Layouts and tunnels

How about those sticky mouse traps placed strategically at the entrances to the tunnels, etc.

I have a somewhat same issue.......mice in my classic car garage.  I had one build a nest in the trunk of my Javelin!!! A pack of mouse traps for $1 and some peanut butter and I got rid of them all. I keep traps out but seems as soon as you kill a few.....others stay away. Thanks for the reminder as it's time to reset for Winter!!!!

You just need to run trains often. Wouldn't that scare them away?

If you want to get creative, set up motion detectors in the tunnels which when activated, starts up a locomotive and blows the whistle!!

Bob, if I found snakes in my attic, I would be gone and they could have it.

Art

We had flying squirrel problems.sometimes it is worth getting a exterminator in to solve these kind of problems. Mice and squirrels are vile little carriers of filth and disease, should be controlled at all costs.

Fred

For my longer tunnels I'm putting in sections that open up so that I can see/reach into the tunnels at all points in order to handle derailments and cleaning.  You could put in something similar, even leaving it open when you are not going to be running a while and it may dissuade the critters? 

The snakes USED to come in in the summertime, to crawl through the joists and catch their skin on the metal joist connectors to shed their skin.  I found the hole they were using early after we bought the house in 87 and sealed it up.  No problem since, but it was pretty hairy-scary the first time I encountered one up there.  I tried to grab it, but those things are super strong and it wrapped itself around a joist and would not move for love nor money.  I just backed away, and it went back out on it's own after awhile.  Sealed up the hole with concrete and no problem with them since.  They had been doing for some time based upon the skins I found up there.  

Good morning Bob

Try bright strobe lights, creatures don't like them, they will leave or not come in.  Two or three should do it, turn them on when you leave the basement. If a regular size room with no train layout one will work. They use very little electricity. In my old barn I would use a small battery powered one under my truck to keep the critters out.

Clem k 

I also use the AMCDave way. Peanut butter & traps.

Another suggestion from the collector car community: Place an aluminum pie tin filled with a a stirred up batch of corn starch, sugar, and cement mix wherever you don't want the mice.  They can't resist it and, as they say, you can "clear them away with your hockey stick."

Well • I live in a house built in 1936 and it is now getting cold out and they are looking to move in. I do have two large size tunnels on the layout and they have not yet got that far.

   I put out these d-CON Mice trays, around the foundation, to stop them dead.

Good Luck - from Gary

I tried that several times.  They would eat the peanut butter, and not get caught!  Then they actually had the audacity to leave me notes requesting that I use only creamy peanut butter and not crunchy!   

Bob

This being a rather odd topic I still can understand it is a problem for you.

Years back when our son's were growing up we had a large number of animals. We usually had a ton or more feed for animals in the barn all the time. I have used moth balls under buildings for snakes and electronic transmitter devices for repelling various other critters. I actually think those work to some extent.

But, the best defense I ever had was a mean old barn yard cat.

Larry

We also live in the country surrounded by woods and all sorts of creatures. I have long tunnels and have no issues with pests (other than the occasional human ones ).

I could understand that.  Do you find them living in your tunnels?  

In the house we just moved from we had a cat for years and no mice. Cat died and a few years later we saw a mouse in the garage, Got traps, peanut butter (creamy) and caught several. Thought they were gone, only to find one in the basement a couple years later. More traps and peanut butter and we caught a few more. Thought we had them all again.

When we moved last fall, we found evidence of them still being in the basement behind some heavy boxes and an old wooden bed frame, so I am not so sure we ever got rid of them completely? As other have said, I think they get wise to the traps after a while, get tired of eating peanut butter or want to switch to crunchy or another brand? We didn't realize it at the time, but cats must also do a good job of keeping the mice in check. Should be able to save on cat food expenses too.

I would probably try an exterminator if we ever have them again. Don't they also make some sort of ultra sonic sound device that is supposed to run them off? Exterminator could probably answer this one too? We live in a more wooded area now and so far no evidence of mice anywhere (fingers crossed). We have seen some snakes (non-venomous) out in the yard and wooded spaces by our house, but none inside so far (fingers crossed again).

"I could understand that.  Do you find them living in your tunnels?"

Only once and the dog took care of him. 

I'm thinking about adding a couple tunnels to my layout.  I'm kicking around the idea to make them portable, so I can pick them up to get to the track if there is a problem.  I picked up a package of insulation panels that I think will work for the basic frame.  I think I can cut a few panels to get the basic shape for the profile and cover the panels with long strips that will support the plaster covering.  Just need the time to get on the band saw and table saw to cut the pieces.

I think mice are fond of coming in at night, esp. when the humans are asleep. They are adept at knowing when the coast-is-clear.

P.S. If you touch the trap with your bare hands, they may avoid it, having picked-up the human scent. Once I learned that, I used to use pliers to set the traps. There's nothing quite as gratifying as the sound of that "crack!" when you know a little furry neck has been snapped...just sayin' .

Off topic, yet on...

Last week, I shared a few moments with a woman in the customer-waiting lounge of my Mercedes Benz dealership. She had her "S" Benz in for repairs because a squirrel had done quite a bit of damage in her engine compartment (!) and somehow got roasted there. It was the odor of the rotting car-kill that drew her attention to the carnage. The damage sure wasn't covered by warranty.

And back in the '70's, during a snowy winter in NJ, I witnessed a cat drop out of the front of a car, screaming bloody-murder, as soon as the driver had started-up the car. It seems it took to sitting up in the crescent shaped guard that used to be under the fan. The cat's jaw had been injured by the fan, I believe.

You have the best idea for tunnels.  I found there are two major problems with long tunnels with little or no access:  difficult to reset derailed engines and cars and very hard to clean track.  As far as creatures living in tunnels go, yes they are a haven for just about everything especially spiders.  In my recent modification to the layout I did away with my tunnels and made canyons instead.  I just hate spiders.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Tunnel at the Sawmill to reach the deep woods timber[3" deep] .

Last photo is at our mountain cottage--tunnel through the corner of wife's pantry on the high shelf RR in the Kitchen. All dismantled in 2008.

The pros will put bait boxes outside. You can get those at the home stores and hardware. The are the enclosed type. I use TomCat because the refill baits are easily available. They spike down. I have not seen other critters dead because of them. Wear some gloves when handling them.

I live in a wooded area at the end of the road. Since I have been using the bait boxes the traps have stayed empty, but for perhaps one a year.

Then it's tunnel time!

By the way, Bob, I never did catch up with Snow Piercer.

For mice, moles, birds, bunnies, and chipmonks I use my cat.  He kills em then eats em.  Nothing wasted.   As far as snakes...the shovel is the tool of my choice.

Rick

When my dog died in '05, we were without an in-house "predator" for almost a year. Mice showed up about six months later. Traps and sound devices didn't work. Adopted a cat in late '06 and he nailed a mouse on day 2. Got a [so-called] dog about a year later (a Maltese), and another cat latched onto us three years ago. Since then there have been no traces of mice. They apparently can detect the presence of predators. I like the cornstarch/sugar/cement idea over poison.

As for tunnels, we have a couple, one that's very long. The long tunnel has removable panels; the other one is accessible from the back

The guy I sent it to, I've forgotten who, never continued with the program.  I think he had good intentions, but no follow-through.  It was only an sort-of-okay movie.  Predictable story line and ending.  

I think that's a really good idea. If I ever have any tunnels I would want them removable for access to the inside. There's something about inaccessible areas I just don't like. Hard ceilings in a basement are another one I wouldn't want.

We used to have a major mouse issue. Our house is built on former farmland. A couple years ago we bit the bullet and signed a contract with an exterminator. It is a little expensive, but the mice are gone. We also no longer have box elder bugs and Asian beetles. The mice had taken over the attic, kitchen, garage, workshop and the train room, but once we started fighting back, their "reign of terror" was over. Now I just relax and pay the bill.

I had  a family of chipmunks eat all the hoses on my two week old 1987 IROC Z28 Camaro.I also live in the woods. My last layout had a tunnel 3ft.x12ft. two levels and I keep the trains inside to keep the dust off them. It was up about three years with no problems.   

IMO, a lot of critter control is related to small pieces of trash that have food/sugar/salt/etc. on it.  You can usually spot crawling critters along the bike trails. They are there looking for mice/rodents/etc.   The mice rodents/etc. are there looking for food, usually human trash related.  My usual 3.5 mile walk around the local park is very seldom done with out picking up a few piece of trash.   After picking trash every day for a few years, the snakes are gone.  The park attendants have told me the snakes are now in their maintenance building.  May be they should pick-up their lunch trash.  Interesting food chain, that we create. IMO Mike   On the Montour trail.

Great Allegheny Passage Bike trial near Meyersdale, PA. A Black Racer with a lot of tire tracks across it's back.

I agree with those who advocate pets as a solution to this problem.  We had a dog and two cats for many years.  We lost our faithful pup a few years ago, but thankfully our two cats are going strong and I don't think it is a coincidence that we have had a mouse in the house once in 10 years and that one time the cats were waiting for it outside a bathroom vanity.  The mouse was not then seen again.

Mice can squeeze through unbelievable small cracks in your house foundation.  Go around your house outside with some "Great Stuff" sealer and fill them  You can find some openings you don't know about after dark by standing in your basement in the dark and have some one else walk around the outside of your foundation with a bright light.  Mark the spot where you saw light come in and then look for it in the daytime and fill it.

.....

Dennis

Hey Spence, I'am with you.

the only thing living in my tunnels are two switches.

what a mistake!

SNAKES in the attic?????I'm sleeping in my CAR tonight.LOL

I have seen that once a mouse gets killed in a trap the others stay away. A classic example was at my sister's house in Pennsylvania, she got mouse traps but after the first mouse was caught the traps no longer worked because the mice were wise to them.

The best solution is: get a cat to get rid of mice! A cat will kill the mice and get fed at the same time.

Other solutions will just make the problem worse.

Lee Fritz

How come cats don't get sick from eating the mice? Or do they? There must be some kind of kooties transmitted by the (field) mice, eh?

Jus' sayin' .