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<DIV>Hi Paul</DIV>
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<DIV>Sorry to hear of the problems. I’ve had some experience with the
furry little ...... Your quest is multi layered. Supply, trap and
restrict access. That’s the order of successfulness that I’ve
experienced. </DIV>
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<DIV>There’s food for them evidently. Eliminating the food source is level
one. I know you only have so much power to control such things in a school
setting. A mouse needs food for it’s family and bedding to sleep in.
The bedding is what the piano supplies them. </DIV>
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<DIV>My ex-wife thought peppermint oil or some such mint oil on a cotton swab
worked to deter mice. Woodstream out of Lititz, PA makes a squeeze to set
trap that I’ve never used but I have a few sitting on top of my water heater
just in case I don’t want to use the traditional type. The advantage with
the prior is safety. You can place one in the bottom of a piano without
worry of injury to the casual human visitor. Cheese turns hard with age
and I’ve found peanut butter to be longer lasting and more effective. I
use the crunchy type and actually push a part of the nut into the bait platform
making it hard for the mouse to remove.</DIV>
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<DIV>From time to time they come around here hoping to set up shop. As
soon as I see they’re calling cards I set a trap and within an hour I have my
first one. By the end of a few days I have Mom, Dad and all the
kids. Lately I’ve been lucky enough to catch Momma before she
hatches. The gestation period is only a week or so I think and so
replacement troops are easily called upon. My point here is to
maintain your focus with daily rounds. I didn’t read your bio but if
you’re there every day, check your traps, empty and resupply. </DIV>
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<DIV>It doesn’t take much of a hole for a mouse to pass through
........ half an inch/8 mm comes to mind. My kitchen is waiting for
a pile of money to fix it up so there’s lots of holes with neon signs evidently
inviting the dirty little stinkers into my life. It’s been my experience
that mice don’t like aluminum foil. Stuff the holes with foil and they’ll
dig a new one somewhere else. Installing a tin box cover over the pedal
mech would eliminate that entry point. </DIV>
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<DIV>I’m constantly concerned about mice and squirrels getting into my
shop ....... a separate building. I don’t eat any food out
there and there’s no food garbage in my waste cans. Squirrels find their
own food and make nests out of moving pads, boxes of felt supplies, and can chew
through a piano in a matter of an hour or two. The rafter tails on the
roof are a lasting record of how damaging they can be. I put up chicken
wire and they chewed through that so I put up three layers of chicken wire and
they finally stopped but I had to deal with at least two generations of
squirrels to get them and their kids reprogrammed when I first moved here.</DIV>
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<DIV>Good luck. Lar</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>