Mouse problems...
 

Ok guys i need advice... I've been having a bit of a rodent problem with my cars lately. Out of the 9 cars in the driveway (yes, I said 9... :icon_no2:) There seems to be a rambunctious bunch of mice that only bothers my 2 cars. It all started with the FC. I went down one day to find that a bunch of carpet stuffing was crammed in the storage bin as if it was a bed. I noticed over the next few days that there were chew marks on my tool puch in the storage bin. Then I noticed that there was always a bunch of leaves and grass in my engine bay set up for a nice comfortable mouse bed.

So I'm glad no wiring or anything important was damaged, but it still always pissed me off ya know? Like I was being violated and there was nothing I could do about it. One day I was driving down the highway and the mouse starts running around my floorboard and scared the SH*T out of me!

So long story short, I sold the FC (not for that reason) and picked up a Miata for a better daily driver so I could build up the SA. Well the mice didn't like that and started relocating to the SA!!!! The engine seems untouched, but I had the shock of my life when my otherwise mint black interior was vandalized. They chewed into my pleather seats and carpet and shat all over the dash! So I figured this means war...

Last week they broke into the Miata and pissed all over the trunk and chewed up my work clothes. They are very busy...

The straw that broke the camels back was 3-4 days ago. One has died somewhere inside the Miatas unibody and I have torn the intierior out looking in every crevice, but was unsuccesful in finding the dead mouse. The smell has faded a bit in the past couple days, but it's the principle of the situation.

My question is... If any of you guys have mice problems what do you do to solve it? What's a good way to get rid of dead mouse smell? I bought 3 air fresheners to hide it somewhat, and I took the trunk apart and cleaned the carpet and trunk body. I read about Critter Ridder and similar products to repel them, but mouse is not listed on the repel list. It seems the only way to rid mice is to set traps and kill or poison them. Then they crawl up in your car and die...

Help!

Mothballs work from what I hear.

I hungry cat works.

Lots of mouse traps in the car.

So why do they only bother your 2 cars? Are the others in a garage or are yours parked by a lot of bushes and trees. Maybe try getting your cars parked somewhere else in the driveway might work. Of course don't mention the mice to anyone else or no one will switch with you.

No poison because as you said, they will crawl somehere and die. I got one recently with a trap and a little peanut butter. Good luck

ive dealt with this too, in an FC the mice can go from bumper to bumper thru all the frame rails and channels and stuff...

you want something that will make the mice go away, as you've found out finding the dead one, isnt fun at all, as they can fit just about anywhere

Sticky traps... or dig a moat. Filled with acid. And pihranas. With laser beams.

Main thing is, how in the hell are they getting into the interior? There shouldn't be a mouse-sized route to the interior.

Frame rails have little holes in them and tunnel all over the car. You can enter from the front fender wells where the drain tubes go. I thought about moth balls. When I get my own place again I'm getting an outside cat.

+1 on the moth balls. That's what got rid of them in my SA. My old SA sat for almost 12 years. When I first got it drivable, I went to friends house. While we were talking beside the car a mouse jumped out from under the car and ran into his yard. You should have seen the look on my friends face. I just laughed.

A rat got to the engine wiring on the wife's maxima once, overnight... the repair bill was less than humorous.

axe body spray and a lighter lol jk i would try the moth balls

Must take a lot of moths to get enough to do the job.

Well I'll try the moth balls, but I'm not too thrilled of the old people stink they give off, lol. I guess it's better then dead rotting mouse smell.

moth balls will do the trick. Put them in a pie tin so you don't get the powder in your carpet when they start to fall apart.

Dude get a cat and leave it outside haha

Even better, just reinstall your cats and you should be all set....

Back when I had my CRX, I opened the hood one day to find a rats nest made of grass and leaves, coupled with crap everywhere. I removed the nest and moved the car a few days later, I wondered where the rat had gone when I looked at the spot where the car had been only to find a HUGE snake skin that had been underneath the car, must have been about 4 or 5 feet in length. I guess I know what happened to the rat. :owned:

Hmmm. Mothballs good - but only in NON passenger areas - it IS poison, after all. Assuming we are talking about a storage situation here, with my SA I scatter them under the car, with extras placed about in the engine compartment to discourage wire-chomping. Exhaust pipes should be zip-tied closed with zip-lock bag (also helps keep moisture out of exh and combustion chambers).

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

a couple years ago, it seemed like every other car came in with rat damage over the winter. worst one was a 626 v6, the rats had chewed the plug wires, which are on top.

owner started car, wires which had no insulation, proceeded to set fire to the top of the motor and the hood insulation!

i think it was that car, we also found something like a sammich and a coke bottle IN the airbox. no idea how they got the bottle in there

"...One in a million shot, Doc; one in a million..."

I found a cracker in the Miatas trunk. I know it wasn't mine because I've never eaten in this car ad I cleaned it out quite well after I got it.

I put a couple moth ball pucks in the trunk and one in the SA's dashboard. The kind that hang up with a hook. I hope it works.

Still, no one knows how to rid the dead mouse stink?

I'm just going to leave the car parked with the top down all day everyday until the mouse dries up I guess. Hopefully baking him in the hot sunlight will speed up the progress!

There's a product that the people who clean up crime scenes use to get rid of corpse stench, but yeah, until you can either remove or mummify the corpse, there's not a lot you can do.

This may or may not help:

http://www.imtek.biz/page/N/CTGY/csp-corpse

ewwwww

I know where you are coming from, but that came out all funny sounding :D

I thought about filling the unibody with chasis foam. It would stiffen the chasis and eliminate holes for critters to crawl in and out of.

this is unpleasant, but you can follow your nose

are you sure these are mice we're talking about? sounds more like rats to me.

as for the smell, have you checked everywhere?