keeping mice out of your boat

[Fishingaddiction]

In the process of getting the boat ready for winter storage and I got to thinking about mice. What recommendations do people have to keep mice out of a boat?? Thanks.

[MadMan]

This was brought up not too long ago.
Pretty good advice.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158170&highlight=mice

[point12]

This was brought up not too long ago.
Pretty good advice.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158170&highlight=mice

One thing I would add is I usually put a piece of plastic sheeting over the exhaust (in the prop center) and tape it tight with electrical tape. It cost a friend of mine a motor job once when the tiny livestock built a nest up inside the motor.


Al Denninger
Point12

[eyeboom]

This usually works for me.

[rpieske]

The advice about D-Con is good. It will attrack the mice. D-Con is a poisoned bait. Place it outside the boat, not inside. Be careful about placement. You don't want to poison your dogs and cats, or have kids get into it. It is generally warfin based and causes internal hemorrhaging. Mice will have time to damage your carpets and seats before death.

[Unlogged Auggie264]

I had mice get into my wiring a few years ago. After that time I place moth ball throughout the boat. I put them in little tupper ware containers w/ no lid. I haven't had an issue since.

[K2]

I have always used fabric softener dryer sheets stuffed in any orifice that might work for a means of ingress. I also place them strategically around the inside compartments. I have never had a rodent of any sort in anything I have stored and you don't have the unpleasant smell of mothballs.

[cbeachey7]

Moth balls. I have used them for years and have not had a problem. I tear a styrofoam coffee cup in half and put a few moth balls in each and place in all compartments and a couple along the floor

[2Labs]

I have always used fabric softener dryer sheets stuffed in any orifice that might work for a means of ingress. I also place them strategically around the inside compartments. I have never had a rodent of any sort in anything I have stored and you don't have the unpleasant smell of mothballs.


In my boat a couple of years ago, the mice used the dryer sheets in my boat for nesting material!! Every piece of it I had was full of mouse urine and feces. I had several sheets of it in every hold in the boat.

My pest control guy says use D-Con.

But, like the prior post says, it is warfarin which causes intestinal bleeding to kill the mice. You don't want your cats/dogs eating the dead mice, so be careful!

[REW]

Fishing,
One thing you can do is to put an open box of kleenex in the back of the boat.
That way, if any mice do happen to get into the boat, they will use the kleenex for nesting purposes.
Then, if the weather is cold, they will freeze to death in their beds.

Take care
REW

[hondo]

I know lots of guys like dryer sheets, but one more than one occasion I have seen mice use them to build their nests. My opinion is that dryer sheets do not stop mice, so if you use them and haven't had mice yet then you're lucky. Personally, I put mothballs inside old socks and toss them throughout the boat and storage compartments. After I pull the socks out in the spring the mothball smell is gone within a day.

[keiths2130]

I found a product called "Cab Fresh". You can get it at Menards or most implement dealers. It comes 4 packs to a box, is all natural scent and smell good. I use it in the 5th wheel camper and have had good luck.

[Ristorapper]

I use the sticky traps in every corner of my garage. They mostly catch wire worms, crickets and spiders but will get a mouse if one gets in the garage. Haven't had a problem with a mouse in my boat yet. BUT don't use the sticky traps in the boat. If a mouse gets in it and turns it over into your carpet, you'll have a mess.

[springers]

We also use cab fresh, in the camper and boat. Works good.

[ShaneMc]

When I store my boat int my garage for the winter I liked to throw a hand full of moth balls around the boat.

[Phil T]

Cab Fresh in the pickup cab and the slide-in truck camper, but the boat gets a box of mothballs that has holes stabbed in it.

[Earl]

I've stored my boats in a barn for the last 10 winters and have always just put a bowl of moth balls in before tarping it, and so far I've never had a mouse problem.....touch wood.

A friend stored his boat outside a couple years back with a tarp over it and the interior was completely destroyed by racoons.

[Winnebago walleye.]

This usually works for me.
Hey eyeboom, where can I get a cat like that? We just retrieved our Lund from the barn after 2 years and the plywood floors (carpeted) are soaked with mice pee. I power washed with Jungle Jake and then with bleach solution. The odor still takes your breath away. I had a half full shop-vac of nesting material and 8 mice that got sucked up and had already rebuilt their nests inside the vac!
I will use mothballs going forward but any ideas for the stench??

[Blue Lk]

Whole cloves,mice hate them & your boat will smell a lot more "savory" than mothballs.

[tubejig]

I had one get in mine about 15 years ago. The little bugger got in through the livewell discharge hose and then ate a hole in the hose get into the boat. I will tell ya something, a leak in the boat 10 miles out on lake Huron was a surprise to us. Never knew we had a problem until the water finally made it over the floor boards after a few hours trolling. Needless to say, the mouse ran out of air and drowned. Ha ha, go tthat little bugger. Now I plug every hole, every winter. Never had a problem since.

[REW]

A killer cat, on 24 hour patrol duty in the area where the boat is stored. They will nab the critters before they become a problem.
REW

[Prov275]

A killer cat, on 24 hour patrol duty in the area where the boat is stored. They will nab the critters before they become a problem.
REW

Hey Rew I Think I Would Rather Have Mice Than The Cat.....

[yarcraft91]

Hey eyeboom, where can I get a cat like that? We just retrieved our Lund from the barn after 2 years and the plywood floors (carpeted) are soaked with mice pee. I power washed with Jungle Jake and then with bleach solution. The odor still takes your breath away. I had a half full shop-vac of nesting material and 8 mice that got sucked up and had already rebuilt their nests inside the vac!
I will use mothballs going forward but any ideas for the stench??

Do an internet search on "pet urine odor" and similar terms. There are lots of remedies for removing pet urine odor, you might as well try them. Many involve the use of a 1:1 mixture of white vinegar and water allowed to soak into the carpet and plywood. Follow that up with spreading baking soda all over the carpet, let things dry out then vacuum. That might do the trick. If not...

You can remove the carpet and coat the plywood decking with 2 coats of shellac. Assuming that stops the odor, then recover with new carpet or vinyl. Shellac will block any remaining urine odor in the wood, so unless the bilge is loaded with mouse waste, that should do the trick.

[3M TA3]

I do this first....... what REW said. I put a small package of Kleenex in the back of the boat where it's easy to see. If the Kleenex package has been disturbed (it's usuall easy to tell) I get out the 1 gallon plastic milk carton. I cut the top out to the size of an orange leaving the handle on it. In it I put in a pint of water and a pint of anti freeze and sprinkle sun flower seeds on top and I provide a gang plank from a flat surface in the boat to the edge of the milk jug. Super trap, and it catches multiple mice if you have them, in real short order. Best trap yet for me. Works great for chipmunks too using a 5 gallon pail filled 1/3 of the way, no antifreeze, and sun flowers. Killed 143 rodents last summer out in the garden.