Mice!

[closeanuf]

Bullfrog you're killin me.  I don'rt have a wife problem or a snake problem but I have memories of wife problems and I can just hear them saying that.

 

[lenny flank]

Then my wife wou;ld say "What are you going to do about the snake problem?"

Hah, my only snake problem was not having enough of them.  Love me, love my snakes. 

 

[QinReno]

Ran across this website on mouse chews in a 2009 Subaru. Funny, the guy says he sells Subarus, but the page kind of indicates they are lunch buckets for mice. Chewed on almost everything plastic.
http://www.cars101.com/rodent-chews-an-engine-compartment.html
He has one suggestion which does sound kind of interesting: "Buy a large tangle of wiring, place a distance from the car, run a wire and light bulb to it for warmth so the rodents will go there instead of your car".

 

[USExplorer]

Yes he was missing one ear, his (former) buddy chomped it off while on the glue trap.

Since I sprayed the undercarriage with vinegar, no more mice.

Nice. Was he half bald from the glue trap incident or is this a whole new mouse?

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[AMGS3]

Hey everybody. I found another self resetting mousetrap that live traps them (if you're into that sort of thing). It's made out of a plastic 2liter bottle an some scrap wood and I think it'd catch a few mice at a time.



~angie

 

[Matlock]

Rodents do not like grease. Buy a tube/can of cheap thick bearing grease and a pair of rubber gloves. Smear on every piece of exposed wire and plastic wire loom under the hood up to the firewall.

I understand that toyota and ford started using soy based insulation for wiring and looms in 2011 production vehicles. Some folks at packard delphi say earlier production was tested built so who knows for sure what vehicles and when it started. So, keep the ol bucket of bolts together for as long as you can and be careful when adding "new" wiring, buy the oil based insulation stuff not the mouse food.

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

What is the general consensus on pouring human urine on the ground all around your vehicle?

A) Will it work?

B) Will everyone freak out? (I tend to park far away from everyone else.)


P.S. A BLM camp host told me he pees just outside his RV all the time and recommended I do the same.

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[B and C]

I buy mothballs at Walmart. The package contains two bags. I put one on each side of the engine bay. Change each 6 months. Wiring not chewed yet.

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

I buy mothballs at Walmart. The package contains two bags. I put one on each side of the engine bay. Change each 6 months. Wiring not chewed yet.

Now that sounds like a convenient and cheap solution. With no worries about freaking people out.

Two questions:

Are you aware of times when other people had problems while you did not?

How long have you been doing this successfully?

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[johnny b]

Couple of posts here talk about soy based insulation being why rodents chew wires up....believe me they've been eatin wires long before any soy was introduced.
Back in my early days of phone tech life, the learning process starts with pullin cable. The outer jacket of the common cables in use then (3, 25, 50, and 100 pair) was PVC...Polyvinyl Chloride....mice, squirrels, and rats just loved this stuff. When we ran into damaged cables we replaced them with the more expensive 'fire rated' cables and problem solved. These locations were usually under construction trailers and in outdoor areas like lumber yards and garden centers. Been chased by some big ass rats with attitude in DC. (Once you weren't the new guy anymore, you got to send the new 'new guy' under the trailer.)

My last issue with wires being chewed was in my driveway on my Ford Focus....squirrels chewed threw a wire harness feeding the injectors on top of the motor...pile of acorn debris next to it, so I guess the insulation was dessert. Dang squirrels are just rats with fuzzy tails!

+1 on mothballs

 

[B and C]

Friends have been using them for years with no problems. I just started a few years ago. No problems. I think moving regularly helps too (14 day limit most places). Actually, the only person I knew that had problems was my mother-in-law. Her old caddy would sit for weeks at a time. Squirrels got to the injector wires right at the injectors (bitch to repair) just like like johnny b said.

 

[Ms Linda]

Using vinegar on the undercarriage doesn't create any issues for the vehicle??

 

[highdesertranger]

you can use vinegar to convert rust, so that wouldn't be an issue. it's really not a strong enough acid to do any damage. I can't think of any reasons that it would cause any harm. highdesertranger

 

[Doubleone]

Epic original post, I'm still chuckling...   I've had success catching mice using a small dab of peanut butter at the center of a large rat glue trap.  Snap traps with peanut butter work about half the time.  For rats, I've found the best thing is to tie a piece of dry dog food onto the press bar.  The rats try to grab and run but get caught every time, dog food pellet still in mouth.   What ever you do never ever use poison, those little critters will crawl up into some impossible area to die and stink for weeks.  Maintenance once did that  at my workplace and the conference room was uninhabitable for over a month before someone finally got up in the attic and cleaned it out.  Not a job I'd want to do...

 

[Snowbunny]

This is why I am against gathering up feral cats for spay and neuter. Less cats = more rats!