How do the mice get in?

I'm guessing the vents in the dash?

Where is the exterior opening at? I've got to find a way to keep those fµ©k out, because they are ruining my car. If they haven't ruined it already.

holes in the firewall! by the steering rack or heater hoses. a mice can squeeze themselves in spaces the size of a quarter so maybe your best bet is to buy a pet snake and keep it in the back seat

Or get some mice traps and put them all around the car every night. Just becareful when you get in during the morning when you still sleepy.

I'd sit by it with a shotgun though.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

holes in the firewall! by the steering rack or heater hoses.

Joking, right? There are open holes in the firewall?

I'll look at it tomorrow. Maybe I can close them up.

I got a few too. I was thinking rat poison but the thought of a rat carcas fermenting in my car is not a good idea. Do mothballs work? I'd only be putting them near the engine not in the car.

Get one of those glue sticky traps.

yea, that way the rats can turn them over and you have sticky traps permanently affixed to the floor of your riv j/k

moth balls may work, most animals dont like the smell.(save for old people)

btw, has anyone ever read the packages for the sticky traps? they say they are a more humane way to kill the rats vs the mouse trap. but the way they recommend killing the rat is to put it in water upside down till it's dead...i find shooting it is the most humane and fastest.

I tried mothballs. You don't want your car to smell like mothballs. I don't know if only having them under the hood would be enough to keep the mice out. You could try it and see.

I've tried sticky traps in the house. They work well but I do think it would be hell getting the glue out of carpert. I've seen mice drag heavier traps around in their death throes. You don't need a rat to flip it.

Get a cat.

All I need is the god warrior to look under the hood and you'd be surprised what gets scared out


-mice
-bugs
-evil spirits

WTF??

Mr.Riviera wrote:

WTF??

She also sits in the car while I'm in a store or running errands, she's a great theft deterrant

Andysdorm wrote:

All I need is the god warrior to look under the hood and you'd be surprised what gets scared out


-mice
-bugs
-evil spirits

Fell out of my chair laughing!
She was the best episode ever!

Whats that from looks familiar?

SpaceBar wrote:

Get a cat.

Those are only good for walking on top of cars and leaving little paw prints behind. Besides, I can't stand them

Jack the R wrote:

SpaceBar wrote:

Get a cat.

Those are only good for walking on top of cars and leaving little paw prints behind. Besides, I can't stand them

I have a damn cat that lives somewhere around here and every couple weeks I will walk out to footprints across my hood.

My mother has eight cats and we have never had a problem with mice.

As some of you know, Jack has had a big problem with mice getting into the Riv. But now Jack IS a big problem for mice wanting to get inna Riv They got so bad this year that they weren't just crapping in the car, they were crapping on the car. Mouse turds from the front of the car to the back, inside and out. Enough was enough!

After a few weeks of trapping I've killed 23 mice, 2 in the glove box, and I reckon I've got them figured out.

There are 4 places that are like magnets to a mouse - the insides of the tires. If you've got a mouse in the area, I guarantee these spots are being visited. I have traps at each tire and I catch a mouse or two there nearly every night. If you don't catch them there, they'll climb up the tires, over the suspension, over the exhaust, up into the engine area where they will find the vent intakes. At least, I'm assuming that's how they get in - through the vents.

If anyone can take pictures of the area where the vent intakes are, or direct me to them, I'd appreciate it. Need to get those screened off.

Once they're in, the next place they'll visit will be the glove compartment. They don't get past the wheel traps very often, but occasionally they'll get the cheese out of 5 traps and make it to the glove compartment before being caught.

(BTW, if you want to know how inviting your glove compartment is to a mouse, I've pulled nests out twice. I've also pulled a nest out of the battery area, and out of the spare tire area)

I've also got a trap in the passenger floor board where I've seen turds, but no mice have made it that far since I started trapping.

You should also look for any other areas around the car for droppings. Anywhere there's clutter. I've got two other spots that regularly catch mice.

Altogether I've got 10 traps protecting the Riv. I've never caught more than two mice in a night, though I've frequently gotten two. Maybe they're territorial and that's all you'll find in one spot at a time.

It took about 3 weeks of trapping before I noticed a sharp fall off in mouse activity. I went 3 days without catching a mouse, which I take as an indication that I've wiped out the local population, and any new mice are moving in from other territories. Which they will do, but that's o.k., I've got a little something waiting for them

I'm a city mouse - really glad I don't have your type of problem. But it's the humans I have to defend against.

call ace ventura 1-(800) got -mice

That really sucks. But at least you are trying to do something about it. I take it this car is not garaged?
I've also heard of certain things that will also deter them. Moth balls, scented dryer sheets, building a short metal wall around your car (seriously), etc. But truthfully, I have not done an internet search for a while on what really works.

Best of luck. And I hope you have them down for the count now.

Odd that you start a thread on this when just today I found mouse poop in my car. I don't know, I'm no expert on mouse feces. But I'm pretty sure that it was.

Anyway, good luck man!

sounds like your cowl vent screening is damaged or missing. Have to disassemble cowl to fix it (with plumbers' plastic cement or "goop."

Also check that your AC drain still has its nipple. If not get a new one and install.

You may also want to clean it out using a disinfectant - to get rid of whatever smell is enticing them there in the first place. Probably organic matter that smells like nesting material, my guess is old leaves.

Consider making a pine-sol disinfectant solution or an odo-ban solution (get odo-ban from Sam's Club) and pour it down the windshield. It will get into the cowl vents and puddle in the right places. warning: Your car will smell like pine-sol for a little while.

Mice get into any opening 1/4" square or larger.

What you're really looking for is probably an old nest or group of nests in a structure nearby the Riv. The babies scout around. When they find something that smells like nesting (old leaves) they go after it. reason for the attraction of old leaves to the mice - leaves when rotting give off heat, just perfect for surviving a winter if you're a little critter.

Albertj

i say just get a big fat cat! and lock that f....r in the car over night! dont feed him before though, that will make him good and hungry!

AA - I'll take the mice over the humans any day. I don't know why but it's illegal to trap even very naughty people

Ash - The problem is more that it is garaged, but the garage itself is far from being mouseproof. Which means it's basically just the kind of cover mice seek out.

I did try mothballs. It took months for that smell to air out. And any time I'd drive, I'd get out of the car smelling like mothballs.

I could live with the scented dryer sheet, but I wonder if the mice can't to?

95RiviSC - If it was a little rounded black cylinder 1/8" to 1/4" long, you've got mice in your car. This is bad news bro! If you don't deal with them, your car will eventually smell strongly of mouse piss. I tried SCO-10X in my trunk, and it knocked the smell down substantially, but the stuff is expensive. The little spray bottle they sell as a starter package wouldn't do the whole trunk. But it helped a lot. My trunk had gotten so bad it'd knock you down to walk by it with the lid open. I was so pissed! And still am!

albertj - Where's the cowl vent screening? The vents at the base of the windshield?

I'm not sure I can find the AC drain either.

Give me an idea where they're at and I'll have a look.

I sure hate mice! The one I caught this morning was still alive in the trap. I so enjoyed watching his cute little whiskered face as he struggled so so hard to pull his broken back free of the trap. These little guys are causing me to lose my mind. But that's one mouse that won't shit a Riv.

I'm in a woods, so I'm sure there's nests everywhere.

robotennis61 - I've got a big fat cat. He throws up and pees and drags his butt.

Cowl vent is at the base of the hood, just under the windshield. The largest opening is on the left (driver) side. That is the opening I pour disinfectant/deodorizer into.

If you do not see screen in between the louvers of the vent, the screen is missing.

Also might want to pull the inner fenders out of the wheelhousing and check the drains as well as the areas near the kick panels.

As for the mice in the garage, if it is legal to do where you are and the cat won't mess with it, put d-con or other mouse/rat poison around inside per directions. And make sure there is no place for rodents to get water, like condensation on a pipe. Then fill all the gaps in the building with steel wool (rodents HATE the stuff) held in place with spray-in foam (like Great Stuff). Install weatherstripping around the doors so there are no gaps, such as base of garage doors.

You probably already have seen these but in case not here are some useful references.

http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=g9442

http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/comm001/comm001.htm

hope you find this helpful

Albertj