>  I now use slightly over-long wooden entrance reducers which
>must be tapped into place with a hive tool or rubber hammer.
>
>I saw at least two of the store-bought "loose" entrance
>reducers pushed aside in some of these rodent-invasion cases.


Skunks and raccoons will pull loose fitting wooden entrance reducers out
with their claws., and mice will enlarge the entrance with their teeth. I
prefer to use a 1/2" hardware cloth wedge. The springyness of the wire
holds it in firmly...no hammer needed. I think the screen better than
"reducers." The colony stays drier. In the spring, the bees can clean out
the dead bees on the bottom board much more easily...witness the bottom
board debris. Dead bees piled up with reducers, nearly absent with screens.

Mike