# Rodents in woodpile



## jj3500 (Jan 25, 2010)

I love mundane exercise of transferring wood from the outside location to near the house.  Especially when these guys literally jump out of their disturbed nest and almost jump onto your sleeve!

I've had these guys lay nests in my vehicles that aren't even sitting for a while.  just one night and there is a little nest starting. 

What method works the best?  Traps or D-con?


----------



## onion (Jan 25, 2010)

jj3500 said:
			
		

> I love mundane exercise of transferring wood from the outside location to near the house.  Especially when these guys literally jump out of their disturbed nest and almost jump onto your sleeve!
> 
> I've had these guys lay nests in my vehicles that aren't even sitting for a while.  just one night and there is a little nest starting.
> 
> What method works the best?  Traps or D-con?



If you can, a good old-fashioned (hungry) barn cat works wonders.  They also tend to go after birds too though.

Otherwise I much prefer traps to poison.  Poison lets them die wherever (which stinks) and it may interest my dog.


----------



## Wood Duck (Jan 25, 2010)

I have several large bird boxes up around the yard and at least one Screech Owl spends every winter. I  assume the owls are the reason I don't see a lot of mice in the woodpile. I was told that it takes more than one box to attract Schreech owls, since they like to have altenative hiding places in their territories. I don't know if that is always true, but we started seeing Schreech Owls soon after I put up three boxes. A cat might kill some mice, but it would also kill a lot of other things I want to have around, so no outdoor cats here. I don't use poison, but do use traps if mice get into the house. I catch some mice, but maybe just the dumb ones.


----------



## firefighterjake (Jan 25, 2010)

#1: Cats

#2: Traps

No poison for me . . . out of concern that other critters will eat the poisoned mouse . . . and I really don't want mice dying in unwanted places.


----------



## muncybob (Jan 25, 2010)

I'm not sure what critters were in my stack of cherry  but they debarked them all!


----------



## gpcollen1 (Jan 25, 2010)

All I have ever needed is my cats...


----------



## billb3 (Jan 25, 2010)

Just toss 'em in the stove.
They don't scream for very long.


----------



## Bigg_Redd (Jan 25, 2010)

jj3500 said:
			
		

> I love mundane exercise of transferring wood from the outside location to near the house.  Especially when these guys literally jump out of their disturbed nest and almost jump onto your sleeve!
> 
> I've had these guys lay nests in my vehicles that aren't even sitting for a while.  just one night and there is a little nest starting.
> 
> *What method works the best?*  Traps or D-con?




Get a cat and feed it only enough to keep it around but not enough to sate it's hunger.


----------



## wood spliter (Jan 25, 2010)

If you don't want to kill them there are small live traps.  They work on mice but to small for wood Rats which are not invasive.  Wood rats look like a big mice.  If you don't care use slap traps they work best.  Use peanut butter for bait.


----------



## savageactor7 (Jan 25, 2010)

I throw these around an equipment that will be static for awhile...since they chew the wires and all. As far as being in the woodpile meh... I haven't seen any nests in years.


----------



## verne (Jan 25, 2010)

My dog is the best mouser I have ever had. The only problem is he tears apart the wood piles.My chickens do quite a number also.they just peck them to death and leave them there.No poison for me either with the animals.


----------



## YZF1R (Jan 25, 2010)

savageactor7 said:
			
		

> I throw these around an equipment that will be static for awhile...since they chew the wires and all. As far as being in the woodpile meh... I haven't seen any nests in years.



I use moth balls also. Keeps things out of the wood and also larger things from living under the pallets the wood is stacked on.

Steve


----------



## Monkey Wrench (Jan 26, 2010)

jj3500 said:
			
		

> I love mundane exercise of transferring wood from the outside location to near the house.  Especially when these guys literally jump out of their disturbed nest and almost jump onto your sleeve!
> 
> I've had these guys lay nests in my vehicles that aren't even sitting for a while.  just one night and there is a little nest starting.
> 
> What method works the best?  Traps or D-con?



357 semi jacket hollow points

Bye bye


----------



## bren582 (Jan 26, 2010)

There's a number of ground hogs that nest in my yard including under my shed where I stack most of my cord wood. The hogs as well as  birds, owls, and bats in the area do a pretty good job controlling the rodent population..


----------



## leftyscott (Jan 26, 2010)

I have some wood rats living in my woodpile.  They're good-sized buggers.  I enjoy watching them frolic under my bird feeder.  My philosophy is that as long as the critters stay outside, I leave them alone.
Had a gang of flying squirrels up in my attic a few years ago.  They raised he11 every night until I got after them with rat traps.


----------



## wood spliter (Jan 26, 2010)

I leave everything alone also till they come in the house. Once you start moving things they all run away. Wood rats are defiantly not a problem.


----------



## Monkey Wrench (Jan 26, 2010)

wood spliter said:
			
		

> I leave everything alone also till they come in the house. Once you start moving things they all run away. Wood rats are defiantly not a problem.


We are not talking about Congressman.
We are talking about RATS!


----------



## Tony H (Jan 26, 2010)

bren582 said:
			
		

> There's a number of ground hogs that nest in my yard including under my shed where I stack most of my cord wood. The hogs as well as  birds, owls, and bats in the area do a pretty good job controlling the rodent population..



Me thinks ground hogs are more the problem than the solution  :cheese: 

We have fox and /or coyote and used to have some cats in between .... but some how the cats all "disappeared" once the rodent population got low. We set traps in the detached garage and boiler shed and we have an indoor cat that takes care of the house.
Most of the neighbors use a .22 or similar for the G hogs but I have never had one in my yard. I think because I have a heavily wooded lot and back up to 20 + acres of wooded property and a river. 
In fact last summer I was cutting up a dead oak in my cleared lawn area in the middle of the day and a coyote came to the edge of the woods about 15' away and was growling at me ! I stepped over to the other side of the tree with the chainsaw and got on my 4 wheeler and watched as he wandered down the wood line another 500' or so until the neighbors dog noticed him and he drifted back into the woods. I guess a 50 year old Rot that can't run anymore is more of a threat than me with a running chainsaw !


----------



## gyrfalcon (Jan 26, 2010)

Bigg_Redd said:
			
		

> jj3500 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Don't need to get that complicated. Most cats will pursue mice with energy whether they're well fed or not.  If they're well fed, they just won't eat as many as they do if they're hungry.


----------



## gyrfalcon (Jan 26, 2010)

jj3500 said:
			
		

> I love mundane exercise of transferring wood from the outside location to near the house.  Especially when these guys literally jump out of their disturbed nest and almost jump onto your sleeve!
> 
> I've had these guys lay nests in my vehicles that aren't even sitting for a while.  just one night and there is a little nest starting.
> 
> What method works the best?  Traps or D-con?



I've learned the hard way not to leave documents or anything made of paper or soft plastic in the glove box of my car in winter.  The other day, a neighbor lady gave me a lovely homemade pastry to take home.  I forgot about it in unloading the car and left it on the front seat.  In the morning, there wasn't so much as a crumb left.

Poison is bad because of all the reasons mentioned by other posters.  Snap traps work very well, but you do have to remember where you put them and check them every day or two.  Rotting mice smell really, really horrible.

Cats are also good, if you have real mousers.  Kittens adopted from a long-standing barn colony are totally brutal on the mouse population when they grow up.   Purebred critters not so much.

But I only bother with traps in my cupboards (old house, impossible to seal off from mice).   The cats dispatch any that are stupid enough to come into the houe, and they've kept the outside population down to where I have no problems with even the potatoes in my garden in summer.

Otherwise, I live and let live, including the car, largely because it's just a losing battle and there are only so many traps I want to check every day and so many mouse corpses I really want to be dealing with.


----------



## gyrfalcon (Jan 26, 2010)

Tony H said:
			
		

> bren582 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



We have a lot of coyotes around here, despite the periodic massacre parties the local goons carry out.  I hear them most nights at dusk and see tracks in the snow even right near the house frequently, but I've never actually seen one in four years here.  I have, however, been growled at warningly from the weeds a couple of times, and I beat it out of there fast.

The coyotes do a remarkable job of keeping the area mostly free of groundhogs, raccons, rabbits, and other medium-sized critters that can make life (and kitchen gardens) difficult.  Every time one of the shooting parties has a good day, the rabbit population explodes until the coyotes catch up.  Drives me nuts.


----------



## yanksforever (Jan 26, 2010)

[/quote]357 semi jacket hollow points

Bye bye[/quote]

And what do YOU use for deer...a Howitzer???


----------



## BucksCounty (Jan 28, 2010)

Every freakin woodpile I used this year ( I stack on pallets) has had nests in it.  No cats.  No poison because of the dog. Not sure if they are mice?  Have seen some of the critters from time to time and they seem much bigger than mice.  Do I even bother trying to get rid of them considering the woodpile is a good distance from the house?  Is it something that comes with the wood burning?  Never remember them in my father's woodpiles. I do hate the freakin things!


----------



## gyrfalcon (Jan 28, 2010)

BucksCounty said:
			
		

> Every freakin woodpile I used this year ( I stack on pallets) has had nests in it.  No cats.  No poison because of the dog. Not sure if they are mice?  Have seen some of the critters from time to time and they seem much bigger than mice.  Do I even bother trying to get rid of them considering the woodpile is a good distance from the house?  Is it something that comes with the wood burning?  Never remember them in my father's woodpiles. I do hate the freakin things!



If they really are much bigger than mice, then they must be rats.  Or you may have mice nesting in the woodstacks and the odd rat living somewhere else that you're just happening to catch sight of.  Any chance they could be either voles or moles?  Both of those are a bit bigger than house mice.

With the dog around, best you can do is get some of the kind of traps that they walk into and that close behind them.  Google around and you'll find lots of mouse traps and some rat traps.  Mice in the woodpile is no big deal, but rats are something you really don't want making a home around your property.


----------



## Monkey Wrench (Jan 28, 2010)

BucksCounty said:
			
		

> Every freakin woodpile I used this year ( I stack on pallets) has had nests in it.  No cats.  No poison because of the dog. Not sure if they are mice?  Have seen some of the critters from time to time and they seem much bigger than mice.  Do I even bother trying to get rid of them considering the woodpile is a good distance from the house?  Is it something that comes with the wood burning?  Never remember them in my father's woodpiles. I do hate the freakin things!



If they are bigger than mice they might be RATS.
Rats will hide their babies in a hollow log.
Be Carefull Bringing In Wood And Letting It Sit.


----------



## Monkey Wrench (Jan 28, 2010)

Monkey Wrench said:
			
		

> BucksCounty said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You might wake up to this!

Hi MOM!!

http://www.pets747.com/uploaded_images/pet-rats-717618.jpg


----------



## wood spliter (Jan 28, 2010)

Bigger than mice, wood rats. Do a search on them.  There not that bad


----------



## BucksCounty (Jan 29, 2010)

Thanks for replies. I did some research and I think they are voles.  I know what a rat looks like and I doubt that is what they are.  One of the characteristics of voles, from what I read, is they are active most at dusk and dawn.  When I was recently chopping wood, and it was getting dark, was when I noticed them most.  Also, from what I read, they reproduce every 21 freakin days!  I'll see what I can do.

Just out of curiosity.  What is a wood rat and how are they different than a regular rat?  Besides living around wood?


----------



## firefighterjake (Jan 29, 2010)

BucksCounty said:
			
		

> Thanks for replies. I did some research and I think they are voles . . . .  Also, from what I read, they reproduce every 21 freakin days . . .



Hmmm . . . somewhere here is a comment about marriage, voles and reproduction cycles . . . oh wait a minute . . . I've got it.



			
				BucksCounty said:
			
		

> Thanks for replies. I did some research and I think they are voles . . . .  Also, from what I read, they reproduce every 21 freakin days . . .



HehHeh . . . I'm not sure who is better off . . . the voles or me when it comes to those numbers.


----------



## Wood Duck (Jan 29, 2010)

The rodent sized animals I see around here include Deer Mice, White Footed Mice, Meadow(?) Voles, House Mice, Chipmunks, Shrews, Moles, and a bunch of larger ones everyone would recognize. Deer Mice and White Footed Mice are small, native, wild mice that build little spherical nests under stuff, in bird houses, and in wood piles. i don't see the mice too often, but the nests are easy to find. I think the nests in firewood stacks are probably due to these guys. It is hard to tell a Deer Mouse from a White Footed Mouse, but both have hairy tails that distinguis them from house Mice. At my place Deer Mice and White Footed Mice don't come inside any farther than the bird seed bin in the garage. The gargage has a broken side door that tends to blow open. I don't think these mice usually live inside homes, although I am sure occasionally one gets inside temporarily. I like Deer/White Footed Mice and they cause me no problems. i can deal with the occasional grass nests in my woodpile so I leave them be.

We occasionally have House Mice inside the house and garage. These are the ones with naked tails that come from Europe and live mostly around homes, barns, etc. I have read that they can occasionally live outdoors, but when I find a mouse anywhere not inside it is always a Deer/White Footed Mouse. I try to trap the House Mice out of the house, but i doubt I ever get them all. i don't think they are likely to nest in woodlines, but maybe they would in a woodpile right next to the house.

There are voles in my yard, but I don't think they make nests above ground. i think they build domed nests in thick grass or bushes right at ground level. I see the voles mainly in the uncut grassy powerline ROW next to the yard. Voles here are darker in color with shorter tails than mice. i don't really know what type of vole I have, and they never cause problems, so I leave them alone.

I find shrews all over the yard, but I don't know if they make nests; I have never found a shrew in a nest. They eat slugs, so they are welcome to stay. Shrew are very small, dark grey, with shortish tails and pointed snouts.

i have a few moles, which make tunnels in the ground just below the surface. I don't fuss much about the lawn, so moles are OK in my book. moles look sort of like shrews, but with bigger front feet and short tails. Shrews have tiny feet, moles bigger ones for digging.

For every other living creature here, there are five chipmunks. They seem to always live underground so I don't think they would make a nest in a woodpile. 



Wood Rats (Pack Rats) are sort of rare here in PA. I am sure I don't have any, but I would like to. here they live in isolated places in the mountains, usually rocky areas.


----------



## billb3 (Jan 29, 2010)

I get a few field mice coming in in the Winter, so use poison.
It's a cruel way to die, but so are glue traps.
I find most of my carcasses on the cellar floor by the warm furnace chimney. (We're not home enough to be 24/7 wood burners )

I've only seen a rat recently when my neighbor (moved) wasn't cutting his lawn. Populations grow with a food supply. Not  many grass/hay fields around here any more. Only other time I saw rats was when my father raised thousands of chickens and had tons of feed grain. They were  bigger rats and if the  rat  traps weren't chained down they'd just run around with them snapped on a leg.

I've seen field mice rarely in a wood pile and they had a grass nest. The ones I find in the garage  have pink insulation nests. I call them all field mice, but some are brown and white and some are grey and white. Whatever specific kind of mice they are, they are dead mice if they come in the house.


----------



## Wood Duck (Jan 29, 2010)

Look at the tails. Naked tail = house Mouse, or if it is big a Norway Rat or Black Rat. All of these are likely to line permanently in a house, barn, sewer, etc. If the tail has hair all the way, it is a 'field mouse' like Deer Mouse, White Footed Mouse, or one of the other 10 or 20 species of native mice, voles, or woodrats.


----------



## TreePapa (Jan 29, 2010)

Monkey Wrench said:
			
		

> wood spliter said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



And the difference is ???

Oh yeah, shootin' the furry type o' rat might get PETA angry.

Peace,
- Sequoia

p.s. tounge fimly in cheek. There are a few congress critters I'd like to see stick around. Very few, but there are some.


----------



## NH_Wood (Jan 29, 2010)

bren582 said:
			
		

> There's a number of ground hogs that nest in my yard including under my shed where I stack most of my cord wood. The hogs as well as  birds, owls, and bats in the area do a pretty good job controlling the rodent population..



A bat eating a rodent.........hmmmmm.......that would be a new one (at least for the species around your location!).

Cheers!


----------



## NH_Wood (Jan 29, 2010)

Wood Duck said:
			
		

> Look at the tails. Naked tail = house Mouse, or if it is big a Norway Rat or Black Rat. All of these are likely to line permanently in a house, barn, sewer, etc. If the tail has hair all the way, it is a 'field mouse' like Deer Mouse, White Footed Mouse, or one of the other 10 or 20 species of native mice, voles, or woodrats.



Hmmm....sounds like a fellow mammalogist.......perhaps we should ask for skull characters???


----------

