Mouse eating my malt!

For the last week or so we have been hearing mouse-like noises behind the plasterboard in our kitchen, yet no droppings or other evidence. We put poison down but with no luck. It has been perplexing us as to how to catch it - and as to how it got in, given that the plasterboard sits in front of nearly a foot of solid brick!

Anyway, this morning my wife heard some scratching in the stud partition wall which divides our kitchen and the under-stairs area. Under the stairs happens to be where I keep my malt; I pulled out my 25k sack of Maris Otter only to find a small nibble hole in the bottom corner, a mass of malt pouring out as I dragged out the sack. I cleared a few things away from the stud partition and, unsurprisingly, there was the mouse hole! Poison now sits in the place where the MO used to be...

The sack is about three quarters full - do I need to throw out the whole sack or will I be able to salvage some malt? Any advice would be much appreciated!

If the mouse didn't get inside the bag, tape up the hole and use it. Borrow a neighbors cat or use traps. A 5 gal pail with 2-3 inches of water, some PB smeared inside just above the water line and a stick for an outside ramp works well.

That's why I use 2 homerbucket to store my grain in, each one holds 25 pounds of grain. The other 5 I just put in a tupperware containers.

trap.

Do not use poison if the rat/mouse is getting into the walls. You were warned.

I have mice issues in my rural home. Poison is not the better mouse trap. A mouse trap is the better mouse trap...it's game over in one shot. Put them with the trap side along the walls/counters, they like to travel along a "safe" corridor.

It's difficult to say whether the mouse got "in" the grain, but they're creative buggers and will get into even the smallest places. To play it safe, it's probably a good idea to scoop all but the bottom layer off and put it in a mouse-safe container. I don't even wanna know what mashing mouse-poo is like and don't really care for you to find out for me, either.

I had mouse problems at my last home. I used the glue traps. Dont fold them or anything, just lay them down along the wall or corners of the house. Worked like a charm. We would get one maybe once a month. But a neighborhood cat started hanging out on my street and never had a problem again. Guessing he got them before they could get in.

MikeFallopian said:

The sack is about three quarters full - do I need to throw out the whole sack or will I be able to salvage some malt? Any advice would be much appreciated!

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i would not throw it away. you'll be boiling the wort for an hour or more so anything nasty in there will be sanitized. i would, however, look through the bottom portion of the grain for droppings.