Brewing Attracts Mice?

Ok so before I get flamed and told what a ***** I am...I HATE MICE! I mean, I hate the little buggers. I think it might have something to do with a phobia that developed when I was kid and was forced to haul mice ridden trash every week to the back alley but that is besides the point. I cannot, I mean cannot stand mice.

Ok...so I live in a townhouse in a suburb type area. Not surrounded by any woods or anything and normally I brew in my garage with the garage door open. I don't store any grains or food of any sort in there and quite honestly the garage door really only opens daily when I come home from work and put my car in there and for 5 or 6 hours on the weekend when I brew.

So a few weeks ago I am brewing away enjoying the smells coming from my mash tun and enjoying a nice homebrew when I look over and see a little mouse poking his head around the side of my propane tank. Naturally I jumped up, ran inside and got the broom. Keep in mind by this time already I am freaking out because I don't want it is...but I hate mice. I did however suffer through the rest of the brew day and finish what I had started to do, after I moved my boil kettle outside the garage and closed the door of course. Long story short I had two days of misery. I set out about 10 traps...caught the rodent but he got away and then proceeded to taunt me by eating the bait off every trap I set for two nights in a row until FINALLY one of them got him and I joyfully removed the pest from my garage. My kegerator is in my garage so you can imagine how freaked out I was over the course of the evenings when I had to suck it up and go in there to fill my pint glass.

The point of this ramble is that i'd prefer to never have to deal with this again but i'm afraid that the smell of mashing grains etc is attracting mice. Is there something I can do to keep them away from my garage but still be able to brew in there with the door open? Other than the smell of the grains there is nothing else that can really attract them and they wouldn't last long in there because there is no source of food. I am hoping this might have been a total coincidence and the chance of it happening again is unlikely but I wouldn't mind getting a little reassurance from some fellow brewers.

Any feel free to insert your "grow a pair of balls dude" but save it for the end of your helpful advice

Seal store and clean everything. I have zero problem this way.If they have no means of attraction, then no mice. I had a cupboard that i would store sealed grains.I also had flour stored only in plastic bags, then one day,Mouse turds. I was pissed it chewed through the flour bag and ate some oat flour i was using for spent grain bread. Well my fault for not storing it in the storage totes along with my grains.Lesson learned stored flour with the grains to plus i got some traps got rid of it.Mouse turds were an insult.Wrong place at the wrong time,Mouse!

Get a cat...

...and grow a pair of balls, dude!

(J/K...you asked for it! )

i don't think it's the smell of brewing as much as the smell of the grain, etc.
And maybe a warm room, places to hide, and a whole lot less digging to do.

Triple bagging grain (maybe in a metal trashcan) might help.... maybe even if they smell it, dey cant chew to it.

clean, clean, and clean ....... not sure what else works beyond traps.

You can buy (imitation?) fox piss extract. It smells gawd-awful, but it frightens off rodents.

Poison the little ***tards.

I don't have a mouse problem...just the one but i'm totally freaked out to brew in the future with the garage door open in fear that another might be attracted to the smell of the grain mashing and come running on in like the last one did. I don't store any grains in the garage because I buy my recipes as I brew them so there is no worry of that.

So fox piss...say I get some of this and spread it at the bottom of the driveway before I begin a brew...this will keep them away? Or maybe i'm just paranoid and the chance of them actually come into the garage again are next to nothing.

I have no idea if it works but I see fake owls sold in stores that are supposed to "scare away pests"...there are also sonic pest repellents that you plug in...

As for baiting up a bunch of traps and the mouse getting the bait...try using peanut butter and get it inside the bait holder part.

I do not suggest handling "fox urine" or any urine for that matter, leave that for BMC...

There's probably more than one mouse now and those sunsabitches breed like crazy. Before you know it, there will be mulitple pairs of eyes staring at you from every angle.

This is true. They're going to have you surrounded at some point. Can you feel everything closing in around you? I can feel it closing in around you.

ultravista said:

There's probably more than one mouse now and those sunsabitches breed like crazy. Before you know it, there will be mulitple pairs of eyes staring at you from every angle.

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ryandlf said:

I set out about 10 traps...caught the rodent but he got away and then proceeded to taunt me by eating the bait off every trap I set for two nights in a row

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Don't know if you can find it but the best thing I ever used in a mouse trap was Bit-O-Honey candy. I soften it in the microwave, wrap it around the bait bar, and when it hardens a mouse has to really gnaw on it....setting off the trap.

you must now stand on a chair when you brew

Advice in here is generally good. Store everything in SEALED containers. Mice will eat through polyethylene lids, so put on aluminum foil then put the lid on. They won't touch aluminum foil.

You mention traps. I used traps for years, and then found that rodent baits (I now use Tom Cat) are much more effective.

Certain critters you will always have around you (mice, rats, roaches, ants) because we leave so much stuff around they like to eat. The more you can minimize their groceries, the less they will be around. Obviously, be very accommodating toward animals like snakes, because they are a major consumer of rodents (this is obviously more practical out in a rural area where we live than in the environment you describe).

Well there are no more mice...I know because I still have a ton of traps out that have been empty for weeks now. But thanks for trying to freak me out I am very good about not keeping anything in my garage that they can eat. I do not store grain in the garage or any other type of food for that matter. Its more or less I don't want them coming in when I am brewing with the garage door open in the future. I was hoping for an answer sort of like...just plug in this little do dad here and they won't come anywhere near the garage. Or plant a couple mint plants in planters outside the door and they will stay away etc etc. Just didn't know what was real and what was snake oil.

Mice are going to go into your house regardless of brewing.

ryandlf said:

Well there are no more mice...I know because I still have a ton of traps out that have been empty for weeks now. But thanks for trying to freak me out I am very good about not keeping anything in my garage that they can eat. I do not store grain in the garage or any other type of food for that matter. Its more or less I don't want them coming in when I am brewing with the garage door open in the future. I was hoping for an answer sort of like...just plug in this little do dad here and they won't come anywhere near the garage. Or plant a couple mint plants in planters outside the door and they will stay away etc etc. Just didn't know what was real and what was snake oil.

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It sounds like you're already doing most things correctly. Be scrupulous about securing any food- water doesn't work because mice don't really drink, they get almost all their water from their food.

As "doctorRobert" points out, you're going to have some mice come in anyway, just exploring. In your condo environment, I promise that there's no way you can stop them altogether, because you can't control the habits of your neighbors.

We have the advantage of living in a rural area with respect to neighbors, therefore I am able to control their access to man-food. As an illustration, we almost never have ants around here, because I am scrupulous about controlling sugar or anything containing sugar. All food containers are washed and rinsed before being placed in recycling. Unrinsed beer bottles are the perfect ant attractant, because of the aromatics from fermentation (which is what really attracts ants when sugar is spilled).

Don't give the varmints the food they need, and you will keep them to a minimum, although you'll never eliminate them altogether. Also, all the ultrasonic gadgets and herbal repellents are scams, IMHO. You can try the dodge of attempting to plug all cracks and holes with steel wool to keep them out (they won't chew through steel wool), but over the years I've done a lot of that, to no apparent effect.

Being a New York City resident, I have had my fair share of pests. The sonic things don't work. The best thing I have ever found is the Rat Zapper (about $60 on amazon). I can't rave enough about it. Kills instantly and no messy cleanup, just dump it into a plastic bag.

When you check the trap and the kill light is on, it is like Christmas f'n morning.

I've seen something that you plug into an outlet that makes a high pitch noise which humans can't hear. I haven't seen them around in a couple years but I think it was for mice. Who knows if it really works though. I never tried it, just recall seeing something like that.

biochemedic said:

Get a cat...

...and grow a pair of balls, dude!

(J/K...you asked for it! )

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This was actually a common practice in many breweries. Theres even a British brand 'Old Tom', named after a cat they had around to hunt down the mice.

There's not a lot you can do to keep them away in your situation. You are doing the 2 things that you can't do if you want to eliminate rodent problems. 1) You are providing a food source (grains, wort, whatever). 2) You are giving them a way in by leaving the garage open.

If you are going to do those 2 things, you will never be mouse free. The best thing you can do is get a few bait stations and a bucket of poison blocks and put the stations at 10-15 ft intervals around the outside of your garage. It gives the mice a food source to go after before they enter your garage. It won't eliminate the problem. Nothing will eliminate the problem in your situation. But, it will reduce the problem.

Ultra sonics don't work in my vast mousing experience.I sympathise with you though.I can't stand the thought of all thse beady little eyes watching me all the time and not knowing if they are just beer mice or if they are after bigger game,like my pant legs!!

superjunior said:

you must now stand on a chair when you brew

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...and be ready to pull your skirts up and scream if you see a MOUSE!

doctorRobert said:

Mice are going to go into your house regardless of brewing.

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This.

You don't need to have food laying around or gaping holes in the exterior walls. Your house is warm and dry, like everyone else's house. And like everyone else's house, your house likely has at least one fuzzy little guy in the crawl space or the attic going about his little mouse business.

Get a cat or get a ferret. Both will eat the mice and the ferret gives off a smell that will keep them from coming in the first place.

BTW: If you go the ferret route, get a female. A male will stink enough to bother you too even after "surgery".

Mice don't want to show themselves. If you see one while you a generating a hell of a racket (for a mouse's ears), and belching out tons of steam and fumes from a roaring cauldron, then chances are it's so scared, it ran out of it's hiding spot. It's not because it sauntered in off the street for a quick bite.

If that's the case, I argue that the solution is to brew 2 or 3 times a WEEK!!!!!

p.s. I have smelled 'ferret', and I'd rather have a mouse as a resident.

ultravista said:

There's probably more than one mouse now and those sunsabitches breed like crazy. Before you know it, there will be mulitple pairs of eyes staring at you from every angle.

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You are a rotten, evil bastard, Sir!

1. clean. get rid of any food source.

2. learn how to bait a trap. if you put a big wad of cheese or peanut butter up there, they can pick it off. you gotta spread it thin, and put it somewhere on the trap where the mouse has to work for it.