Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rodent proofing a cabin

Do some research on "stem walls". Had I know about them a few decades ago I would have save myself a lot of grief.

I planted pumpkins at my son's house and in October they were getting eaten by something. I thought it was raccoons, but my wife set up a game camera and it was rats.

When I lived in the sticks and had a dozen chickens, I found I had 100 rats. I stopped 24 hour chicken feed, and only fed the hens 15 minutes a day. All the rats moved to the neighbor's chicken coop, where he is still shooting them.

For many years we kept a large 5th wheel on our mountain property , used it for our "cabin in the mountains". We fought mice the whole while. I ran a regular trap line both in the trailer and around the immediate perimeter, had 12-15 traps going at all times. Some years I would catch 80-90 mice in a 5 month period.. Tried the dryer sheet routine as well as some peppermint stuff to no avail, along with decon . I quit the decon as it was killing the little ground squirrels . Never did get all of them, just slowed them down a little.

Had mice in my Idaho home. I bought OOOO steel wool and jammed it in every hole leading into the house. Every pipe and every wire hole. Worked from the crawl space. Dryer duct was an obvious problem and I plastered that one shut but the tore out the new plaster. Filled the big hole with steel wool and that was the last I ever saw a mouse in the home. Wasn't an enjoyable exercise but it did work for the remaining years I lived there.

Replaced the door sweeps and reset the threshold heights.

I've had decent luck keeping them out of our car/truck hoods and cabs with stuff like "Fresh Cab" and "Shake A Way" repellent packs. And I use RatX and Mouse X (same stuff, different label) bait around the place. Living 15 miles from town, surrounded by open public land, with a multitude of pack rat nests and their residents, voles, mice, and even kangaroo rats it's difficult to keep the place mouse or rat free .

Nothing seems to work 100%. Went to get a feed bag out of the well sealed cargo trailer I use for dry storage the other day. Noticed the peanut bag had a hole chewed in it, a few shavings from the eaten nuts, a little damp looking spot in the corner and some turds and wondered how in the heck did a mouse get in there. Set a trap and within an hour had the little critter. Best I can figure is it came in the peanut bag from the feed store as it appears to be the only one there. Only other way was it jumped in there while I was carrying a bag of feed to the chicken bucket (galvanized 10 gal can holds a 50lb bag perfectly and the lid fits tight, no mice in that feed) .

Little bastids have ruined enough of my stuff over the years.

Best of luck with your cabin.

Geno

Years back there was a cabin stuck back in the Georgia woods and we had some rodent problems. Also had cats....and a gas floor heater. So the mouse shows one cold night and the chase was on. Bedroom, kitchen, the into the living room and...it jumped into the hole where the gas pipe went, and onto the burner array. It had been running hot most of the day. Plop, hiss, pop and the smell of burnt hair.

It is difficult to choreograph but funny as hell. Pun intended.

peppermint oil mixed 50/50 with water sprayed around the perimeters of the walls works good.

Never had a mouse or rat problem in my cabin. Footing and frost wall foundation, open and shut vents, with bug screen and hardware cloth. Utility openings with no extra space or cracks.

This stuff is great for stuffing around holes/etc. It’s like a scotchbrite pad laced with stainless steel strands/shards. You can usually find it a bit cheaper on
eBay....

https://www.amazon.com/Xcluder-Rode...&hvtargid=pla-309536586462&psc=1

I have seen metal run around the outside, they can't chew through and too smooth to climb and keep trees trimmed back.
And those bucket traps filled with some anti freeze and that can that they roll off and drown

I had a guy tell me the best way to keep them out was to rim the structure with 3' of white gravel.

He claimed they wouldn't run across it because of fear of predators (hawks).

We had a rural barn that was being used as living quarters that was run over with thousands of mice after a flood had pushed them out of the adjacent fields. We dropped 60# of poison and put down gravel around it. They never came back.

I have a small cabin in the woods in Montana and have yet to find a way to keep the deer mice out. It's a small cabin (single room, 14 x 20, on concrete piers) and I don't keep food there other than some freeze dried survival rations that are in metal ammo cans, but the mice still get in. When I'm at the cabin I'll put out those old fashioned Victor traps and kill a few, but that doesn't stop them. My guess is that they're just looking for a place to get out of the cold/snow and they squeeze through cracks that I can't see. They're really small things so they appear to be able to get through even the smallest openings.

It is phenomenal the tiny cracks that a mouse, or a rat, can squeeze through.

There is a product named-- Fresh Cab
Four pouches per box, containing some plant based smell that mice do not like.
I have a trailer at hunt camp, and this year had a mouse (or more)
Put the bags around-- no more meeces-- appears to work

Sorry double post

It still cant hurt to put out some mouse, and rat poison.

It's a double edged sword, Rodent Baits are just what they claim to be, "BAIT" Sure it can kill them but it attracts them first.
If you don't have them don't use it....in fact it's a last resort choice.
Rodent proofing and trapping can offer better results..

Metal flashing,hardware cloth.and steel wool use it anywhere you think they might get in or would chew a hole.Keep it clean around the building like Roundoak's above.If you use soffit or fascia in construction use metal don't use plastic if they can climb the wall they will chew right thru it.The damn squirrels chew up my composite decking outdoor furniture.Its hard to keep them all out but you can minimize them.One more thing lots of mouse traps set a couple times more than what you think you need I don't know if its the best but peanut butter works pretty good a lot better than the stuff they sell for bait.

I never see too many mice cause we have an abundance of grey rat snakes around here .