Rodents in woodpile

[Monkey Wrench]

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.

You might wake up to this!

Hi MOM!!

(broken link removed)

 

[wood spliter]

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

 

[BucksCounty]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

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]

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]

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???