ARE YOU BEING WATCHED?
By Art Onweller

The best part of owning a boat is having the ability to travel, visit friends, sight see, hit lakeside restaurants, or just get away for awhile. In our experience, all these activities involve mooring or docking at remote locations. And while you might not be aware of being watched, you are.

Field mice, rats and other vermin are always looking for food and shelter; boats make great homes.  They frequently use mooring lines or utility cables as an open passage way to climb on board - hence the birth of OFFBOARD™ Vermin Restriction Shields to "keep pests from being guests."

Vermin eat plastic covered wiring to get the salt content in the plastic. A rat can raise havoc by shorting out wiring and can even destroy electronic equipment and wiring systems.

Vermin are also responsible for the spread of many diseases by transmitting them directly or by contaminating food with their urine and feces. It is well known that vermin can have fleas that carry bubonic plague. Another example is the Deer Mouse, it can carry the Sin Nombre Hantavirus. A single vermin may produce 50 droppings daily. Within a few weeks droppings will become gray, dusty, and crumble easily. In a recent study in Colorado, of those that contract Hantavirus, the death rate is 48 percent. Sometimes vermin will carry the Salmonella bacteria and will leave it in their droppings on dishes, silverware, or food preparation surfaces, thereby transmitting Salmonella to humans.

Where (and when) to find the Rat Pack
You may not ever see rats or mic on or near your boat, however, they are typically nocturnal creatures and are most active when we're not. They are social animals and some species live in colonies. Outdoors rats and mice constantly travel the same route. They mark their trails with urine so that they can return to sites where food can be found. An ultraviolet light can be used to determine if vermin have "visited" the boat. Both wet and dry urine stains will glow blue-white when under the light.

Cleaning Up After Unwanted Guests
Once rats are on-board the boat owner has a real problem. Once a food is identified rats/mice will try to establish a nest. A female can give birth to as many as 4 to 6 at a time and as often as five to six times a year. Upon finding a nest, the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) strongly suggests:

• Never sweep or vacuum mouse droppings and dust or debris in mouse activity areas.
• Wear a respirator equipped with a High Efficiency Purifying Air (HEPA) filter as well as un-vented protective goggles, and impermeable latex or rubber gloves.
• Soak mouse droppings and dusty areas with an EPA-registered disinfectant then wipe up with paper towels. Place the soiled towels in a sealed plastic bag and dispose in an outdoor trash receptacle.
• Clean protective equipment with the EPA-registered disinfectant, then again with soap and water, and allow to air dry.

Keeping Rats, Mice and other Cristter from Gaining Access to you Boat or House

Here are a few ways we suggest to keep vermin from gaining access to your boat via the mooring lines:

• Never put your boat in the water - What fun!
• Never moor your boat - Sometimes effective but with rats' ability to swim, this strategy has a loophole or should we say a potential wet gangplank to your boat.
• Use poison and traps - Keep the traps in a dark place, and be sure that all shipmates know where the traps are set. Traps hurt fingers. Poison will effectively kill onboard vermin. Once they've ingested the poison, they crawl off to hide and die. Then it's up to you to find them. The problems here will be the stench and the possibility that you may not be able to get to them.
• Keep a cat on-board - That is along with the litter box, food, water, etc. And, everyone knows how cats love water. Mine don't.
• Use a pest restriction device on the mooring line to block access. Keeping vermin off the boat is the best solution.

Best Restriction Devices
We have heard of a number of devices that attach to mooring lines. The old favorite is a paper plate with duck tape. It is the most often mentioned, but it gets wet or when the winds blow, it flops, lies flat on the rope or floats away.

Benefits of using OFFBOARD®:

• It easily fits on mooring lines and utility cables of various sizes.
• Can be inserted or removed on a mooring line that is in use. First secure the boat, and then attach the devices where they are most effective.
• The devices will always remain perpendicular to the mooring line even when the line is in the water.
• They can be locked to prevent theft in an unattended environment.
• They will not dent or bend with repeated use.
• They can be stored safely when not in use.
• They can be used in both fresh as well as salt water environments.

Art Onweller is President of Foothills Products, Inc., which manufactures the OFFBOARD®  products. He can be reached at 303-674-9559 or reach him via email. Copyright 2003, Foothills Products, Inc. All rights reserved.