Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

Mark42

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Every winter its the same thing. Mice always make nests on and around the car motors. We keep our cars in a garage, and that probably makes it even more convenient for the mice. They seem to be attracted to the heat of the motor when the car is parked.

The problem is that the mice often start chewing on the wires and doing damage.

This year I decided to do something besides putting poison and traps in the garage. Remembering how well moth balls keep the mice out of the boats over the winter, I decided to try it with my Firebird. After taking the shop vac and sucking out the 3rd nest on the intake manifold, I found that they chewed through the wire loom (but not the wires themselves, thank goodness). So I took some cloth and moth balls and made two small bags and tied one onto the intake manifold, and another to the fender well.

This has been working very well. No sign of mice at all. No nest materials and no droppings anywhere under the hood. I don't smell the moth balls when driving the car, except occasionally when stuck in stop and go traffic. The garage really smells of moth balls after shutting the car off, and that might be helping to keep the mice out of the garage all together, seeing as they haven't been eating the poison lately.

Should have done this years ago.
 

WSUDERMAN

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

I have had the same problem @ my in-laws, they did about 300$ damage to my wife's VW. So, they found out from the neighbors that dryer sheets work well and smell better!. Now the first thing do when we get there is grab 4-5 sheets and just stuff them in areas around the engine compartment. So far we have not had another issue.
Wes
 

robert graham

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

I've also heard the dryer sheets work pretty darn well. Maybe moth balls? Maybe both?
 

tswiczko

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

Sounds like you need a hungry cat
 

MTboatguy

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

I use Moth balls year around where I live, the pack rats are horrible, most of us here in NW Montana own shares in Moth Ball companies! I also use the hangable discs that you put in closets, they are hung from the rafters in the garage, they smell a bit, but seem to do the job.
I tried the dryer sheet route and for me, it was like there was nothing there.

I will put up with the smell of the Moth balls, to stop the damage those little monsters do!
 

Bob_VT

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

Ahh I love the smell of naphthalene in the morning!!! I use it it in special effects works.
 

roscoe

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

Ahh I love the smell of naphthalene in the morning!!! I use it it in special effects works.


I put it in a bag and take a hit off it once in a while lol
 

dlindeblad

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

The garage really smells of moth balls...

I'm just curious, how did you get their little legs apart to smell them???

Sorry man couldn't resist. For some reason mice love to make nests under the hood. Had one in my air filter pan on top of the carb. They even had corn and hazlenut shell in there.
 

Bob_VT

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

Remember these pictures ...... these were from a Toyota Tundra in VT about 5 years ago that would not run and was brought to the dealership. A mouse got stuck in the air pump...... truck died and so did the mouse :( Obvious the mouse was living under that warm intake manifold for some time.

mouse4.jpg


mouse3.jpg


mouse2.jpg


mouse1.jpg
 

Mark42

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Re: Got mice under the hood of your car/truck?

I'm just curious, how did you get their little legs apart to smell them???

Sorry man couldn't resist. For some reason mice love to make nests under the hood. Had one in my air filter pan on top of the carb. They even had corn and hazlenut shell in there.

LOL!! Yeah, they are a problem. I stopped putting out full "trays" of poison because when the mice found it, they would just ferry it into the air filter housings of the cars. For some reason, the mice around here like air filter housings! Don't know why.... But that is the reason I only put out a spoon full of poison. A small amount they will eat on the spot. A big find they will store away, wasting your money.

Remember these pictures ...... these were from a Toyota Tundra in VT about 5 years ago that would not run and was brought to the dealership. A mouse got stuck in the air pump...... truck died and so did the mouse :( Obvious the mouse was living under that warm intake manifold for some time.

mouse4.jpg


mouse3.jpg


mouse2.jpg


mouse1.jpg

OMG!!!! What a mess! Plus think of the extra cooling that was lost due to the layer of mice "stuff". If the valley was clean, it would act as a radiator, but full of mouse stuff, it is keeping the oil hot!!!!

The mice are free to roam in my yard. When the come in the garage, they die from the poison. Otherwise they end up in the bathrooms and bedrooms. Poison in the garage prevents them from migrating to the second story attic, and then down into the second story bedrooms (where we have seen them in a past bad infestation).

Once you go through a mouse infestation, you have no problems poisoning them. Spring traps work well too, but require you go get the dead animal...
 
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