I used to store boats when we had a hobby farm. Removing all food and anything that contained food is the most important step. One guy had a bag full of subway bags to clean up after his dog and the mice chewed them up. Gulp type baits can also attract mice if they are left in a boat.
Feeding birds and storing bird seed really ups the chances of having mouse issues. Gardens too will attract them. Ove time I have come up with a solution that works real well but may not be very friendly for those with nosy pets but it works well and works them dead. I’m talking elimination, not prevention, but steps to prevent them from recurring are good steps to take after they’ve been eliminated.
Go find some Gold Malrin in a farm store. Around here, Tractor Supply carries it or an identical product substitute. Wear rubber gloves! Put a tablespoon full of the gold malrin in a jar and add 1/4 cup of warm water and carefully mix it up until tthere are no clumps or chunks seen in the solution. Buy a spray bottle at the same time you buy the gold malrin and put the solution in the bottle, then mark the bottle BOLDLY “POISON”. Store the bottle up high and out of little arms and hands.
Lay some newspaper out on the garage floor and pour maybe a half gallon od generic bird seed out on it and spread it out as thin as you can. Spray the seed until it’s well dampened, but not puddling any of the solution. Allow to dry and then fold the paper into a funnel and dump the seed into a jar with a tight cover, and toss the paper in the trash.
Mice are snoopers. I take an old rubbermaid wash tub, one that will fit in a kitchen sink and cut a simple V-notch at each end on the rim just large enough for a mouse to get in, maybe a triangle an inch and a half at the highest and an inch and a quarter at the bottom. Set this along a wall where you know mice run and place a coffee can cover on the floor with a 1/2 cup sized pile of the seed on it over the bait pile. Don’t be bothered by the blue color that the malrin adds to the seed, the mice could care less.
Gold Malrin is a hyper-fly killer used largely by the dairy industry to control flies in milking installations. Bait trays are set up high in window wells and attract the flies which seldom make it any further in this world than the bait site. Malrin on the seed works the same way. I see dead mice under the cover of the hut, along the wall where they depart in both directions and even out on the garage floor. If whoever has cats or dogs, its imperative that the dead mice are picked up daily. Dead mice should go directly to the garbage can since they have become toxic simply by eating the seed. Occasionally a mouse will have eaten a tiny bit od of the malrin and not enough to kill it and will make it back to a nest site. The tainted animal will pass the poison on to babies if it is nursing and kill them because they have no real body mass yet.
We have no pets but because I have bird seed, I need to use an extreme measure to control vermin inside the garage. Gold Malrin used as described works. wonders. I garden and plant sweet potatoes in an area along a retaining wall. Mice and voiles use the wall as a run and when the vines have set potatoes the little asshats like to burrow down and dine on the tops of the potatoes. For this area I use a plastic 1 pound coffee can, with a 1-1/4″ hole drilled in each end right at the ground line, and a 1/4 cup of the treated seed inside. Then I lean a piece of 1/4 plywood over the can to create a lean-to type of shelter to keep rainwater from entering the holes in the can. After getting the garden going and along about July we start seeing signs that mice have been snooping and I set the jug out. Last year the day after setting the can out there I found 11 dead mice within five feet of the can. I keep these picked up as well since we do occasionally see small bird raptors here. And for the feral cats that might pick up a dead one….. enjoy.
I used to store boats when we had a hobby farm. Removing all food and anything that contained food is the most important step. One guy had a bag full of subway bags to clean up after his dog and the mice chewed them up. Gulp type baits can also attract mice if they are left in a boat.
Maybe that’s what is drawing them in! My boat is pretty spotless with no food inside. I do keep gulp and some scent for fishing lures so that has to contribute even tho I don’t see any of that chewed on?
Yeah I remove everything from boat when storing. Never had a mouse in the boat. Well I have never seen evidence anyway.
Actually once had one run on my back gunnel in middle of summer. Guessing he came aboard overnight when parked outside. That little dude had a long swim back to shore from the mud flats on Mille Lacs. Doubt he made it but surprisingly good little swimmer.
Keep a bucket trap near your boat. Seems counterintuitive to lure them in but I swear most of them end up succumbing to the trap. In my trailer I rarely find any substantial amount of sign anymore, yet there are thirty or more mice dead in the buckets. It’s like they get in there and go straight to the yummy, deadly peanut butter. Lol
Yeah I remove everything from boat when storing. Never had a mouse in the boat. Well I have never seen evidence anyway.
Actually once had one run on my back gunnel in middle of summer. Guessing he came aboard overnight when parked outside. That little dude had a long swim back to shore from the mud flats on Mille Lacs. Doubt he made it but surprisingly good little swimmer.
Fish food.
Yeah I remove everything from boat when storing. Never had a mouse in the boat. Well I have never seen evidence anyway.
Actually once had one run on my back gunnel in middle of summer. Guessing he came aboard overnight when parked outside. That little dude had a long swim back to shore from the mud flats on Mille Lacs. Doubt he made it but surprisingly good little swimmer.
i’m the opposite…..i fill the boat with summer stuff i dont need. store it in a friends building out in the country…put dryer sheet in and dont have mice issues……so far……now one boat/pontoon had racoons nesting in it and did some serious damage to the seats!
Well that’s your other option throw a bunch of food in the neighbors boat next to yours they will probably leave yours alone. 
Depending on the size of the barn, probably about 8-10 bait stations. For needs of most folks, OTC should be fine, but then go up to 10-15. I’d probably check usage weekly for the first month, then monthly as long as it’s in there.
JJ is right on the Golden Malrin but I’ll add my 2 cents to be VERY CAREFUL in how you use it. First, there is lots of info on this stuff on the web and I’d recommend doing a bit of research on it as it’s highly toxic. Dogs will drink this stuff which will likely kill them so its use requires a lot of risk and therefore responsibility. I have some experience using it for “off label” nusciance control but I’ll leave it at that. Just be careful and consider all the possible ways this can go south like neighbors animals etc. But…it does work!
I’m on team kill ’em all. Bucket trap and that Tomcat mouse and rat poison from Fleet Farm.
-J.
I think we run 6 Plunkett bait boxes around the perimeter of the house (behind AC, along retaining walls,) and a couple in the garage. I probably find a dozen dead mice in the yard throughout the year, but never have seen sign inside the garage, boats, house, etc.
I think around the buildings we have 40 or so boxes and rarely have issues other than the occasional dead mouse we may come across despite so many good nesting spots. That’s with boats, RVs, equipment, wood piles, vehicles, a couple silos, and so on.
We opted to just buy the boxes from the place and reload bait ourselves to save money and time. I’m a believer and wouldn’t do it any other way from here forward.
JJ is right on the Golden Malrin but I’ll add my 2 cents to be VERY CAREFUL in how you use it. First, there is lots of info on this stuff on the web and I’d recommend doing a bit of research on it as it’s highly toxic. Dogs will drink this stuff which will likely kill them so its use requires a lot of risk and therefore responsibility. I have some experience using it for “off label” nusciance control but I’ll leave it at that. Just be careful and consider all the possible ways this can go south like neighbors animals etc. But…it does work!
I won’t even open the can without rubber gloves and a mask. I’ll just add that if using this for mice be darned certain to chack for dead ones every morning and evening and dispose of them where no domestic pets can get to the carcasses. Mine go directly into the rolling bin. Along with the crows of late.
Well that’s your other option throw a bunch of food in the neighbors boat next to yours they will probably leave yours alone.
yea i dont do that. i just drop the boat off and the owner of the place parks them in the shed when he has time!!!
at the cabin we have the bait boxes in all our buildings. my brother fills them spring and fall. we check them and refill as needed. about late aug/early sept i start my trap line each time i’m up there with the good old Victor traps and peanut butter. by deer hunting time i dont get to many, usually good for about 20 a season, with whatever the bait boxes dont get!
that gold marlin sounds like some good stuff…..but with as bad as it sounds for other things..i think i’ll leave that alone….
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