Messy Situation

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BTR

1527 posts

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#235955 11-May-2018 11:23

Heres my situation, I currently have mice in my ceiling but thats another problem that I am dealign with, I noticed last night that there have been crawling down the wall and into my comms cabinet by following the cable path.

They have then pee'd all over the Mac Mini I have in there and power board...

Can anyone recommend a product I can use to fill in the gaps around the cabling as it runs through the wooden framing. I was thinking expanding foam but that might damage the cables....

Thanks

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238 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2013956 11-May-2018 11:35

I'd be calling in a professional exterminator to eliminate the rodents & asking them what they'd recommend.

wellygary

8345 posts

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#2013960 11-May-2018 11:39

> I was thinking expanding foam but that might damage the cables....

And you would be likely right

have a look at this thread

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=127203

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#2013979 11-May-2018 12:18

Hmm Gorilla foams say they are safe for use with electronic cables but I might just stuff pieces of pinkbatts into the holes. Makes it easy to remove if I need to install more cables.

Thanks everyone!

MikeB4

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#2013984 11-May-2018 12:31

The best solution is eradication. Those little pests can get through the tiniest of gaps. This is the time of the year iwhen they head indoors to use your free heat and nourishment so it may take several hits.

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#2014080 11-May-2018 14:29

MikeB4:

The best solution is eradication. Those little pests can get through the tiniest of gaps. This is the time of the year iwhen they head indoors to use your free heat and nourishment so it may take several hits.

As well as cleaning up their mess thats my plan for this weekend is to empty Mitre10 out of stocks of poison and traps...

Taubin

557 posts

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#2014108 11-May-2018 14:51

Whatever you do, DO NOT do what my (thankfully former) apartment manager did, and just toss rat poison up there and ignore it from then on out. The mice died up there and it was HORRIBLE. We literally had maggots falling through our lights after they were feeding on the dead mice, and the apartment manager didn't do anything about it. It was a horrible experience that I still have nightmares about. Luckily, our current apartment manager seems to be okay.

ZL2TOY/ZL1DMP

Tinkerisk

4235 posts

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#2014176 11-May-2018 16:49

*Click*

- NET: FTTH, OPNsense, 10G backbone, GWN APs, ipPBX
- SRV: 12 RU HA server cluster, 0.1 PB storage on premise
- IoT: thread, zigbee, tasmota, BidCoS, LoRa, WX suite, IR
- 3D: two 3D printers, 3D scanner, CNC router, laser cutter

Sharesies

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gregmcc

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#2014183 11-May-2018 17:02

BTR:

Heres my situation, I currently have mice in my ceiling but thats another problem that I am dealign with, I noticed last night that there have been crawling down the wall and into my comms cabinet by following the cable path.

They have then pee'd all over the Mac Mini I have in there and power board...

Can anyone recommend a product I can use to fill in the gaps around the cabling as it runs through the wooden framing. I was thinking expanding foam but that might damage the cables....

Thanks

Put your cat up in the ceiling

johny99

495 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#2014363 11-May-2018 20:51

Plug the holes with steel wool, mice and rats do not like it on their teeth, they will just pull the pink bats out.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

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Inactive user

#2014444 11-May-2018 23:06

Traps are much better than poison. As has been said, poisoned vermin melt into a cessy puddle and stink.

I've also heard steel wool is effective for plugging gaps.

Tinkerisk

4235 posts

Uber Geek

#2014447 11-May-2018 23:27

If you have a poisoned, dead rat between the floor's and/or wall's insulation you will experience an extraordinary smell you'll NEVER forget. The same happens when the rat is executed by the nibbled power line. This only can be topped when the female has been killed and the remaining kids famished later on everywhere you can't reach them.

vulcannz

436 posts

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#2014491 12-May-2018 08:18

BTR:

They have then pee'd all over the Mac Mini I have in there

Finally some mice with taste!

I'd recommend one of these: https://www.bunnings.co.nz/big-cheese-multi-catch-mouse-trap_p00172341

Got one a few months back and it's been doing a great job. Only problem is you have to sort out your execution method (for me it's an air pistol at 20 inches, no blindfold).

cyril7

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#2014511 12-May-2018 09:08

Hi pink bats they seem to pull out, and even eat, guess it's the same attraction they have for optic fibre, in installation work we use the green poly bats, they don't seem to touch that.

Cyril

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#2015598 14-May-2018 10:43

Re the smell of dead mice and rats I know exactly what that is like, a few years ago had a mouse in the wall, I thumped the wall which give it a fright causing it to tall and get stuck where it died inside the wall. It stunk to room out for around 2-3 months....

Bung

6504 posts

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#2015620 14-May-2018 11:13

andrewNZ: Traps are much better than poison. As has been said, poisoned vermin melt into a cessy puddle and stink.

I've also heard steel wool is effective for plugging gaps.

Traps are OK to a point. In the 70s a group of us were cabling a new PABX at Wgtn hospital and found rat droppings. We left some traps that worked but rather than having a funeral service for their dead companions the other rats started eating the ones in the traps. The problem escalated from a few rat turds to the scene of a chainsaw massacre. The hospital arranged for the service tunnels to be sealed and fumigated. I don't know how they removed the 100s of dead rats.

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