Keeping mice and chipmunks out of the stacks

The wood I move in my barn for the current season goes near a power outlet that gets one of the pest be gone plug in things. I haven't seen them in years. But that could be the good mouser cat I had. He lost his 4th racoon fight. The other lives were used against the dog.

I found two kittens in the cemetery down the road to replace him. They are best friends with mice. ( I found a mouse in the house) They chase leaves and birds. Freaking butt munches

 

I had mice/rats nests the first couple of years here. Nasty stuff. Then I started stacking single rows with about a foot between rows, and positioned the rows parallel to the direction of the prevaling winds (north/south). Haven't found a nest since. My highly uneducated guess is the combo of sunlight and moving air discourages their nest building. We do have a few feral cats around, but they don't last long because of mountain lions and yotes. And not many snakes around at 6600 ft elevation.

 

This year our resident squirrel has been pretty busy stuffing all the nooks and crannies in the wood stack with pine cones and walnuts.
Last year he filled up an empty cooler water bottle, we had stored outside, with walnuts, and once while he was in there organizing his nuts I trapped him in the bottle until I could get the camera.

Squirrels I can handle, but packrats don't survive long around me.

 

With you watching the whole thing.
Circle of life.......or death, in this case.

 

A squirrel in a bottle, holy chit that would be utter pandemonium here!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_co..._3aYKIyWnVG0mGWEgAgPlwAXEqQdnJVc0bzHsVGsp0YNA

 

I guess not all cats are created equal. Some are natural born killers some are not.

 

I have 2 Jack Russell's myself. They love small furry critters!

 

Yup, shake them to pieces. That's how we know they caught one. They would have red stripes all over their coats from the snake blood.

 

Our cat keeps the chipmunk and red squirrel population down. Sometimes she even eats them.

 

One of my former clients who retired from flying 747s had a J Russel. Calmest, quietest most obedient and sedate JR I've ever seen. Like it's owner. Most I've known were at least just a tiny bit hyper all the time. Unless it saw a cat or a squirrel and then it was bullet-speed savage animal time. Shredded the neighbor's cat. I forget what that cost him.

 

I suggest buying a 17 hmr. It is a fun little gun, and splits them like a banana. If you want some additional fun, set up some corn in a safe shooting direction and hit them with a turkey load. Sorry, deer season is coming so I look forward to shooting critters.

 

Sometimes I just find a squirrel tail. There are very few squirrels left here.

 

That squirrel doesn't stand a chance.

The last place I lived in the owls took care of the squirrels. Every few years the squirrels numbers would grow until they were just about out of control, fighting with each other and chasing one another up and down the trees, but before long a group of Great Horned owls would start hanging around. After about a month or two you'd be hard put to spot even a single solitary squirrel. If there were any left they were in hiding because by that time they had already seen the demise of all their relatives and they were trying not to meet the same fate.
I'd often find the remains of the squirrels as hair balls underneath the branches where the owls liked to perch. They'd often perch for days or weeks on the same perch all day and night, and if they stayed there long enough you'd find several of these hair balls on the ground below.

 

Three letters, your choice: CAT or DOG.

 

Otherwise, I don't see that little vermin do too much bad. Yeah, they nest and breed in your stack and contaminate them with their pee and poo, but for the most part, this is a non-issue to me. Just keep your wood away from your house, garage, barn, car, tractor, electrical, etc. You will be fine.

 

Canary in a coal mine has no chance here....

 

My old Sheridan air gun does a nice job on chips- being a pump up unit it doesn't suffer from all the internal parts flying around and messing up your aim. Closet thing now would be the Benjamin 392 or 397. My Sheridan is around 45 years old, even at max it is quiet in its report. ( need that if in town) I have other High power units but their reports are close to that of a .22 powder burner- use those for the Raccoons. CCI quietzone .22 rounds out of a long barrel are pretty decent as well- won't cycle an auto though and are bit too much noise from a short barrel in town. Then there is always the 5 gallon pail trap ( use antifreeze mix ) plenty Ideas for those on the web. Cought sight of a martin a couple months back- haven't seen a chip since.

 

The 5-gallon pail trap rocks! Go to fivegallonideas.com and you'll be carrying them out by the bucket loads! Ha!