I use those old fashioned Victor mouse traps, but with the yellow plastic treadle. A dab of peanut butter (kept in a syringe for easy application) is all it takes.

Our mice got smart and would trip the trap, then eat the bait. So we went to the adhesive strip. The first time we got several mice. I think some came to help and got caught. The next time we got one. After that, none.
We have used several different methods, and we have to keep rotating the methods to keep them eradicated.

lc

Sorry for the bad picture, but my mouse solution (for the home, shop and hangar) is camera shy. You get the idea, 100% reliability and very low maintenance, he is shown at his recharging station.

At my grandma's farm by Colville they had a raft of feral barn cats. Twice a day they would assemble at milking time to get skim milk. That was the only handout, but it kept them around for generations. All of them were great hunters and the mothers taught the youngsters-since they were completely on their own for meat. They kept the main barn, grainary, and hay barn almost free of mice. They also worked the fields within walking distance. There were no lazy ones-they would get sick and die. They can't stay healthy on just skim milk.

I'll leave any and all analogys for Hot air......
lc

If you are stocking a hangar, the first item to put on your list is a regular visit to the local airport dumpster. No kidding. The dumpster at the airport where I kept my plane was a 60/40 system. About 60% of the dumpster contents eventually made it to the dump. The other 40% simply moved into someone else's hangar. Let's see... I bagged everything from a set of 6 chairs and a set of stereo speakers to a rolling workbench. When I took my trash to the dumpster, I usually came back with more stuff than I dropped off.

Mice:
Occasional mice can be handled by regular old smash your finger traps. In my case, all it took was a friendly neighbor:


However, if they come in biblical swarms like in Australia in the 90's, it takes something like 1080 poison (sodium fluoroacetate) which can wipe out a continent's worth of mice in a week.



In 1993 it was so bad that after eating the grain crop, the mice started devouring pigs in their stalls.

After last night's haul to the hangar, it now sports the case of oil & spare oil filter, a rolling cart with my tool box, my tools, two camp chairs, a can of bug spray, a five gallon bucket, and a couple other things. Today, I'll get mouse traps and a can of red spray paint.

(My IA recommended that I measure the closest each main can be to the hangar without getting hangar rash, and paint a red stripe on the hangar floor to mark the limit of what's safe when pushing the plane in. Something about hangar rash is to hangared airplanes what ground loops are to tailwheels.)

On putting the tail on a 5-gallon bucket - okay, how do you hoist the tail? I can move it around just fine on gravel and concrete by the pull handles in front of the tail, but I can't lift her more than two inches off the floor.

Yellowbelly - having been in a snake-free environment for the last decade, I'm not sure how I'd handle seeing Joe-No-Shoulders checking my hangar for mice. Is checking the head shape really a reliable way to tell poisonous from doesn't-need-immediate-killing?

Dot,
Get a cheap (not much weight) rope block and tackle, they are quicker then a comealong to use. I got mine at the local farm store for 30 bucks. Rig to the ceiling in some fashion and hopefully you have a hardpoint, maybe the fuselage grab handles, to clip a caribiner to. I have this setup for raising the tail for various purposes, I can have it up in 30 seconds no sweat, and safe! Once up in the air, no bucket needed? Also great for working on the tailwheel and tail feathers.

I don't like cats much but I don't like snakes a whole lot more! But so far mice hasn't been a big issue--I do have little hoppy toads though.

Cary

Dot:

My buddy in the picture was a gopher snake - beautiful markings and looks a lot like a rattler. If you come across a rattlesnake, believe me, there is something wired deep into the medulla oblongata that will make you obey the proper protocol, usually jumping faster, higher and further than you ever thought possible without conscious thought.

Now consider the size of a mouse and then the size of a mouse's brain. It's entirely possible that a rubber snake will terrify a mouse enough to convince him/her to move on to the next hangar instead of feasting on your insulated tail light wiring, especially if you move the rubber snake around occasionally to convince the mouse brain that it is actually alive.

I lived in Australia for a period. Down there, NO snake is above suspicion. Nor are any spiders, jellyfish, or even certain bushes.

hotrod150 wrote: Some airplanes have a really heavy tail in the three-point attitude, esp 4 seaters. A friend of mine made a handle for hoisting the tail of his C170 up onto a bucket, it slips onto the tail spring & extends aft for leverage. Without something like this, it's pretty much a 2-man show. ......

Been several years since I saw it, but as I recall he made the handle out of square tubing or something fairly rigid, maybe four feet long. Mechanical advantage (aka leverage) makes it possible for one person to hoist the tail-- kinda tough to maneuver the bucker under the t/x at the same time though, gotta kind kick it into place.

Get a cheap (not much weight) rope block and tackle, they are quicker then a comealong to use. I got mine at the local farm store for 30 bucks. Rig to the ceiling in some fashion and hopefully you have a hardpoint, maybe the fuselage grab handles, to clip a caribiner to. I have this setup for raising the tail for various purposes, I can have it up in 30 seconds no sweat, and safe! Once up in the air, no bucket needed? .....

If the ceiling is tall enough.....
And you raise the tail high enough....
You have......
(drum roll please)
(wait for it....
A HANGAR!!


lc

I'll just sneak on outa here.....