Mice..... What pains in the butt.

[Mark42]

The last few days mice have been building a nest on the passenger side of the motor between the valve cover and intake manifold. So every day I suck it out with a small shop vac hoping they will give up and leave the car alone. No such luck.

This morning before starting the car, I open the hood, and see a new nest. Plus, there are 4 mice in it! So I get the shop vac and start sucking up the nest. Got the nest and 3 of the mice, the 4th was fricking Ninja Mouse and was jumping all around the engine bay as I tried to suck him up in the shop vac. He ran across the top of the intake, across the drivers valve cover, then jumps to the power steering, then jumps to the radiator fan blade housing, hangs, then drops to the garage floor and runs out. Fricking Ninja Mouse!!!!!

I open the shop vac, and there are three mice in there. They don't seem to handle being sucked down a 1 3/4" shop vac hose very well. Dumped the vac into the garbage.

I will get you, Ninja Mouse!!!!!

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Somehow I have a mouse or something that keeps trying to make a nest in the rather large gap between my engine block and intake manifold of my truck. Idk how, considering I drive everyday, and we've never seen any mice, or any signs of them.

[JW]

I always place mouse traps around my car in the garage.

JW

[FlyingDutchman]

I opened my hood to a lovely surprise of half eaten acorns on the intake manifold and by the positive battery terminal. Luckily no chewed wires.

I wasn't lucky enough to catch 'em in the act like you though

[B4C]

Get rid of them before they chew the wires! put some posion out

[Pampered-Z]

They got into the bag of bird seed, I learned this when I opened my hood and found they had been storing it all around the engine bay. Used traps for the !mouse mod. When the car sits over the winter I put Cling-Free dryer clothes all inside the car and so far it's seems to work, I still get a mouse in the traps from time to time, but I live out in the country so no way to 100% keep them out of the garage.

Even worst is the squirrels, they store acorns in my car trailer ramp area, hundreds of them! and they chewed through the wires so I have allot of rewiring to do!

[Mark42]

Originally Posted by Anti_Rice_Guy

Somehow I have a mouse or something that keeps trying to make a nest in the rather large gap between my engine block and intake manifold of my truck. Idk how, considering I drive everyday, and we've never seen any mice, or any signs of them.

My daughter said that when I started the car the other day, she saw mice run out from under the car. The little pissers are a real pain. They go into the garbage can, chew up any napkins, paper towels, etc and use them to make the nest. I inspected the nest material and found a lot of my wife's hair in it (brunet and long). So I know the paper comes from the garbage can. And my car is a daily driver.

Originally Posted by B4C

Get rid of them before they chew the wires! put some poison out

I know! On my '40 Ford coupe, they ate spark plug wires right down to the core!

I can see that they chewed up the corrugated plastic housing that the wires run in, but it does not look like they are chewing the wires yet. That would mess up the injectors, based upon where their nest is.


Last night I spread out some mouse poison. Not a lot, just about two table spoons where they walk along the wall. Its all gone.

Here is a tip: When using mouse poison, never open the entire bait package and set it out (regardless of instructions). Because what happens is the mice find this bonanza of food and take it all back to the nest, where they die, and 95% of the poison is wasted. If only a small amount is put out, they stop and eat it on the spot, and don't bring it back to the nest. So the poison gets into the mice faster, is not stored and wasted, and you get rid of mice quicker. Just a little of the dry poison pellets will do the trick.

BTW, I put moth balls in the boats for the winter. The moth balls does a great job of keeping mice and rodents away. So far, never had a mouse problem in the boats. Just remember, moth balls are poison. Just 5-7 balls eaten by an adult will cause a long, lingering painful death. Worst form of suicide going.

Moth balls work by EVAPORATING. They go from a solid to a gas, and fill the immediate area with poison gas. Thats why they work so well in dresser draws and boats with covers. The enclosed area keeps the gas in, and kills any intruders.

[sweetbmxrider]

i did the dryer sheets in my car and i didn't have a rodent issue. it smells clean too

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

The weird part is they didn't go in my mom's truck when she parks next to me in the garage during the fall/winter/spring. Nor do they ever go in the Camaro, which sits a lot.

[maroman88]

never had such a problem...

[NastyEllEssWon]

i once had a customer complain their car was bogging badly and getting poor gas mileage...after further inspection of the air filter/housing there was a dead mouse in the intake piping. nasty little things they are.

[BonzoHansen]

if you have no pets, leave them a nice bowl of antifreeze to drink.

i once pulled a mouse out of a customers hvac blower fan. poor little bastard probably ran himself to death. automotive hvac blower fan, for those who don't know:

[//<86TA>\\]

never had a mouse make a nest in any of my cars, even over the winter.

But they did find the ABS and trans harness wires rather tasty on my truck last summer. Left me stranded at work of all places....

And they made a nest between 2 rear seat bottoms from my car that I had on the shelf. Caught 2 of them and the 3rd was probably the ninja mouse the OP mentioned, he pulled some amazing aerial acrobatics and got away.

[andy78TA]

moth balls, I had them in my trunk and passenger compartment all winter while the trans am was down. I also had a box of moth balls hanging out right by my carb. The week I didn't have them next to my carb I found the beginning of a nest under my intake manifold on the valley pan.

[Mark42]

This past week I kept sprinkling a little of the blue poison nuggets around inside the garage door and put about 2 tablespoons on a disposable plate. Had to do it every night because it would all be gone the next day. Now the poison stays. Guess I got the last of the buggers.... for now.

Suckers are like Arnold. They will be back.

[T69SS]

Originally Posted by maroman88

never had such a problem...

x2, i didnt know this was a common problem

[mtg6486]

i had a few mice in my familys cabin in ny. they would run around in the attic at night, so i took a bb gun up there when i would hear them and started pickin off those little shi*ts off

[enRo]

We had a mice problem in the dashboard of one of our garbage trucks... the dashboard is where all the wires for the fusebox are. Lets just say the damage they did was in the $4000 range