Weve got Mice! I bought some great stuff to seal up a couple of known entrypoints but the cold air infiltration at two spots(along the rim) is soo bad that the foam was getting blown out before it set up.
Any advice on a different product or method of seling in cold weather?
Since the stuff is worthless after intital use, Im planning on getting another can (or two) and stuffing the holes with batt insulation then foaming again.
anyone else have a better plan?
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Replies
Foam won't do anything to stop mice, they got teeth ya know .. stuff the cracks with steel wool ..
I have read a lot of different places that steel wool is supposed to stop mice or rats. FWIW, I stuffed steel wool in a hole along my roof line where I was pretty sure rats were getting in. It stayed for about a week, and then I noticed they had pulled a good chunk of it away.We had a real bad rat problem when I first moved in. The first night I set several traps, within the hour I heard scurrying... *snap*... stuck my head up in the attic, got the first of 12 for that week. The best way to deal with them is to find all their entry points and seal them with something solid. Then use traps, all it takes is a little peanut butter. Especially if they have no way to get back out, they will get hungry and go straight for it. I would not recommend poison... dead rats smell like... well, dead rats.
I've tried all the different kinds of traps for mice. I found the ratzapper to the the best. Shocks the mice or rats dead, no mess. http://www.ratzapper.com
Are you looking to deter mice or cold air (or both)? Another poster recommended steel wool for mice but it'll rust. Copper wool is better. A few years back I was at a local machine shop and noticed a barrel full of very fine stainless steel turnings from a lathe, almost as fine as steel wool. They were happy to part with an armful of it. I've used it to chink the loose rubble "foundation" in the unheated barn (which is still full of mice in spite of my efforts).
If you are trying to stop air movement, foam with backer rod for big gaps is the tightest fit but rodents will eventually chomp right through it.
To address both intruders, you'll need to mortar the big gaps then seal with a good sealant (lexel or similar). Small batches of stiff sand mix and a pointing tool to pack small cracks should work fine. If the wind blows your mortar out, you've got issues
If you want to form both an air seal and a mouse seal, try blocking the space with hardware cloth and foaming it in place. The foam will block the air and glue everything together so it will be almost impossible to remove the hardware cloth and the mice will never be able to chew through the hardware cloth.
Call me STUPID, but what is hardware cloth? Can't say I have ever heard of it. But, if it works against mice you can call me stupid anytime.
thanks
hardware cloth is a wire mesh - comes in 1/4", 1/2" grids and others. Easy to find in the local hardware stores, sold by the roll. Cut it with tin snips, but be careful. The cut wire ends are really sharp.
cool. thanks.
Mice can and will, (And have.), easily chew through hardware cloth.The only reason steel wool is effective is because the steel shreds get all in their tounges and mouths like little needles. (The mouse version of the dog's, porcupine.)I've tried bronze and copper wool. And yes, even stainless steel shreddings. As well as patches of tin can and other steel. They chew through all of it. (The bronze, copper and stainless do not do the same thing to the tender parts of the rodent mouth.)In the end... The steel wool deserts you, by rusting, and since nothing else stops the mice anyway... Expanding foam is as good as any solution.Killing the mice will work for a while, as well. But eventually, more will take their place.You'll just have to add regular checkups, to your maintenance schedule.Since Joe is in Milwaukee, cold is probably as much of a problem for the use of expanding fowm, as the wind is.Patching on the outside with steel, sealing around the patch to keep moisture out... stuffing steel wool into the hole, from the inside, right up against the patch... Then sealing the rest of it up with expanding foam, sprayed from the inside so it has a chance to actually cure... Probably has the best chance, right now.That steel wool will eventually rust away. If you start seeing infiltration through the foam, remove the patch on the outside. Make it bigger if necessary. Re-stuff the pocket with steel wool. Then repatch and reseal the patch. Re-foam on the inside, if necessary.Bottom line, anything you do is only temporary when it comes to keeping the mice out.Get a good mouser cat. They'll patrol oftener and better than you can.;o)
Yeah, it may be cold, but at least it's a wet cold !
last line is the best. get a cat. they don't each much, but boy do they like mice.
I will gladly trade a cat for mousetraps, glueboards, steel wool, mortar, and everything else it takes to keep mice out or dead. We have cats, one inside and two outside; they shed, throw up on the carpet, require a litterbox (for the inside cat), and eat copious amounts of food. We have still had mice inside from time to time. Domesticated indoor cats are too lazy or have the hunting skills sufficiently bred out to be truly effective! If I wasn't attached to our little furball, she'd be outside in a heartbeat.
That's why I said "good -=mouser=- cat".;o)I've had cats with varying degrees of interest and ability in mice.I've actually had cats that would back away from their own bowls of food and water, and let a mouse or rat, eat or drink.And I had one cat recently, that kept even my place, mouse and rat free, for years, before she finally became kibble for something else, or just wandered off and died because it was time... And I live in veritable rat and mouse wonderland. If it is a rodent, and it lives in the northwest, it has several cousins living on my property. River rats, mountain beavers, field mice, rats, chipmunks, possums, porcupines, squirrels, kangaroo rats, raccoons, you name it, it lives here. And is convinced that my home is theirs, by rights.Those 'mousers' who are really good at it, and like to hunt, tend to disappear for spans of time, because they roam a bit. When they are home, and inside, they are only slightly different than the other cats, in that they are slightly more standoffish. Until they decide they like someone, then they get attached to that one person. They don't tend to eat as much. Probably because they eat what they catch, as well.I've found females to be better mousers than males. That may be just beause of the cats I happen to have known...And one last: As for the mice, eliminate all sources of food and water for them. You still aren't going to be rid of them, but that is one more thing you can do.~~~I'm surprised there isn't a cottage industry of breeding cats specifically to be good mousers.
When it rains, it snows.
If there were a mousercat made that would accurately chase down and attack chipmunks and squirrels I would be in the market.
be a marketable commodity
Peach full,easy feelin'.
I got one that drags in bunnies..want him for awhile?Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
You need to retrain him for crawlspace attacks on snakes.
be do the bunny hop...hop hop hop
or iffin that area can even be considered a crawlspace.
Peach full,easy feelin'.
Edited 2/21/2008 3:25 pm ET by rez
Dats what puppies are gonna learn first.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
retrain him for crawlspace attacks on snakes
Hmm, mongoose not exactly "cuddly" is it . . . ?Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Mine chased down and killed everything on my list, except the porcupine and the raccoon.
When it rains, it snows.
You need to pick up one of these models:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wneeX0-Znug&feature=related
Wow, Supermouser!
Peach full,easy feelin'.
<<<If there were a mousercat made that would accurately chase down and attack chipmunks and squirrels I would be in the market.>>>Careful what you ask for. I had a cat that broke holes in all my lower level window screens to get out and get the chipmunks. Then he would bring the chipmunks into the house alive and let them go so the dog could chase them.I replaced all the screens with aluminum ones. He proceeded to break those too. We decided we would not open any windows more that a few inches after that.
You're right, but local climate does make a difference.In various places in the southwest and the rockies steel wool will last a very long time.Having lived in the Sound I know exactly where you are coming from! We fought mice and rats endlessly while we lived there.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
Glad to know it's not just me.=0)Rats, mice and spiders. Can't live with 'em, don't seem able to live without them, here...=0)Jeff Buck has suggested a weasel a couple times.Only problem I have with that is that the dog or cat, (or the neighbor's dog or cat, or some other animal here...), would eat the weasel. LOLFoxes, coyotes, hawks and owls are apparently their main predators, and we have all 4. And there would be no keeping the critter inside, either.I'm wondering how much they cost, and whether it would be cost effective to buy a couple a year and just let them go, under the trailer...That's taking the trap TO the mice !;o)
When it rains, it snows.
How about a few pythons? < G >When we lived there a "live catch" trap was recommended to me. I got one (oh, such shortsightedness). Caught a rat. Wait a minute... now what? I took it to the classiest beach neighborhood on the island and let it go. Just seemed like the right thing to do.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
You're not far off with your ideas!
Check out this article - pythons moving up from tropical climates into the US!
You can't make this stuff up!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1219/p01s01-usgn.htmlGriff
Sounds like they are flying up here, not crawling. Whodathunkit?
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
Napoleon said an army travels on its stomach so, why not snakes?Griff
It's the limitations of being cold blooded. They don't crawl very fast when it's cold out.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
That's a good idea! I'll be trying that one myself.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
Mice have no controll over their bodily functions. So they leave a pee trail for others to follow long after they are dead. Since you have pets I'd bet there is 20 lbs of food stashed inside your walls and ceilings, and they will go to great lengths to get at it when you seal up their present access. Try anything you can to get rid of them... you have an uphill battle on your hands.
Rats n mice #### trails can be seen with ultraviolet light. Used to do that at a sugar factory. Steel wool covered with a topcoat of caulk has worked great. I once found an old tea kettle way up on a shelf that was full of dog kibble and a tube of super glue, I have no idea what that critter was planning on doing with that glue.
Our mice here took the steel wool and knitted little itty bitty chain mail vests..gotta watch em, they's crafty I tell ya.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Another way of controlling your foam is to use a foam gun. You can dial up or down the flow rate.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
If your hair looks funny, it's because God likes to scratch his nuts. You nut, you.
I have an acreage and few years ago , moved in a 34 x 48 archrib barn for a shop, It had grain stored in it, there were lots mice for a year, but a little weasel moved here about 6 to 8 inches long, I haven't seen mouse in the barn (or traces in my 'collection' of vehicles) since. They can get into any where a mouse can. A Ferret is good at mousing also. When I was still farming and using old grainaries the patch I used ( Grandpa's ) was end of a tin can nailed over the hole. Some of the buildings look rather neat with doz. of round tin patches along the sile area !!! I have a couple of the electronic mouse repellant gizmo's and they also seem to help in my house.
Edited 2/22/2008 8:04 am ET by artworks
Here's a home spun concoction that I've tried and which seems to work for awhile.
I've plugged some holes through which mice have been entering the house with stainless steel wool and then foamed it with Great Stuff expanding foam. But, with a twist.
First I went to Costco (but any large membership store would probably offer the same) and bought a couple of large containers of Ground Pepper, and Dried Chili powder, and Crushed Red Pepper, and anything else that I thought would be spicy hot. Oddly, I learned that powdered mustard isn't that spicy by itself - it's only when vinegar gets added in prepared mustard that it gets it's snap. Pity.
Anyway, empty the spices into a large bowl and mix them up. Keep it handy.
When I started spraying in the foam, I'd do it in layers. Before each layer completely dried, I threw in some of the spice cocktail so as much of the surface was covered with some of the spice as I could get. Then I put in a layer of hardware cloth pre-cut to fit most of the size and shape of the hole.
Then I foamed some more, and threw in some more spices. Keep doing it in layers till you've gotten the depth of foam that you want.
In one hole I could easily cover it on the outside with hardware cloth, the other hole I couldn't. I put two layers of hardware cloth on the outside of the one hole in addition to the one in the middle of the foam.
Now, this isn't going to stop them (I've seen nibble marks), but it sure does slow them down. It's gotten me through two complete winters thus far (this is the 3rd winter). I know I'm going to need to repair the one I was unable to cover the outside with hardware cloth come spring. And, I'll probably add a new layer of hardware cloth to the outside of the one hole than can have it applied.
As an added benefit, I enjoy the thought that they're experiencing the exquisite taste of the hot spices burning their mouths.
Maybe I should add some saltpeter.
Good luck.
Good idea.Now I am wondering if there is some sort of concoction we can buy that would make the mice sterile...
When it rains, it snows.
Don't know. That's why I had been thinking of saltpeter. If it makes them lose their drive to mate, it would do the same thing. Unfortunately, it's not permanent.Griff
Great now we'll have chain mail wearing mice with an explosive ingredient and jacked up on Hot Peppers.
Sounds swell..LOLSpheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Cajun mice love that stuff.
But then again, the spicy micies taste good when you cook'em in the jambalaya.
Billy
Hadn't thought of that! :)
But, since I live in New England, the risk seems a tad small.Griff