The mice have arrived.

Well, the mice have finally found my vehicles.
The discovery started with the wife’s Sequoia. She had a couple of bags of coffee in the floor board that were chewed up. So I pulled cabin air filter and it was full of chewed up napkins. Saw some napkins under the outside fresh air grill that I will have to remove later.

Decided I better inspect my 4Runner and discovered that the cabin air filter was chewed up. Also found some mouse poop in my engine compartment.

Her car is running fine and I thoroughly inspected under the hood and I didn’t see any wiring damage.

So we’re going to have to get a couple of new cabin air filters.

Both engine air filters were fine.
I believe I read on this forum that peppermint spray works as a deterrent? Yes?

She had a couple of candy canes in her car and they were untouched.

 

I’ve had better luck with Ozium spray. Or so it seems.

 

Anything that smells strongly will repel them.

The places where you really can’t do anything about them is all the wiring under the hood, and that’s where they can do the most damage.

 

I pee on and around my truck every night

 

This might be the only way to keep them away.

But it’s also worth trying to coat your underside with Woolwax (to be clear, the vehicles’ underside). My theory is that if I were a rat, I wouldnt want to climb aboard if it meant my paws and fur would get all greasy.

 

lol. we get a ton of fox crap on our driveway and along a critter path. i used to go out and pee on their turds just to mess with their heads.

 

I have heard the same thing about the peppermint spray. Has anyone out there used it? To what effect? Great pics Slopemaster! And for you other guys, I just can't pee on my truck.

 

I also pee on and around your truck every night

 

I cleaned up the paper napkins from the sequoia fan and out from under the fresh air grill inlet. Couldn’t find any physical damage to that vehicle.

The only damage on my 4Runner was the cabin air filter that is slightly chewed up.

I guess we got lucky, for now. We’ve never had a mice problem in our house or the garage pantry where we keep dry goods, which we checked this morning, no signs of mice.

I wonder if I picked up a silent passenger (mouse) last week when I was off roading. I was parked in the desert for several hours.

 

I find it simply amazing that a little mouse grabbed some paper napkins from inside the car and drug them through the ventilation system to the outside fresh air inlet area.

 

• Best prevention is get a working cat. Put a night lite in your garage or barn and problem solved....

• Sealing your garage floor, keeping it clean of floor clutter, and regular sweeping helps.

• WD40 sprayed regularly around the gaps and holes of your garage is a deterrent.

• Keep Mothballs inside your garage on the corners.

Here are some other alternatives:

• Shoot your local pedophile or child molester.

• Hang dead rats in the back yard so they know who's boss.

• Drink the yolk of an eagle egg.

 

Dont underestimate the little turd lickers. My friend's son just totaled his Jeep. They ate wiring and set a fire in the engine bay.

 

BTW, I was not kidding on the working cat thing:



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/realestate/feral-cats-working-cat.html

 

I wash the engine bay down with degreaser and give it a good rinse.

you need to get rid of the urine smell they use to return to the scene of the crime


Then poisons are placed around the parking area

 

We have one, but the wife felt sorry for him so now he’s a fat ass who sleeps around the yard and squirrels can come with 1 foot of him passed out on his back and yell at him without him doing anything.

 

Man even cats getting government handouts

 

My buddies 4Runner was totaled after the little bastards chewed the transmission harness. It shorted out the solenoids and grenaded the trans and did some damage to the engine internals as well. Scary shit...
Apparently they had nested up on the bell housing. IMO this makes a necessity of cleaning the engine bay and as much of the transmission as you can. Then hit it all with peppermint spray.

 

Some local idiot kept getting kittens then releasing them into the neighborhood when they got big. We had over 20 breeders at one point. Courtesy of coyotes and a concerned neighbor who started a TNR program we are down to 5. They are fed and sleep in my garage. They leave me a rodent “gift” every couple weeks.

 

Now that’s a scary story?

 

Jy we can have a piss party just supply the beer and we and make sure even the bears will stay away
No seriously buy a box of bounce dryer sheets and leave them around the engine compartment and under the dash it’s worked for me and they smell good too

 

I use this;

1. Rodent repellent. I think its pretty much mint essential oil.
2. Ultra sound frequency things (4) around the garage.
3. Mouse trap - none killing one per Amazon but the one I caught was dead.

 

I have had pretty good luck so far with peppermint oil spray.

 

Feral/barn cats will continue to hunt rodents if they are fed.

In fact it’s better to feed them so they don’t eat rodents and get poisoned or get parasites.

The problem comes when you overfeed them and they get too fat to give a damn about anything.

 

Don't tell my wife that the "Humane" mouse trap killed the mouse.. LoL. I told her that I released to the front yard which I berried the fella..

 

I didn’t state it earlier but both vehicles were in the garage not that it makes a difference. It’s just unsettling to have this experience.

I wonder how and why they are motivated and attracted enough to climb up a tire and find their way into the fresh air vent?

I could understand if my truck’s interior was littered with fast food wrapper’s but I keep the interior spotless. I don’t even keep a stick of gum in there.

 

Humane kill traps where rodents are concerned, are fine imo. But, if you dont kill them? Your asking for trouble.
It's not like they're endangered.....

 

We use fragrance free dryer sheets. Would they work or do you need the ones that trigger my hay fever?

 

I think its the fragrance that repels them, which is why peppermint helps.

 

My wife is a very religious person so she is against any kind of killing or even fishing. She even get unhappy when I kill a fly got inside the house in summer days. So I had to hide that the mouse was dead and the fellow was released..

I suspect its the bird feed stuff stored in the garage attracted the mouse. Lucky I saw the fellow before he get in to the cars.

Edit - BTW those bird food are for free birds, we don't have any pet birds.

 

I’d say that if killing a mouse is the worst thing you keep from your wife, your a good man.