Rodent infested hay

JimS · Aug 9, 2016

What are the hazards of rodent infested hay? We try to use up all the hay we purchase rotating old bales out. The people we work for want us to leave hay in the barn for a cat. These bales become infested with rodent, mainly mice, and in the winter, the bottom bales become moisture laden and rot. I know moisture in hay is a good way to start a fire. I am familiar with Hantavirus and

coshoo · Aug 10, 2016

You don't need to worry about a fire. Spontaneous combustion in hay only occurs when there is internal moisture from not drying sufficiently before baling. Moisture from external sources later will just cause it to rot, not combust.

ericlb · Aug 10, 2016

we keep a cat or 3 in the hay shed here, [ cats stink about as much as mice and rats] they use that hay as a litterbox too, hay needs to be on something to keep, pallets, timbers ect, not setting on the ground if bales get wet it may still rot, ours does once in awhile if i see it i pull that bale out to prevent it spreading, losing a couple is expensive, loosing a bunch is well id have to take up another line of work, hantavirus was found in my state in the northwest corner of nm, as far as ive seen its still contained more or less to that area, a small number of mice may get transported out of the area but its not that widespread, that being said mice and rats carry other diseases too . human contact with them in a barn is best contained to the business end of a 410 shotgun

farmerwithmutt · Aug 10, 2016

Feed the hay. Place I worked for guy felt sorry for the stray cats and he found an old cabinet for the cats he put a sheet of plastic over where the door was so they could come and go. He also had a heat lamp in there and those cats had it made. Only problem was it was in a warehouse in downtown dubuque there got to be a lot of cats plus they had a heated room to keep the forklift at night it was fun to send the new guy for the forklift because as soon as those cats heard a noise they headed for the door at least 5 to 15 plus cats screaming and headed for the door fortunately nobody had a heart attack

Ken Macfarlane · Aug 11, 2016

Not completely true, but ground moisture usually comes in slow enough to just rot. A big dump of water into the middle of a pile can cause heating.

Rodent infested hay

JimS

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coshoo

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ericlb

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farmerwithmutt

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Ken Macfarlane

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