Mice are wrecking my car!

[Cuban Assassin]

Most of the time my car is parked for 1-2 weeks at a time because I'm working all the time.

I went for a drive and my rad hose blew of for the third time.

Under the hood you can see were the mice have been removing the insulation and makiing a huge nest under the intake manifold.

Lots of wires chewed to hell. No cruise, no tempreature sensor, and I'm just begining to tally up the rest of the damage. There's chewed up bits of sunflower seeds and mouse **** in the vents.

I have three cats and a dog who loves to kill mice, apparently that is not enough to keep the little bastards out of my car.

Anyone have any ideas. Let me know.

I have a major amount of work to do here and I will post some pictures.

:mad: :confused: :mad: :confused:

Scott

[ensteele]

I would not want to mess around. I would put poison in the area that they are chewing. That way they will have it right were they are. I would consider moving the car as well.

Good luck. Oh, and I would also stop feeding my cat. :rolleyes:

[Cuban Assassin]

Yea I don't know. Every time I look at the cats at least one of them is cruising by with a mouse in it's mouth.

The only thing I can think of now is always leaving the hood up when the car is parked.

The crappy thing is parts are hard to come by up here (long wait). I have a lot to replace (full wiring harnesses etc...).

Plus I've got to take off the intake manifold, so I will need new gaskets for that.

I don't tend to use poison because I'm worried about my dogs.

[ensteele]

Yes, pets are a problem when you use bait. I don't use it either. It would be all out war on the mice though - not that I don't think you have declared war on them yourself. :D

[Cuban Assassin]

Man I hate mice! I don't have much love for cats either but they are the best way to control mice. In the house that is, if you have one cat in the house you will never see another mouse.

I try to keep all three outside in the day and one in the house at night.

But outside is a different story, there used to be an old stack of straw bales here teeming with mice, I burned that. I guess this is when they decided to move into my car.

I guess the solution is to make them think my car isn't a good home. I did put poison in the interior and under the hood.

On the bright side we have no rats here.;)

[Alycone]

On the bright side, a warfarin-based poison shouldn't be too hard to reverse, as long as you noticed that the pets got into it early, which is difficult, so...

Have you considered training the cats to sleep in the engine bay? Maybe place some catnip in there? I've heard cat urine is a mouse repellant, but I doubt you want to pour it over your engine.

You could always lock the pets inside while you try poison.

[ensteele]

I can see - I mean smell it now - Nice car, oh, what is that smell? :D Smells like cat urine! Can I look under the hood? Could you close it now? :D

[Cuban Assassin]

Yea I'll have to carry a squirt bottle of it around with me. Someone is going to have to give me some tips as to how to milk the pee out of the cats though.

[manofmayo]

Originally posted by Cuban Assassin
.....cats ... they are the best way to control mice. In the house that is, if you have one cat in the house you will never see another mouse.


I wish that was true....I have 3 cats and we have a rat problem in the house.


....and a rat problem in the car too :p

just took my car in to fix 3 CEL's.....2 were o2 sensors...the third was the knock sensor. Turns out the rats had eaten through the wires to the knock sensor and other misc sensors on the drivers side of the car.

Sheesh!

[michael]

I had a similar problem

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22785

and I thought in your situation it would be best to get one of those devices that plug into an electric socket. They give off a high pitch sound that only mice and rats can hear, it doesn't affect lager animals.

[manofmayo]

Thanks.... I'm going to have to try it.

The rats chewed through the knock sensor wiring and the oil pressure wiring.

The shop had to order a couple of parts, so guess I get to go to the shop again in a week....yeah :(

[UberRoo]

I wouldn't remove the intake manifold. I'd go crazy with a pressure washer.

They make this stuff for spraying on your rose bushes to keep deer from nibbling on them. It tastes horrible. (Ask me how I know.) I bet it works on mice too. You might try to find something like that. Sprinkle minced onions, or dowse the engine in pepper spray, or both. If they don't get the message, try-mouse paper. Yes, it works like fly-paper. Lastly, park your car in a garage and leave it running for a few hours. :) The only downside to carbon monoxide is that the little buggers will probably die inside your heater vents. Not to worry though, the smell goes away in a few months, and air fresheners disguise rotting corpses pretty well.