I am going to be storing my 63 galaxie in a friends shed for the winter. It is right next to his barn so I am anticipating a mouse problem. The car is not mouse proof as it has holes etc I have not had time to get at. I just don't want a bunch of the little critters using the seats and wires to gnaw on. Any ideas? The internet suggests peppermint oil, bounce sheets and moth *****. However for every suggestion there seems to be 2 posts saying it doesn't work. What are you guys doing? (He already has cats)
Thanks in advance
Greg

 

If he has Cats you may not want to go this route,but it is a poison that comes in bars. Not Warfarin, but something like it. You break off into small chunks and they take it back to the nest everybody chows down and they die. Or you could try spreading a hole bunch of blood meal around, works for squirrels etc.
If you want to purchase the poison it can be had at any farm type store.
Yes none of the other tricks work.

 

Mice are like water, they get into anything given the smallest crack and enough time.
I would suggest you make it more difficult. Get the car up on jack stands and try a healthy dose of cayenne pepper around the jack stands. Any hot chile pepper should work but may lose its zap after a few weeks so you may have to go back and lay out a fresh batch every so often.

frank

 

I've heard folks say they leave a radio on because the mice don't like noise.




Rick.

 

i just read in last issue of harrowsmith magazine about someone saying to shred up a bar of strong smelling bar soap and place it in bowl in the vehicle .i guess the little buggers dont like the clean smell. put some down defrost ducts as they love to nest there. good luck

 

Greg,
One thing to understand about mice is that they find their way around by following the poo and pee trails of their ancestors. It takes that 1st explorer to find his way into your car and then the rest will follow along. Once they bridge the gap it very hard to get rid of them. Therefore you should start with a mechanical barrier as Frank suggested to make it more difficult for them to get in to begin with. Once in there they may not like the smell of the place but his buddies will return etc etc until the smell has died down. I don't have the solution to your problem but have been trying to keep them out of my cottage for some time and have learned alot more about their habbits than killing methods. The poison will work but some of it kills everything including kids. Yes they will get in very small places but stopping that 1st intrusion is your best bet so get it up off the floor. Make sure the doors close tight. Lay on your back and look up. They get up and look down because yes they can enter from the top as well.
For those of you interested in the macabre. An absolutely gross but effective way of killing them off is a peanut butter pail. Get a white bucket fill it with 50/50 water and anytifreeze, about 8 inches. Put a roller accross the top that will spin (leave it loose). Bolt a tin can lid to the middle of the pole. Smear on some peanut butter to the tin lid. Place the pail away from your car over in the corner somewhere. The mice are attracted to the PB. The will climb a 2x4 that you place beside the pail. They will try and get accross the pole on top of the pail that will eventually roll and drop them to a death by drowning. They won't stink because of the antifreeze, if you can stomach dumping out 30 of the little buggers come spring you can try this. Works good in hunt camp but does not stop them from going in the car. It just thins out the herd. You can make up a lid for the thing so cats won;t get in. Google will have hundreds of design.

Good luck, we all have the same problem
TFC

 

The anti-freeze bucket does work. The anti-freeze acts as a preservative...sometimes the sweet smell of the anti freeze is enough to get them to fall into the bucket.
I have also used one of those ultrasonic noise makers, with the radio on. Both kept the numbers down but did not eliminate the problem.
I would go all out with all of the above and don't count on a single remedy, after all, this is war!!

frank

 

A lot of the guys over in another Forum I frequent swear by the fabric softener sheets stashed throughout the car. I've never tried it myself since I don't have a mouse problem in my garage, but I guess it could work.

At the very least, you car will smell "April Fresh" come spring time when you take it out of storage again.

 

If he's not gone yet, give it another source of food , like I do at my barn. I leave a handfull of grain on the floor for the critters that keeps them from nibbling on saddles. One thing I have noticed they don't like Alpaca wool. I have had a throw on seat for ten tears no destruction.

 

Steel wool works in any of the holes into the car. They do not like trying to nibble that stuff. It cuts their mouths. Moth ***** ahve always seemed to work. Put a small bowl right under the floor vents of the ducts. That way the smell will always travel up there. Also go the extra effort of the jack stands to make it harder for the critters to climb into the car.
The pail method really does work well. The farmers out here use them a lot around the grainerys. They use just plain water.
They put pop or beer cans through the old broom handle over the pail. Put the peanut butter on and the mice just spin of the can into the pail. Also the pail has a holes drilled for the broom handles to sit in. That way it never falls into the pail or the floor.
With winter the pail will freeze and the peanut butter will not give off the odor to attract them.

 

I've learned from experience that stee/copper wool will only slow down a determined mouse....not stop them completely. If they're hungry enough, they'll chew through anything to get at it.

 

I always rust proof the bottom of my cars/trucks before I put them away (I use Krown) and havent had a problem yet.

I think they dont like the oil - it seems to keep them away (I guess it gets all over them and they cant get it off!)

-Brent

 

I wish you luck. I used to live in the country and even our daily drivers would develop a nest under the hood. Mostly we had woodrats, but mice too.

I think the noise makers (the ultrasonic anti-pest devices or radios) seemed to work best in the buildings we tried to keep rodent free.

I can't say keeping a stash of decoy food sounds like a good idea to me: the dog and cat food rodents found often ended up under the hood of the vehicles we only drove occasionally.

Making it as difficult to enter in the first place certainly sounds good, but I don't see that a jack or jackstand would be enough. Maybe you could use a little electric fence like for fish ponds to keep raccoons out?

I've heard of all the smelly tricks: dryer sheets, mothballs, soap, and tried them all, and had them all fail.

I would avoid any type of poison in bait. If the poison rodent is eaten by the cat he'd probably get pretty sick.

It is pretty gross, but the bucket trick mentioned above is probably a good idea.