How to get rid of rats and mice in a T-Hangar

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
May 20, 2009
Messages
14,159
Location
Florida
Display Name

Display name:
Right Seater
My neighbors on both sides of my hangar are building airplanes. They practically live there and eat there. They throw left over food in open trash cans and on the ground outside. I think that is what attracts them. I just want them to stay where they are and not come in my hangar.

Do those electronic repellers work?
 
‘Bait houses’ with poison inside is best. Look at what they do around buildings & such, same. Set a trap or two if you want, don’t need to.

I take the gloves off with rodents.
 
You're in Florida. Go out and catch a python, settle it in your hangar. You'll never see another rodent again.
 
First step is to protect the plane. Friends went to a sheet metal shop, and had 3 foot long strips made a foot wide, with a standard slide in joint at one end. These are assembled around each wheel, so the critters cannot get to the wheels and climb into the plane. Cheap, positive insurance for the largest risk. Most insects will walk around the metal, rather than climbing, as they do with tires. In severe weather, they will eat the insulation off wiring, both 120 AC, and 12 DC.

Small dishes of permanent antifreeze will not evaporate, and will poison whatever critters invade your premises, They like the flavor.

No experience with the electronics, but have heard the do not work. It is a waste of time to ask the neighbors to quit eating as they work, but if you donate a trash container with a metal lid, they may use it.
 
First step is to walk over to your neighbors and ask them not to be such fricken pigs, to clean up after themselves and take their garbage home because the place is getting infested with rats.
 
Does the T hanger have the walls that go only part way up? At least you can put the trash back in their hangar...

(and any rats that happen to end up in a trap...)
 
Last edited:
First step is to walk over to your neighbors and ask them not to be such fricken pigs, to clean up after themselves and take their garbage home because the place is getting infested with rats.

:yeahthat: Worth saying again....

Stop feeding the vermin and they will go away. Also get rid of water sources.

If asking the neighbors to clean up doesn't help, make the airport manager aware of the trash problem.



th
th
 
The trouble with poisoning is they will die somewhere and smell up the area, hopefully not your plane.


Tom
 
man, i'd be nervous. i'd probably to the sheet metal trick to stop them from coming up the struts while also putting out traps and talking with the neighbors about your concerns with the rats/food
 
Please don’t put out anti freeze as suggested...lots of other good suggestions though...
 
My neighbors on both sides of my hangar are building airplanes. They practically live there and eat there. They throw left over food in open trash cans and on the ground outside. I think that is what attracts them. I just want them to stay where they are and not come in my hangar.

Do those electronic repellers work?

nope, the electronic ones are total bs. We get mice at our cabin (though this winter it wasn’t bad at all) and I tried one of those. Put it on the kitchen counter facing a table. Two weeks later when we go up there, mouse droppings, not in the usual places, but yup...on both counters. Lots. I think I treated them to a mouse disco evening or something.

Best have been the bait boxes, where they go in, eat, get sick, hopefully leave, and die. I also use regular old mouse traps.

I’m guessing it would be impossible in a hangar but best is if one can seal all holes in. But a mouse can crawl through a hole smaller than a penny. Or a slit.
 
The problem with poison is it kills predator birds and other animals too. I like something like this, be like Jonathan.

 
I've always had good luck with the Victor mouse traps as above. They are available in larger sizes for rats.
 
I've always had good luck with the Victor mouse traps as above. They are available in larger sizes for rats.

Same here. Bait with peanut butter and be sure to set the trap with gloves on. Rats are cannibals, so be prepared to find some half eaten corpses...
 
I leave blocks of rat/mouse poison around the perimeter of my hangar. Occasionally, a critter dies in there, but they haven't (yet) died anywhere and stunk up the place. I have removed a few carcasses over the years. The nice thing about the blocks is they are maintenance free - replace them if they get consumed. Otherwise, they will sit for years.
 
Yup, bucket traps are the way to go.

Dryer sheets, too, the mice hate the smell of them. Tuck a couple in the wingtips and tailcone. Antifreeze instead of water in the bucket keeps them from smelling, even if (or especially if) you live in a place where it doesn't freeze.
 
First, take care of the idiot hangar neighbors by calling the health dept. Then put out baits. Where you sure don’t want rats and mice is in your plane. Dyer sheets in the empennage and cabin deters mice, don’t know about rats.
 
Or live it up


integrally suppressed mkiii

6:30 for the shooting
 
I've always had good luck with the Victor mouse traps as above. They are available in larger sizes for rats.

Same here. Bait with peanut butter and be sure to set the trap with gloves on. Rats are cannibals, so be prepared to find some half eaten corpses...

Not just peanut butter, but wrap the peanut butter in a piece of a stocking or cheesecloth and secure with zip tie or twist tie and place the trap so rat has to approach from a 90 degree angle. They can lick peanut butter right off without triggering and if they approach from the front you might only catch a foot or tail if they do trigger.

They can easily still escape if it not a clean kill.

I have gone to war several times with those bastards. Not as easy as filed mouse on a sticky pad, those buggers are a worthy opponent.

PLEASE do NOT put out baits or antifreeze. Not only will you wind up with a stinky dead rodent in a mystery place, but it is an extreme hazard to other animals. My pup wound up in the emergency vet with a stomach pump due to someone putting out rat bait. Luckily we got him to the vet quick enough but he would have been a dead like the rats had we not caught it immediately with the amount he consumed.
 
Last edited:
Most poison blocks, like d-con have dessicant in them. Dehydrates the critter, which is why they "look for water" (above). That dehydration makes em stink less.

Talk to the pigs next door... Tell them mice and rats love homebuilt aircraft... And will flock to planes where greasy little fast food fingers have been running cables into tailcones...
 
Most poison blocks, like d-con have dessicant in them. Dehydrates the critter, which is why they "look for water" (above). That dehydration makes em stink less.

Just worth mentioning, do not put bait stations in the hangar, but outside the hangar, like 10 or 15 feet. It draws the mice out and then after consuming the bait they go looking for water.
 
Not big enough for rats, these work well, but only once then need to be re loaded. Glue traps work well too.
They are made in the finger-breaky size. I've used them. They will take out a squirrel, I am told ...
 
They are made in the finger-breaky size. I've used them. They will take out a squirrel, I am told ...
Yep, I've used them too, the one pictured is not big enough is what I meant. Also you need to set a bunch of them. Glue traps are probably best as you can get a few with them.
 
Electrocution traps work well, and some of them are approved for outdoor use. I used to be a skeptic, but the better-name ones (Victor, for example) actually do work. Some of them are even WiFi equipped and will send you a message when there's a kill.

With (very) little thought and a soldering iron, electrocution traps can be built as DIY projects. They consist of a battery, a capacitor, and electrodes. Just make sure that only the target animal(s) can get to the electrodes. Building them in a box with small entry holes should work fine.

Rich
 
55753E15-A3C9-4C70-BCF8-7F3FED5079E1.jpeg
I put a couple of these in my hangar about 3 weeks ago and the rats, mice and most of the bugs moved to a nicer neighborhood. Problem solved. They cost around $60 each but if was worth it.
 
Back
Top