Having mountains (lotta mountains) on my layout ergo a lot of tunnels. I have now encountered rodent problems. The wee beasties have started chewing away at the tunnels… I am pretty sure (any other possibilities for the scratching sounds)? Running Big Boys through the tunnels bumps the little monsters out but I still get a jolt when they run out and away to somewhere! But I am afraid that one day I am going to run my weathered Allegheny and a huge long freight trainthrough one of those tunnels have a huge crash and guts to clean out. I have no cat but I could try smoking them out with 2-4-0’s. What should I do.
Please respond before I go insane, Hit the panic button or declare war on the layout (1:87 war to be be precise)for the purpose of ending it all.
P.S. I have models of miltary stuff, RC stuff and every sort of thing from New Years that makes noise and light
Nothing would beat a 4 legged animal that “meows” for this job, even if it is just borrowed from a relative or nieghbor. Remove expensive loco’s and cars and structures first.
Poisons are dangerous to use in a hobby area unless you could be sure no one but you would go in the room. Modern poisons usually cause rapid de hydration to minimize any odors. You still need to find the “corpse” to dispose of it. I do not mean to alarm you but if you see “one” you have more than that that you never see. Is your layout in a garage or attic? They are getting in some where, They can get through even a 1/4 inch gap. They can jump with great accuracy 4 to 6 feet or more. Devious critters.
We started having issues with mice in the crawl space/attic area. I placed poison in the areas I could see that appeared to be a rodent traffic area for about 2 weeks and then bought a few pest noice makers and installed 2 up there (I installed a receptacle at each end of the attic by tying into some wires up there). These noise makers are available at wal-mart for about $10 for a 2 pack or $ about $16 for a 4 pack. The create high frequency sound that supposedly irratates rodents and insects so that they leave. They ended up migrating into the living area so I bought more (have 1 in each bedroom, 2 in the living room, 2 in the dining room/kitchen area and a few in the basement and garage) and have not seen or heard any mice in about 6 months. Evidence of spiders has decreased considerably as well!
Electrical consumption is not noticable at all and the only time we can hear them is for a few seconds if we need to plug them back in.
Those high frequency noise makes don’t work in my experience.
Know what does work? The good ol’ fashioned mouse trap.
Hence the old saw about building a better mouse trap, I suppose.
Put a piece of cardboard under and place it against a wall with the bait end against the wall. Never fails. Pick up the cardboard and dump the whole lot into the trash.
I was thinking more like oh, say, cage at one end of all tunnels and all trains equipped with light sound and smoke go in other end. Vermin into cage, shut cage do with them whatever else I plan (trying to think of something humane)
I can relate to this thread…nothing like having the layout in a public storage unit for a year to find some Black Widows had made a home in my tunnels is very depressing to be sure. I bombed the unit and hoped I got rid of all of the little creatures before I stuck my hand in those tunnels again. [(-D]
[#ditto] What he said… I live in the country. D-Con poison and glue traps with peanut butter on them are my best friends. Put them in the corners and along the base boards in your garage. They won’t even get up on the layout.
Years ago we had purchased some off a TV commercial…those were less than mediocre. What we have now are Black and Decker. Location is the key for them to function well. You pretty much need a receptacle that has nothing in front of it (not blocked by furniture or drapes). The one in my daughters bedroom is plugged into the power strip with her stereo, tv and dvd player so I was able to postion it so that it projects the sound out underneath her tv stand. It was not an immediate effect either.
There’s not much point in trying to get rid of them until you stop more of them from coming into the house. Setting traps, bait, or poison will continue to attract more to the free food, so plug up all of the holes where they can get in. An adult mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime, so you’ve got your work cut out for you. [swg] An easy way to plug small holes is to pack them with steel wool: for some strange reason, mice don’t seem to enjoy chewing on this stuff. [;)][:D]
The Doc has prescribed some good advice here…to add to it, be aware of what is OUTSIDE. Be sure that the trash cans that receive food trash have snug fitting lids.
I’ve had the little buggers a couple of times in the beginning of fall - they’re looking for a winter vacation spot! Sticky traps are excellent. As far as getting rid of the stuck critters - I toss mine into the woods behind the house - I did see a cat with a trap stuck on the side of his head once!! [:D]
Oh c’mon guys. We’re all big boys here. You go buy a couple of the old fashoned Victor snap traps, bait them (peanut butter works the best), pull the snap bar with the springs back and set the trap. Wait a few minutes and you will hear SNAP!!! Wait a couple more minutes unless you enjoy seeing the nerves doing that twitchy thing. Then you take the trap, dead mouse and all, to the waste basket or outside to where ever and pull up on the snap bar releasing the now dead little mousy, and then repeat the process until you don’t catch any more. The traps are reusable and when you are done wash your hands and go back to modeling. First off they kill the mouse almost instantly and so are probably the most humane. The sticky ones are IMHO cruel as they don’t kill quickly. Traping and releasing doesn’t solve the problem unless you do it way my sister does. She catches the sweet little, cute mousy wousy, and takes it outside to the park near her home and humanely releases it hoping it will find new home in the park (or somebody elses house) when it is 10°F outside. Freezing to death is not a nice humane way to go.
Can’t believe grown men can be so squemish over getting rid of vermin that carry disease and pose a serious health risk to you and your families. Do any of you hunt??? [;)][;)]
BTW, if you live in the North, they came in back in October or early November and have been living with you since then. Untrapped they will disapear in the spring outside to provide the next wave of vermin for next fall.
I have a garage layout, too, and lotsa tunnels,but I’ve never had a mouse problem. But then I have gone in to work on the railroad only to find out that I’m sharing the layout with a raccoon or two (not ON the layout, you understand, just staring up at me from the floor before they take off). Hm, could be why I DON’T have a mouse problem, come to think of it. I have, however, had some rather large spiders accidentally hitch a ride on the pilot of one of my articulateds when it comes booming out of a tunnel. They don’t look happy at all. But then, it’s hard to interpret a spider’s expression. For all I know, they may be yelling “WHEE, FREE RIDE!”
When we get the nasty vermin, they go to their doom via any means possible. Snap trap, glue trap, poison - whichever they hit first. No trap-and-release here - these things are NOT an endangered species!
I never had a problem with mice on the tracks in my garage. I have a trap in the crawl space under the house, and another in the attic; both with peanut butter. I also have two dogs that seem to like eating them.
As for vermin, I used to have an anole (gecko) problem. It’s not as bad as it used to be (one of my dogs thinks they are tasty [(-D]) but the ones that get on the ceiling end up dropping poo on the layout every now and then. How do you get geckos off the ceiling???
