My two car garage is full of cars and "treasures" and I decided to park my Fiero outside under a car cover and tarp. The car has been invaded by mice that bring in birdseed my wife throws out for the winged rats and the mice make nests from what looks like felt from the upholstery. I have caught a few with traps but the little rascals are getting very good at eating the cheese or peanut butter from the trigger or triggering the trap and having their fill of whatever I bait it with.
I dont' want to poison them because they may die inside the car under the dash or wherever. Our garage is sealed pretty well and we have no mice there. I suspect the mice are getting in through the gaskets that seal the front compartment and the rear-whatever-it-is-called. A PFF member wants the car and if he buys it, I dont' want him to get a mousey car and I don't like dealing with it until he buys it.
First, immediately suspend your wife from here monetary allowance for bird/mouse food. Second, cease all bird feeding in the immediate area of you property. Third, post legal warning signs for the mice as to the commencement of termination of their lease due to their misuse of your property. Fourth, traps, traps, and more traps. Even put a few in your Fiero. Fifth, whenever you store a car I recommend putting some dryer sheets in various location in the car. Replace them every month or so. Mice really seem to dislike them for some reason. Sixth and lastly, adopt a cat...they seem to really like mice.
First, immediately suspend your wife from here monetary allowance for bird/mouse food. Second, cease all bird feeding in the immediate area of you property. Third, post legal warning signs for the mice as to the commencement of termination of their lease due to their misuse of your property. Fourth, traps, traps, and more traps. Even put a few in your Fiero. Fifth, whenever you store a car I recommend putting some dryer sheets in various location in the car. Replace them every month or so. Mice really seem to dislike them for some reason. Sixth and lastly, adopt a cat...they seem to really like mice.
Good ideas, especially the one about cutting my wife off from her birdseed money.
My neighbor has three feral cats that hunt on my property but I think they prefer voles and birds so the Feline Protection Association part is in place. I have two traps in the front and two in the back of the car. I posted legal warning signs but the mice wrote lewd comments on them so I had to take them down.
Wife said to give you a few ideas of what you can do with your suggestions about her money but this is a family forum and some things are better imagined and left unstated.
edit:@ VF1skullangel I worked with a grossly obese woman whose Jeep Cherokee looked like that car in the youtube video. She had garbage bags and paper bags from fast food restaurants and open beverage cups but luckily for her, she lived in BFE Colorado where roaches freeze in winter
[This message has been edited by starlightcoupe (edited 03-13-2014).]
Try putting sticky traps in the bottom of a shallow pan with peanut butter in the center. When they climb over the edge to get to the treat...OOOPS!! stuck. They'll be there and not inside your dashboard dying of laughing at your posted signs!
Piece of advice my Uncle taught me years ago about this exact same issue with the traps. Take a piece of loose string or yarn and tie it around the bait hook. Smear it heavily with peanut butter so that it is absorbed into and under the string. This gives something for their teeth to snag on and release the hellfire and damnation that will snap their destructive little necks and send them to little mouse heaven.
Hopefully you get them cleaned out before the rewire your car into a nice yard decoration!
The mice will have entered through the vents underneath the spare tire tub. You need to take apart the fan resistor assembly to vacuum out any jute padding material stuffed in the heater core area. If you don't you may end up with a ventilation fire from the hot resistor.
I use peppermint oil. I soaked 6 cotton balls in the oil. Put them in a little plastic cup and placed a cup in each compartment. Hood, cabin and engine compartments. Not one trace of a mouse all winter long.
I use peppermint oil. I soaked 6 cotton balls in the oil. Put them in a little plastic cup and placed a cup in each compartment. Hood, cabin and engine compartments. Not one trace of a mouse all winter long.
A lot of the guys on the military truck forum that I am on do this same basic thing with amazing results. Just buy a small bottle of mint oil (has to be all natural) and just take the cap off and set it in the car where it cant fall over. The smell will overwhelm the car and keep all the rodents away.
A lot of the guys on the military truck forum that I am on do this same basic thing with amazing results. Just buy a small bottle of mint oil (has to be all natural) and just take the cap off and set it in the car where it cant fall over. The smell will overwhelm the car and keep all the rodents away.
Can it do anything for the previous owner's smoking smell? My son's car needs help!
Be careful with the mint oil as in the hot sun it might become fairly permanent.
Cats are the only real answer. Everything else is just a waste of time. Why trap one when a dozen more will come up, and they will. The problem is you need the cats at your house, not next door. Having them next door will actually send them into the car because they get the cats attention then hide. Put a bowl of cat food under your car and in a week you will have attracted a feral and lost the mice. Start out with stinky canned cat food if you have.
Cats were designed by god to kill nature when it overpopulates. That's why there are so many sizes of cats to deal with the different sizes nature comes in.
Originally posted by mkiker2089: Cats were designed by god to kill nature when it overpopulates. That's why there are so many sizes of cats to deal with the different sizes nature comes in.
That is true I have been thinking of this size cat for a rodent problem my daughter is married to
Thanks for all the replies. I personally can't stand cats but they hunt on a small acre of land away from my house and never come close. My Aussie dog chases them away. The replies were varied as the ways people have for dealing with mice and I will try some if not all of the suggestions. Except parking the Fiero in the garage before I find the mouse. We had a fair size snake in there for awhile but he died from the lack of mice or bugs. He was a stinking mess and another mess to dispose of too.
Personally, I'd rather be back at 7500' in Black Forest Colorado where we had no bugs and only one mouse in the 20 years we lived there. We just had to worry about fires.
Thanks for all the replies. I personally can't stand cats but they hunt on a small acre of land away from my house and never come close. My Aussie dog chases...
That right there is why you have mice. Cats keep them in check except where you have a dog to keep the cats away. You've accidentally created a sanctuary for them.
You have to use nature against itself. Lease the dog, get a cat, kill the mice. Barring that then you are back to making the car unpleasant for mice. Smell is an idea but it's hard to pull off. You may be able to use ultrasonic sound since dog hearing is inferior to mice. Just set it carefully.
We had the Cat, who is a very patient mouser, first. Then we got a Mini Aussie Pup. We have overgrown wetlands one lot away. Been here over a year an have not had to break out traps or bait yet.
My neighbor's cats have worn a path across my property to get to their hunting ground(s). I need to use the car and do some work on it before I sell it so I'll go for a 200 mile trip and when I return, I'll park the Fiero next to the cat's path which is about 200 feet from the bird's happy hunting ground. I think the cats will either catch the mice (I'll use one suggestion to put some cat food under the car) or scare them away or the mice will have to go 200 feet to get seed. I hope the buyer gets it soon sans mice.
Thanks for the entertaining, practical suggestions.
[This message has been edited by starlightcoupe (edited 03-14-2014).]
You need to take apart the fan resistor assembly to vacuum out any jute padding material stuffed in the heater core area. If you don't you may end up with a ventilation fire from the hot resistor.
You should do this even if you don't deal with the mice , if you drive it. There has been a lot of good Fieros lost do to this , I have seen one not far from my home. there have been threads on here showing how, not hard to do and is good insurance.
Dont mothballs also keep them out ? Maybe even some cedar blocks. Sorry, I dont have the problem even though im right next to a field and woods. I dont store a car...I drive em.
Buy some Fresh Cab packets and put them in the car and in the trunk. These work great, smell good, and keep the mice away. You can buy them in many places like Ace Hardware, but also on line as well (type "fresh cab" in google and you'll get tons of hits).
I found Fresh Cab in our area. Thanks for the suggestion and thanks too for the suggestion to take out whatever the mice might have stored behind the squirrel cage blower motor and dropping resistor. I did this when I first got the car and know about it. Thanks again for the reminder.
Roger, I drive the car about twice a week and since we're 28 miles from Cottage Grove and 21 miles from Roseburg, OR the car gets used but the proximity to where I have to store the car to where my wife feeds the mice and birds is just an invitation to the mice. They dont' like being in the car when the engine is running and they usually get out but they return in the evening when things settle down. The next time I take the car for a spin, I will put in the Fresh Cab and park the Fiero next to the fence where my neighbor's cats walk to go hunting. They are feral and have killed nearly every song bird on my five acres and only bald eagles, turkeys and deer can survive their hunting trips.
You should do this even if you don't deal with the mice , if you drive it. There has been a lot of good Fieros lost do to this , I have seen 
