AzoMittle Posted August 20, 2017 Posted August 20, 2017 Wasn't sure where to post this. Anyways, I needed some burst media, figured others would too. Here's the cheapest I was able to find that will ship to non-commercial address: http://www.7springsfarm.com/rice-hulls-soil-amendment-50-lb/ $20 for 50lb (+ ~$45 in S&H) They also offer full pallets of 16 50lb bags for $208 for those that would go through that much.
MrB Posted August 20, 2017 Posted August 20, 2017 Never knew they used it there. I know they use it in beer-making, which have lately been how i source mine.
Skysurfer Posted August 21, 2017 Posted August 21, 2017 Recently got some from the home brew supply, fortunate to have one of the larger online retailers actually located just a few blocks from work so I can pick up (yes I buy brewing stuff from them too). In a brief conversation I'm apparently not the only one that buys them for non brewing purposes. I used wheat chaff/husks years ago since it was readily available as far as I know it doesn't have any secondary purpose.
starxplor Posted August 22, 2017 Posted August 22, 2017 For those new to rice hulls, be careful how you store them. We had some animal chew into the heavy plastic bag they were in and leave a trail of hulls to a hole that is now patched. I hope it was one of the animals our terrier got a hold of in the spring, heh.
AzoMittle Posted September 1, 2017 Author Posted September 1, 2017 The critters also love to go after dextrin / corn starch / SGRS. If you can put them in hard plastic tubs (like tupperware, or Costco sells some great large bins) instead of ziplocs or cloth. They will chew right through the soft stuff but the leave the hard stuff alone. So 7 Springs sent my rice hulls right away, with a tracking number. UPS claims they were delivered to my front porch on 8/28. It's a 50lb (7 cubic feet) package, almost the same size as my porch, they were never delivered. I filed a claim with UPS but god only knows what's going to come of that, they didn't even provide a claim number. It's not 7 Springs fault but all the same, I'm not a happy camper; running out of time before the next club shoot. Usually have no issues with UPS but gosh'darnit
AllisterF Posted September 1, 2017 Posted September 1, 2017 From owning livestock and knowing other people that use rice hulls for litter, check around your farm/fleet type stores or grain mills as well, it's very regionally dependent but if you are in a region that is grows rice or processes rice you might be able to get them from a local farm/fleet store or grain mill for chump change and no shipping... I have a friend down South (US) that says get rice hulls for about $5-$7 a 40-50lb bag at the local grain mills, around me wood shavings are king of livestock litter so the farm supply stores will laugh at you if you want to ship in rice hulls for litter but in some regions rice hulls are king apparently...
AllisterF Posted September 1, 2017 Posted September 1, 2017 For those new to rice hulls, be careful how you store them. We had some animal chew into the heavy plastic bag they were in and leave a trail of hulls to a hole that is now patched. I hope it was one of the animals our terrier got a hold of in the spring, heh. Old fashion metal trash cans are king for storage of stuff critters like to get into, a great low cost investment... If you silicone around the lid handle they are even weather resistant...
starxplor Posted September 1, 2017 Posted September 1, 2017 (edited) Old fashion metal trash cans are king for storage of stuff critters like to get into, a great low cost investment... If you silicone around the lid handle they are even weather resistant... Yeah, I just didn't realize they were getting into my shed. They are now kept in a plastic container instead of the bag they were shipped in. What I have fits in a small container, not a giant bale of the stuff to put in a trash can, heh. Edited September 1, 2017 by starxplor
AllisterF Posted September 1, 2017 Posted September 1, 2017 Yeah, I just didn't realize they were getting into my shed. They are now kept in a plastic container instead of the bag they were shipped in. What I have fits in a small container, not a giant bale of the stuff to put in a trash can, heh. I have found plastic isn't always the best deterrent for rodents, I have plenty of 'Rubbermaid' containers with nice clean 1" round holes chewed in them by mice to prove that, and those containers never even contained food... As well as having tossed many plastic garbage cans in the trash after squirrels, possums, coons or whatever chewed through the the lids... For small amounts of this or that like rice hulls, metal cookie tins work quite well and can be bought cheap during the holidays or at resale shops like Goodwill... Of course it all depends on how 'infested' and devoted the critters are around your house, I live on a farm so the critters are well aware there is 'food' to be found and because it's rural they are out in copious numbers... For this reason as much as it's inconvenient I actually keep a lot of my livestock food stacked in the house, because if I put it in an outbuilding unprotected chances are I will find the bags chewed through in under 24 hours...
OldMarine Posted September 1, 2017 Posted September 1, 2017 Allister, what you need are some fine mouse-munching felines and it just so happens I have a surplus. I can have a four-pack headed your way tomorrow!
AllisterF Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 (edited) Allister, what you need are some fine mouse-munching felines and it just so happens I have a surplus. I can have a four-pack headed your way tomorrow! I don't get along with barn cats, can't stand the smell of them urinating or peeing on everything, or making litter boxes in the most inappropriate places... I know it's mostly the males that do the spraying but in my life I have had no shortage of females peeing on things as well and/or attracting males from who knows where to come and spray on things... I tolerate house cats fine as long as they are 100% behaved... Plus I raise racing homer pigeons, standard chickens, bantam chickens, guinea fowl as well as peafowl and don't want to have baby or small birds go missing... Thus excluding the cats from where the birds live and have access to really defeats their purpose as that is where many of the mice take shelter as well... Edited September 2, 2017 by AllisterF
WonderBoy Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 A hardware store near me used to carry that PBH brand, bought a bale for myself and a few more for some other club members. Organic farmers like it I guess? They said it was a seasonal product, but could order it in for me. A bail goes a long way, it's really packed in there. WB
OldMarine Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 I get my hulls in paper bags and store them in those bags inside screen lined milk crates. Since they stack I only have to put a plywood lid on the top crate. My production is small so I only have 5 crates at any given time and If I grow in the future I think I'd go with the galvanized can as mentioned above.
starxplor Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 Of course it all depends on how 'infested' and devoted the critters are around your house... Yeah, I live in a suburban area and have an awesome Cairn terrier that loves to catch critters. I was surprised anything small enough to get into the shed survived our yard (likely was in winter, had a few big snow storms that might have lessened his effectiveness).
MrB Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 The perfect cat. No pee, no noise, just body cleanup. http://www.swissinno.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_MF_Web_EN_17-02_70a2992a71.jpg Also... Don't buy the bait stick replacements. Just put peanut butter, jam, or similar stuff on the old one, if it seams less effective.
AllisterF Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 (edited) The perfect cat. No pee, no noise, just body cleanup. Small snap traps work great in 'sealed' buildings, but in barns where a door is open 24/7 for the livestock and even when closed the doors don't actually seal it doesn't work I would be emptying them every hour and still never keep up with the flow of mice coming in from the fields... I have built 5 gallon bucket roller traps and I can catch handfuls of mice every day, but you still find them getting into stuff... After taking care of the skunk that setup shop in the barn over the winter, I have been dealing with a tenacious family of woodchucks that moved in to fill the vacancy... Set up live traps, caught one younger one then the rest of the family wised up and never took the bait... Setup some dead fall conibear traps, again took out one young one then the rest wised up and seem to avoid any hole I place the conibear in no matte how well I try to disguise it... I go out once a week and find all the new holes they have dug around the barn, wait until night, toss in smoke bombs and then back fill the holes, seems to send them the message to the survivors for about a week, then they return... Also have taken out several with firearms over the summer, but shooting inside the barn and/or right along side the barn with livestock in the immediate areas is something that I try to avoid... I would love to let the dog loose in the pasture around the barn, but my llamas barely tolerate the dog when there is a fence between them, I have no doubt they would take out the dog if it was allowed to roam the pasture... All in all it's just the price to pay for living on a farm, if I don't want the rodents to get into anything I have to keep it in the house or in the finished office above the garage... On that subject I have been tossing up the idea of getting a 40 foot shipping container to use as a shed for stuff I don't want rodents to gain access to like livestock feeds and such, since they are solid metal and literally airtight when shut it's a pretty solid solution,and will make the wife happy that 50lb feed bags are no longer piled in the corner of the back room of the house... Edited September 2, 2017 by AllisterF
MrB Posted September 2, 2017 Posted September 2, 2017 Fair enough. I tend to keep my pyro stuffs under lock and key, No problems with a few traps at that point.
AzoMittle Posted September 2, 2017 Author Posted September 2, 2017 The (unofficial) advice of a professional pest/rodent management technician: 1) Do a THOROUGH site analysis. While rodents can collapse their bodies down and squeeze through tight holes they are like us in that they can't pass through solid walls, they are getting in somewhere. If you can fit your whole finger through the crack then chances are a rat can get through, if you can kind of sort of get part of your finger in then chances are a mouse can get in. Check under and around doors (from both sides), along piping/conduit (especially if it passes through walls, and ventilation; also walk around the whole building (inside and out) pulling stuff away from walls and look for cracks. 2) Weather strip your doors and caulk around windows, add mesh to any any other openings such as ventilation. For gophers, moles, voles, and ground squirrels: if possible add mesh about a foot or two deep around the building, or a concrete trench. 3) Limit access to the area. For example, if you have a barn or shed out back try to make sure you are the only one with keys to it, and keep it locked. Perhaps the SO 'just needs to borrow' something, well they go out to do so and leave the door open for even just a minute or two while looking around and it won't matter if the rest of the building is sealed up, that critter will scurry in. 4) Place effective traps. Rodents have incredibly poor eyesight, they 'discover' buildings and rooms by running along the edges of walls using their whiskers to find their way. Therefore, you usually (not always) want to place your traps along the walls, pushed against them, with the entrances parallel to the walls. This is part of where the whole site analysis thing comes in, figure out where they are getting in, figure out where they are going (usually a food source) and place the traps in between the two. Don't bother with anything fancy, your standard old school rat traps are the most effective. You want to place them firstly along the path of travel and then secondly in clusters of about 2 to 5 around any entrances, especially attic or crawlspace access. 5) Use traps, not bait. Rodents (all critters really, including ants, roaches, mice, etc etc) are about as lazy as one can be. They will find a nearby food source and stick with it. If you have food in your fridge are you going to go out to the grocery store? No. So, make it hard for them. Move anything they want to munch on into solid sealed containers, if possible move it out of the area. The baits you can buy at the home supply stores are absolutely worthless, they will just munch on that like popcorn, the good stuff you either can't get anymore or need a license for. Buy those old school snapping rat traps (mice can get around these sometimes, if you think it is mice then get a combination of the large and small traps), and bait them with RAISINS, raisins are by and far the cheapest and most effective bait, rodents go nuts for them, more so than peanut butter or cheese or whatever else people recommend, trust me on this one. 6) If you aren't getting any results, call in an expert, they are cheaper than you may think.
MrB Posted September 3, 2017 Posted September 3, 2017 Buy those old school snapping rat traps (mice can get around these sometimes, if you think it is mice then get a combination of the large and small traps), and bait them with RAISINS, raisins are by and far the cheapest and most effective bait, rodents go nuts for them, more so than peanut butter or cheese or whatever else people recommend, trust me on this one. Raisins work great, but not for the perfect cat. No hook to push them on to. Hence peanut butter, which works very well, but dries. Cheese is rubbish.
Recommended Posts