Mice having a field day on my 308QV?

I keep finding small white pieces of insulation like material underneath my car, in my car (usually around rear deck and window), and sometimes in the engine compartment. I'm sure it's from mice but can't figure out where they are getting it from. Anyone have ideas or experienced this?

I've checked my garage to see if it is external to car but don't see anything.

 

Header insulation.

 

Firewall insulation between the engine and the passenger compartment.

 

I've had the same problem with various cars so I followed the advice of a tech who told me that putting mothballs under the hood would keep critters out of there (my problem is chipmunks).

It seems to work and you don't need too many balls which will stink up the whole area around the car and possibly the interior.

Good luck.

 

I find the trick I use is put a package of DECON in the front passenger floor along with a sheet of BOUNCE fabric softener . Also put a sheet of BOUNCE in the spare tire compartment and in the trunk/engine compartment. The smell seems to keep the mice out and when you open up the car it smell OK for a while. Mice will be getting in multiple places in the car so this seems to keep them out. Works for me.

 

I find killing the little b@stards with mouse traps is the best solution!

 

This is an ongoing problem. Lots of threads in the old Fchat Tech Q&A topic, as well as the old fchat Tech Q&A archives topic.

Problem with DCON or other poisons is they can crawl into something like your heater/ac ducting, die there & leave a stink that's vy hard to remove.

Most creative solution I remember wasi to put a couple of gallons of windshield washer fluid into a 5-gallon pail. Put a board as a ramp up to the top of the pail, then spread peanut butter around the inside of the pail just a bit above the top of the washer fluid. Critters climb the ramp, jump in, drown & the alcohol in the fluid keeps them from stinking...

I've opted for just keeping them away from the cars. I have a 20x28 foot car shelter. Put a 30 x 40' heavy plastic tarp down as a vapor barrier on the floor, Laid boards down to keep the tarp down in the corners, then stretched the ends straight up & tied them off. To get inside the critters have to climb a vertical 5' section of tarp, or chew thru it.
In 2 seasons they haven't done either.

I also put poison bait around the outer perimeter of the shelter, figured they'd chew on it instead of the tarp. So far the bait has occasionally disappeared, but no critters inside.

 

Mouse Attack! I have been under assault for years.
Used the mothball trick in an early 930 I was restoring. Did not work. Between carpeting and wires the little critters did about $2k in damage.
Same year, mothballs in my former 308. They decided to nest in my muffler. Started the Ferrari to move 1 winter day. Nest caught on fire. Stood behind the car running with a fire extinguisher hoping for the best. Mouse shot out the tail pipe like he was shot out of a cannon! Funny now, wasn’t then.
Year or so later my wife takes her Lexus out for a drive in the spring. Check engine light on. Due for service anyway. Service manager calls to advise contacting my insurance company. Appeared I had a “rodent” problem. $4k in damage.
After mothballs, bobcat urine etc etc etc tried electronic rodent repellers. Marginal success.
From all this I have learned there is no substitute for the tried and true mousetrap. Bait with cheese daily and remove until problem solved. No poison used, throw into woods for the predators, balance of nature maintained. Best defense IMHO.

 

Yeah, nothing like a mousetrap to squash the little buggers! You KNOW you got them, and when you stop catching them, problem solved. Best advice I ever got was from someone on this site that told me about the "string on the trigger" trick. I was having a problem with the mice eating the bait but not setting off the trap. Someone told me to tie some cotton string around the trigger, then spread the peanut butter (best bait!) on the trigger. They get their little front teeth stuck on the string and can't eat the bait without setting off the trap. That trick increase my catch yeild about 200%! HEH HEH HEH!

Birdman

 

I use a combination of both traps and poison after an "incident" (minor, thankfully) with a Nissan Maxima. The poison makes them "thirsty" so supposedly they will seek water...I have only found one dead rat in my garage, nothing else. Yet I have to replace the poison at least two times each year...for the past 6 or 8 years. I have it in three locations, so they don't have to look hard to find it..

I hate those mieces to pieces!

 

Definitely DCON or some other form of mouse killer. I have used some stuff called "MousePruff" and it seems to keep the population in check. I had a problem with chipmonks a few years ago and found the only thing that worked was putting some anti-freeze in a dish right near their hole. They seem to slurp it up and go back in their hole and die. Just be sure you don't have a cat or dog or little kid around that will lap it up also. The moth balls didn't seem to work for me either, and I think the use of Bounce sheets is urban legend. All they seem to do is make the car smell nice for a short while.

And if you are totally against using any of the above methods and want to be ecology minded, get a cat. Just be sure he/she is a good mouser, and don't be surprised if it decides to give you a "gift" of it prize catch.

 

For $5 you can go to your local hardware store and come with a bunch of traps. Set one at each wheel under the suspension (that's where they hop up). Put at least one under the front hood and one in the motor area. Set them each night until you catch no more. Just a few mice can cause a lot of problems. If you have bird or pet food in your garage, move it.

Dave

 

Actually, this may not work to well unless you have a "cat door" to your garage (which can invite other animals). My garage is not normally accessible to my cats, but the mice can find some very tiny openings to get through...thus my mouse problem. Traps and poison get them though....

 

I actually have the best solution in my neighborhood but it won't work everywhere. I have several neighbors that have outdoor cats and there also are several feral cats out there.

For some reason a lot of them seem to like hanging out on my front deck (southern facing, sun exposure I guess?). They also seem to do a very good job of keeping the rodent population in check.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I just heard a new method from someone that has tried just about everything....mothballs, dryer sheets and traps. He puts a radio on the floor, inside car (runs cord through small space in car window. No mice problem since he stared doing it a year ago. Noise apparently scares them off.

 

I have had a mouse problem too. The rats ate the fuel injection controller wires on my wifes Impala. They also got into my MG. No harm there, but they made a mess trying to make a nest above the drivers side fender well. the also got into the heater making that stink. $150 buck-a-rooneys I declared war on the beast. I put De-Con all over the place. Most of the bait was eaten by racoons. One rat died in the basement, stinking the place up. He got in by borrowing through an old mole hole. I still haven't found him and now he's quit stinking. Set up traps everywhere and a week later, no rats. I live very near the water above a marsh on Coos Bay, Oregon. Now I leave the garage light on. The light seems to keep them away. I'm looking for one of those high frequency noise makers that keeps rodents away.

Bob Wassam