Hey,
Recently acquired an off-grid
cabin and the rodents have been really rough. Thus far have only seen
mice but there may be something bigger in the walls. The cabin was "fixed up" by the previous owner: in terms of what now constitutes the walls (approximately) there's old
wood siding outside, some kind of foam board insulation, some kind of thin
water shield, and then paneling inside. There are clearly plenty of gaps as we can hear the rodents moving around, scratching, chewing, etc. In fact, I was up on the roof today and spotted a mouse in between a gap on the outdoor siding, in what looked like 1/4" or even more of space between that and the water shield.
There isn't much of a foundation, the cabin is pretty worn at the bottom and basically sitting on field stones.
Thus far, I've slowly sealed up some gaps with very narrow hardware cloth, put a whole bunch of essential oils on the inner and outer walls, set traps (mostly outside) the cabin, and done some sealing with caulk and spray foam (I am aware that rodents can sometimes chew through spray foam, and obviously it's nasty stuff, but trying to make this manageable). We've actually seen very little rodent activity on the interior of the cabin, aside from a few mice poops on the bathroom floor. But they are in the walls, and there are clearly a decent number. I've caught two in snap traps, but that's it so far.
Anybody have any creative suggestions here? A cat would be great but isn't really an option for us. I'm continuing to seal gaps but the list of entry points is virtually infinite. Like I said, I've caught a couple in snap traps but it has made little dent in the population.
I'm obviously trying to be as non-toxic as possible, but it's getting really difficult constantly hearing the scratching. And it's obviously not super healthy having all these rodents in the building.
5
