece of fruit at the mouse.
Lee Fritz
Not will cats take care of any mouse problems, they can become great companions as well.
Meet Peanut:
[URL=http://s199.photobucket.com/user/cmidland/media/caboose/012_zpsbnffvhp8.jpg.html][IMG]http://i199.photobucket.com/al.../012_zpsbnffvhp8.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
She's kept our house safe from rodents for 19 years now. Recently diagnosed with pancreatis, which we treat, and obviously, old age. She's been playing with toy trains longer than some on the forum.
We had a pair move in last year and after the 1st one was disposed of, the second one got smart, somehow taking the bait off of all 4 traps without setting any one off. Even all the peanut butter was gone! I was somewhat impressed. We identify it's route and created a squeeze point with the trap in the center augmented by a toothpick cut to the width of the trap and slide through the trigger. No more mice.
I don't have a layout since I moved but when I did at the old place I had a solid black cat similar to one shown above that would follow my train thru the tunnels and would invetigate through-out under the table when ever I went down there she was the only one I allowed down there as she wouldn't bother the trains she actually acted like she liked them so when I build my next one out in the garage which will become a outside building ( doing away with garage door I will probably take her out there with me when I go out there and bring her in the house when I come back in.
Recently my mom was down stairs in our basement and saw a mouse sitting on the floor it did not even move she yelled and dropped a box on the mouse she must have hit it just right because the mouse was knocked out. Dad removed it after I ran down stairs thinking she had bumped into my workbench that has several projects i have been working on. Never had a cat but our old dog used to get plenty of rats near his doghouse they never bothered us.
Lookie what he can do!
It's Lion Chief + 
You know, an old fashioned wood/wire mouse trap would make a cool flatcar load. You could tell people that somewhere there is a town with a really big rat problem!
Andy just leave the sides off one of these....mouse trap Blt by Lionel.....
Engineer-Joe posted:someone told me they chew the wires because there's salt in the wrapping?
Salt in the wires is a new one to me. I'm pretty certain that rodents chew wires because they have to chew constantly or their teeth exceed their jaws. They chew on anything they can get their mouths around and that has a chewable texture. Salt, though? I'll have to look that one up.
Fire ants, on the other hand, are supposedly actually attracted by the EMF in hot wires. Ants and trains would be a bad mix.
Timbo posted:Engineer-Joe posted:someone told me they chew the wires because there's salt in the wrapping?
Salt in the wires is a new one to me. I'm pretty certain that rodents chew wires because they have to chew constantly or their teeth exceed their jaws. They chew on anything they can get their mouths around and that has a chewable texture. Salt, though? I'll have to look that one up.
Fire ants, on the other hand, are supposedly actually attracted by the EMF in hot wires. Ants and trains would be a ba
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