A Friendly Tip: Be on the Lookout for These Unwanted Visitors

If you're like me and store your boat at West Neck Marina, you might be well-served to take a hard look around for traces of these little critters the next time you're at or in your boat. I've got 'em in mine, and I have a real hard time believing I'm the only one plagued with this problem. I've never carried snacks in my boat, so I'm not sure what the attractant is/was in my case.

This isn't my first run-in with field mice in my boat at West Neck, but I have to say that these latest critters seem to be a tad smarter than others I've done battle with in the past. The new "crop" is simply pushing my baited traps out of the way, and/or in some cases, stealing the bait without activating the trap. And please be assured, these baits all have hair triggers--my sore fingers are a testament to that fact.

After having about two dozen traps set in my boat for two weeks now, I've only thus far caught one of the critters. For that reason, I called A-Active Exterminators and had one of their reps join me at my boat yesterday for any advice they might have to accommplish my mission. The fella who showed up told me I had set up my "mine field" correctly. However, he had a couple other suggestions for me, starting with plugging as many holes as possible in and around my storage shed. He recommended that I pour gravel around the full outside perimeter and then use either spray foam or steel wool to plug all other possible entrances. "If you have a hole the size of a nickel, a mouse can get in," he said. And, since I can padlock my metal shed (to keep pets and kids out), he also encouraged me to put some poison around the inside perimeter.

A friend I had talked to yesterday told me about some green blocks of poison you could buy by the bag. These blocks had helped rid a problem he had, so I placed eight of them yesterday before I left my shed. And just like my friend had said would happen, two of the blocks had been completely devoured--with not a single trace left behind, I'm here to tell you--by the time I got to the shed this morning, and a couple more showed signs of overnight activity.

The A-Active rep told me yesterday that they've been getting a lot of calls from people in the vicinity of West Neck here recently with mice problems. According to the rep, our mild winter last year, coupled with moist conditions here lately, are mostly to blame for the situation.

In any event, I urge you to check your boat if you happen to store it at West Neck--unless, that is, you don't mind having uninvited guests.

Incidentally, I have to share something that happened to me this morning while I was checking the traps on my boat. I had raised the lid on the rear deck to check the traps in the bilge, and as I shined a flashlight in there, I noticed the dark-colored tail of something slightly wedged between the side of the gas tank and the side of the oil reservoir. You probably can guess what I was thinking it might be. Knowing that if it were a snake, I had to get it out, I mustered the courage to stick a knife in its tail. When no battle ensued, I dragged "it" out, and "it" turned out to be a rubber worm that somehow had migrated to the bilge. I breathed a sigh of relief as I removed the worm and gently closed the lid, so as not to set off one of the mouse traps.