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MICE and VERMIN hiding out in tunnels

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Posted by railroadnut675 on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 8:56 PM

Interesting...

   Do you think the Train in one side cage on the other is good?

   Or smoking them out w/ a 2-6-0? 

All hail the Mighty HO Scale Does thinking you're the last sane person on Earth make you crazy? -- Will Smith from I, Robot
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Posted by Packer on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 2:24 PM
Unless you have a model of the TGV that can go a scale 300 mph.

Vincent

Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....

2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.

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Posted by Conrail5 on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 7:11 PM
 railroadnut675 wrote:

Conrail you are agenius with the skewer idea...

 what do you think about smoking the little monsters out with a 2-6-0's smoke and pretty lights

running them over with a CSX SD-40 or the Amtrak amfleet or an SCL ooooorrr the Acela ;top speed only the Lord and the geeks at the LHS know how fast it goes

 

 

Well it did seem to be the obvious solution.

 

Empire under construction !

The early bird catches the worm.

But, the second mouse gets the cheese!

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Posted by twhite on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 6:59 PM

Well, guys, after reading these posts over my shoulder, my other Maine Coon cat Lowell says that he is available on a rental system to help rid your tunnels of vermin.  However, since he's about 20 pounds, he'll have trouble fitting INTO the tunnels, and he's very particular about his payment in Catnip (it has to come from either Malibu or Baja California), and he only works at full speed while listening to Mahler's First Symphony.

And I hate to tell you, the last mouse he caught, he adopted!

Tom

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Posted by railroadnut675 on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 6:59 PM

Conrail you are agenius with the skewer idea...

 what do you think about smoking the little monsters out with a 2-6-0's smoke and pretty lights

running them over with a CSX SD-40 or the Amtrak amfleet or an SCL ooooorrr the Acela ;top speed only the Lord and the geeks at the LHS know how fast it goes

 

 

All hail the Mighty HO Scale Does thinking you're the last sane person on Earth make you crazy? -- Will Smith from I, Robot
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Posted by tomikawaTT on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 6:27 PM
 G Paine wrote:
 Brunton wrote:

 

Bwahahaha!

Mark, is that the latest downloadable horn sound? Where can I get it? Headphones [{(-_-)}]

Speaking of sound, how about reprogramming one of your noisemaking locos to sound like a ferret?

Come to think of it, I recall seeing a note about someone who had several pet ferrets.  I rather suspect that one ferret would equal zero mice in very rapid order.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with no unwanted critters, I hope)

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Posted by Packer on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 6:01 PM

I got a similar reply to that as a suggestion for anoles; but I have no scenery.

I'm guessing if I mess with the garage's thermostat, I can keep the cold-blodded critters out.

Vincent

Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....

2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.

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Posted by mikesmowers on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 5:57 PM
  I have a 20 gauge with a 10 inch barrel if you would like to borrow it, you will probley want to re-do the scenery after that but there will be no more mouse or even a dead body to worry about.          Mike
Modeling Trains Is Not A Matter Of Life Or Death, It Is Much More Important Than That!!
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Posted by Packer on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 5:46 PM

Will the LL ones work? I have about 4 of them left.

No problems with rats, my tine is only a foot long.

As for the Anoles 6 P2Ks pushing a custom-built plow shouold fix that, and the dog will keep them off the legs.

Vincent

Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....

2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.

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Posted by Kenfolk on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 4:23 PM

Looking forward to the video of the train/mouse encounter.......Big Smile [:D]

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Posted by jeffers_mz on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 4:17 PM

Mice on a layout plus cats = BAD JUJU. Unless you are modeling a hurricane,tsunami or tornado stricken railroad, put this thought out of mind immediately.

Traps for living areas, poison ONLY in attics or crawls, and ONLY during cold months, or else the smell will drive you from your home. 

Steel wool to close access points, or all you will do is strengthen and smarten the surviving Darwinian population. 

During the transition to a rodent free environment, I would begin each operating session with a MOW unit, headed by a large front mounted flanger.

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Posted by Kenfolk on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 3:01 PM

train them to do the belly crawl through your tunnels. could save you a lot of work in the long run.Laugh

Just remember to weather and decal for the appropriate era you are modeling. Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

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Posted by Mudbug1001 on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 2:30 PM
 howmus wrote:

Oh c'mon guys.  We're all big boys here.  You go buy a couple of the old fashoned Victor snap traps, bait them (peanut butter works the best), pull the snap bar with the springs back and set the trap.  Wait a few minutes and you will hear SNAP!!!  Wait a couple more minutes unless you enjoy seeing the nerves doing that twitchy thing.  Then you take the trap, dead mouse and all, to the waste basket or outside to where ever and pull up on the snap bar releasing the now dead little mousy, and then repeat the process until you don't catch any more.  The traps are reusable and when you are done wash your hands and go back to modeling.  First off they kill the mouse almost instantly and so are probably the most humane.  The sticky ones are IMHO cruel as they don't kill quickly.  Traping and releasing doesn't solve the problem unless you do it way my sister does.  She catches the sweet little, cute mousy wousy, and takes it outside to the park near her home and humanely releases it hoping it will find new home in the park (or somebody elses house) when it is 10°F outside.  Freezing to death is not a nice humane way to go. 

Can't believe grown men can be so squemish over getting rid of vermin that carry disease and pose a serious health risk to you and your families.  Do any of you hunt?????? Wink [;)]Wink [;)]

BTW, if you live in the North, they came in back in October or early November and have been living with you since then.  Untrapped they will disapear in the spring outside to provide the next wave of vermin for next fall.

Amen.  This is exactly what I do.  I actually make it into a little "Mouse Safari".  The Victor Mouse Traps are the only way to go for me - instant kill, no dead mice crawling away to die, and you have an exact body count and can tell when you are making a dent in the mouse population.  Every Fall, they start coming back in and every Fall I get the Victor Mouse Traps out.  It's become a tradition.

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Posted by G Paine on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 1:20 PM
 Brunton wrote:

 

Bwahahaha!

Mark, is that the latest downloadable horn sound? Where can I get it? Headphones [{(-_-)}]

George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch 

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Posted by jeffrey-wimberly on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 12:51 PM
 Conrail5 wrote:
Shishkabob skewer! Sharpen a good stainless steel skewer and lash it down to the top of your fastest loco. Run loco through tunnels at top speed repeat as needed until train exits tunnels with empty skewer.
Use one of the old Tyco locos with that pancake drive. It'll fly through the tunnels at mach 3 and if it gets wrecked in the process you haven't lost anything.

Running Bear, Sundown, Louisiana
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Space Mouse for president!
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Posted by pavalons on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 12:41 PM

Are you absolutely sure??? I will be glad to rent him to you. Just a little kibble and an "atta boy" when he clears your tunnel system.

 

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Posted by Conrail5 on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 12:19 PM
Shishkabob skewer! Sharpen a good stainless steel skewer and lash it down to the top of your fastest loco. Run loco through tunnels at top speed repeat as needed until train exits tunnels with empty skewer.

Empire under construction !

The early bird catches the worm.

But, the second mouse gets the cheese!

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Posted by jecorbett on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 11:39 AM
I can relate. My problem isn't so much in the tunnels. The seem to like rollicking through my scenery, leaving their call cards everywhere. They apparently pushed in a back window on my roundhouse and now I have to remove the glued on roof to replace it. They also have set up shop in some storage boxes where I kept some structure kits. They chewed right through one of the kit boxes and set up a nest. I found a collection of pink insulation and dog food in the box. They like to rearrange the ground foam an lichen in my landscapes. Apparently they are critics as well. The last straw was when they tore the heck out of a really nice looking wooded area I had built with Woodland Scenics fine foliage. Broke every last tree off at the base. After that, it was no more mister nice guy. D-Con has been my weapon of choice but lately, the problem seems to be getting worse so I might add the old snap traps as well. A cat is not an option because I have two dogs who love cats. They think they are very tasty. Just a couple days ago I found one of the rodents laying dead on my layout in the middle of a residential street. It reminded me of a scene from a 1950s sci-fi movie in which radioactive rodents had mutated to enormous size. The only thing it lacked was the dubbing of English over the Japanese dialogue. 
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Posted by n2mopac on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 11:16 AM

Maybe you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. MR's April issue a couple of years back ran an article that described using hamsters to clean track in modeled subways. What you need to do is soak these dudes in alcohol and train them to do the belly crawl through your tunnels. could save you a lot of work in the long run.Laugh [(-D]Laugh [(-D]Laugh [(-D]

Ron

Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado. 

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Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings

 

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Posted by Blue Flamer on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 10:41 AM

 ChrisNH wrote:
How about a working rotary snow plow..

O.K. Who painted my wheels and tracks with this bright red paint instead of the proper rusty colour.

Sign - Oops [#oops]

Blue Flamer.

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Posted by ChrisNH on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 9:32 AM
How about a working rotary snow plow..
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Posted by jeffrey-wimberly on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 9:30 AM
 Packer wrote:

As for vermin, I used to have an anole (gecko) problem. It's not as bad as it used to be (one of my dogs thinks they are tasty Laugh [(-D]) but the ones that get on the ceiling end up dropping poo on the layout every now and then. How do you get geckos off the ceiling???

Call Gieco. They need stand-ins for their Gecko.Laugh [(-D]

Running Bear, Sundown, Louisiana
          Joined June, 2004

Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running Bear
Space Mouse for president!
15 year veteran fire fighter
Collector of Apple //e's
Running Bear Enterprises
History Channel Club life member.
beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam


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Posted by vsmith on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 9:23 AM

.

 

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by R. T. POTEET on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 9:21 AM

Did you ever hear the one about the group of recruits in infantry training. "Suppose," says the sergeant, "that you are in your foxhole and suddenly you hear a rumbling sound and when you look out you discover a tank advancing on your position. What are you going to do?" He points to a recruit named Smith.

"Destroy it with an anti-tank rocket," says Smith.

"Where will you get this anti-tank rocket?" asks the sergeant.

"Where'd you get the tank?" asks Smith.

Turn some hog snakes loose in the layout room; they will solve your mice problem in short order!

You then turn hogs loose to get rid of the snakes!

You then turn wolves loose to get rid of the hogs!

You then turn grizzly bears loose to get rid of the wolves!

You then turn ranchers loose to get rid of the grizzlies!

MOUSE FREE LAYOUT!

Where, you ask, are you going to get snakes, hogs, wolves, grizzly bears, and ranchers? I figure if mice can get in your layout room so can snakes, hogs, wolves, grizzly bears, and ranchers.

If this solution is too time-consuming go to your local Home Despot and buy a six-pack of mousetraps; that'll get the job done muy pronto!

NOTE: don't try the cat routine! Just as city-boys don't know how to drive pick-up trucks city-cats don't know how to catch mice!; city-cats catch 9-lives in the can!

From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet

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Posted by jeffrey-wimberly on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 8:20 AM
I've seen this done and it works. Place sticky traps at each end of the tunnel(s) in question before you leave the room. Next time you go in your unwelcome guests should still be in residence and unable to leave. Dispose of properly.

Running Bear, Sundown, Louisiana
          Joined June, 2004

Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running Bear
Space Mouse for president!
15 year veteran fire fighter
Collector of Apple //e's
Running Bear Enterprises
History Channel Club life member.
beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam


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Posted by MisterBeasley on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 7:42 AM

I agree with Ray and all the others who are snap-trap fans.  You can get a 3-pack of Victor traps for almost nothing at the hardware store or super market.  I bait mine with peanut butter, too.  It seems to be the best stuff.

I do NOT recommend those poison things.  The mice will go off into your walls and die, and they will smell for a week or more.  Yeah, the poisons advertise that they dry the mouse out before it dies, so they won't decay and smell, but that claim smells almost as bad as a dead mouse carcass.  With a trap, you'll know exactly where the body ends up.  (Suppose you poisoned a mouse, and it went into your tunnel to die?  Hmmmmm...)

Up here in the Northeast, the mice move in when it gets cold, round about September or October.  I'm busy for a few weeks, emptying the traps, but then it settles down.  I might get one or two in the January thaw, but then I don't see any more.  I think they'd rather be outside in the spring and summer.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by AlreadyInUse on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 7:27 AM
 Packer wrote:

As for vermin, I used to have an anole (gecko) problem. It's not as bad as it used to be (one of my dogs thinks they are tasty Laugh [(-D]) but the ones that get on the ceiling end up dropping poo on the layout every now and then. How do you get geckos off the ceiling???

 Shotgun? Be sure to lead them.

You can never have too much glue
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Posted by Packer on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 7:05 AM

I never had a problem with mice on the tracks in my garage. I have a trap in the crawl space under the house, and another in the attic; both with peanut butter. I also have two dogs that seem to like eating them.

 

As for vermin, I used to have an anole (gecko) problem. It's not as bad as it used to be (one of my dogs thinks they are tasty Laugh [(-D]) but the ones that get on the ceiling end up dropping poo on the layout every now and then. How do you get geckos off the ceiling???

Vincent

Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....

2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.

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Posted by Pruitt on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 5:41 AM

OH! Some of you guys are SO neaderthal!

You're advocating killing MICKEY MOUSE! Shock [:O]

When we get the nasty vermin, they go to their doom via any means possible. Snap trap, glue trap, poison - whichever they hit first. No trap-and-release here - these things are NOT an endangered species!

Goodbye little mousey, with no remorse!

Bwahahaha! Evil [}:)]

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Posted by wm3798 on Monday, February 4, 2008 10:12 PM

You could try combining your kid's robot toys with DCC... 

 

Or, while no cats are permitted to run the rails of my layout...

 

I do allow several to roam the lower reaches of our 95 year old home.  I haven't seen a mouse in about 4 years.

Lee 

Route of the Alpha Jets  www.wmrywesternlines.net

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