PoleVaultPower.com

So I thought I was real cool. Last Spring I took home the old pit from the high school where I coach when the school bought a new one. I convinced my wife to give up her veggie garden in the back. I set the pit up on tires. I bought a tarp to keep out the rain. I religiously cover it. I bought a box and a roll-out runway.

Last weekend we had an Indian Summer day here in New England so I decided to pull off the tarp and vault for a while. I was quite shocked to find a family of mice who thought that the pit was yummy and apparently cozy. They had chewed a 3-inch hole in the back and had made a nest.

Does anybody have any advice/experience with keeping mice out of pv pits? Should I put rat/mouse poison underneath?

I don't want to kill any dogs or cats in the neighborhood - and my cat is a devoted mouser - I'd hate to poison a mouse and then have my cat die from eating a poisoned mouse.

I'm open to suggestions and looking for help.

Thanks.

I used a sticky trap to kill a mouse that was in my apartment, but I don't know how well that would work outdoors. They sell battery operated traps where the mouse crawls in and gets electrocuted, but I don't know how well they actually work.

Poison does suck. One of your mice could eat it and crawl deep into your pit and die... you wouldn't know until it started rotting

We have a set of pits in a pole barn out at the farm. We use a old trick supplied to us by people who store boats and rv's for a living. To keep mice to a minimum in our mats we purchased and placed at least 6 boxes of moth balls. Divide the mothballs into about 10 equil piles and place in plastic containers (plastic bowls, cups, ect.) and place under the mats. We replace the mothballs with a new supply each fall. We have had our mats in the barn for almost 3 years with NO problems. The mice hate the smell of the moth balls. Does anyone have any other tricks?

[/joke mode on] ^_^


paint your face
sharpen a broken pole
get a piece of cheese
spear hunt the rats
cook them over an open flame
show them who is boss
eat them!



[/joke mode off']

-------Get more cats--------

Thanks for your advice folks.

Last weekend I invested in moth balls and spent a while distributing them in the tires underneath.

If that doesn't work, I think I'll try the face-painting with sharpened pole approach next.

Russ wrote:If that doesn't work, I think I'll try the face-painting with sharpened pole approach next.

If it comes to that... take pictures