severe infestation of mice in car HELP

[guzzinka]

When we bought our house a few years back, it came with a mouse problem, and, after much trial and error, we finally figured out what works - find out how they get in and seal them out!  Then trap the ones left.  As long as they can get in, there will always be a problem.  Not sure how they get in a car though....

[cwiseman]

I highly suggest not using poison, if they die in the car it's gonna stink. I've seen that a few times when I was a service manager at a car dealership.
I also had a customer who had a rat problem and some serious damage occurred, her insurance took car of the repair bill.
I also suggest covering up their entrance one way or another.

I'm going to give the old bucket trick a try in my old shed.

[Zoom Zoom]

Peanut butter works well. I put it on the tip of a cotton swab and tie it to the trap. Works great. As for the bucket, I accidentally discovered just how much they like bird seed. Had a 5 gallon bucket in the basement about 1/3rd full. Fall, crops being cut down, drives the mice to look for new lodging. Came home to 8 of them that had gotten into the bucket and could not get out. Of course they were still alive, but that didn't last long.

John Henry   

[BMWDavid]

I've had good success with sticky traps. Place several around the perimeter of the garage and around the car. Be careful if you have domestic pets/animals that could get into them.

 

[Nic in Western NYS]

There's some evidence that mice either flee or have sex after exposure to predator urine.  Never thought I would ever type a sentence like that.
http://www.livescience.com/7494-cat-urine-mice-macho.html

[Rough Edge racing]

I've had good success with sticky traps. Place several around the perimeter of the garage and around the car. Be careful if you have domestic pets/animals that could get into them.

   You mean traps that don't kill and just trap the animal until it dies from exposure?  Nice............

[old as dirt 2]

you need to contact a pided piper.

[Dean Rose]

I used to frequent a bar/restaurant down on Kuda Beach in Bali. The owner had a couple of Mongoose in cages that he let out when he closed up at night. Sure kept the place vermin and snake free.


Dean

[Triple Jim]

We use several of the traps that just trap them without injury, Harvey.  They're the metal ones with a spring loaded door, and a plastic window in the top.  We have a motor home that's outside, and it has a couple in it full time.  When we get a mouse, or sometimes more than one, we take it far from any houses and let it go.  I think Robin usually uses peanut butter for bait.  She kept a couple of the little guys as pets, and cares for them diligently.  They're fun to watch when they're active in the evening.  They do things like run in the wheel and stop suddenly, and the inertia of the wheel carries them around and upside down in a loop.  They must like it, because they'll do it repeatedly.

They're really nice, cute little guys, as long as you don't let them take over, which as you found, they are certainly able to do.

[SteveAZ]

Had really good success with the collapsing door live traps and one bonus is you can buy a few and they work as many times as you want them to. Just be ready to take a drive and let the little turd factories loose someplace far from civilization.

Be really clean and careful when handling the cages. Mice can carry plague, hantavirus and all sorts of buggy things depending on where you live. I went with a "humane" option but I don't fault guys who just off the little buggers with cats or lethal traps.

[Triple Jim]

I went with a "humane" option but I don't fault guys who just off the little buggers with cats or lethal traps.

Agreed.  I just fault the ones that cause suffering and slow death.  I've seen a chewed off leg stuck to a sticky type trap.  I don't wish that on any animal.

[redrider90]

Pull the wipers and cowl cover, find the fresh air inlet, and somehow rig a screen. Keeps them out of the interior. Mothballs help. I know this doesn't apply to the OP, but remove their food source,get airtight containers for bird food, dog food etc stored in garage.

I've been looking for the fresh air intake. Pulling cowl is going to have wait as my right arm is in a cast due to a fractured forearm/wrist.
But last night I filled the car with traps and sticky paper last night and caught 4 so that is a start. I'll move the car next to the house where there is solid gravel.

[normzone]

There's some evidence that mice either flee or have sex after exposure to predator urine.  Never thought I would ever type a sentence like that.
http://www.livescience.com/7494-cat-urine-mice-macho.html

Well, now we know which websites you spend your spare time on...

[redrider90]

Agreed.  I just fault the ones that cause suffering and slow death.  I've seen a chewed off leg stuck to a sticky type trap.  I don't wish that on any animal.

I was pretty desperate as they were eating away all the foam in the seats and keep plugging up the HVAC cabin air cleaners. It's only a matter of time before they get into the wiring harness. I had that happen on my pick up and as a result ended up with a check engine light on forever and no oil light.It's a pre-emissons vehicle so I did not spend $600 on a new wiring harness.
Not to mention how filthy and unhealthy it is to ride around in a mouse toilet. So desperate times called for desperate solutions. I hated using sticky paper but traps where not getting them all. I kept going out and checking the sticky traps and drown them immediately. I like the water bucket with a spool idea as they die fast in the water. Even snap traps do always kill them. I might add the live traps to manage them in the future as soon as I am sure I have them all gone for now. But just catching 4 in a matter of hours last night revealed the severity of the problem.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 The advantage of sticky traps in a vehicle is that you don't get dead mouse stink in there if you check the traps once a day.
 Bucket traps work great but are a bit inconvenient inside a vehicle.
 Poison lets them crawl into a hidden place to die and stink.
 I had a rat zapper once.  It killed some pretty big rats.   They all died with legs out straight in front and back
 like four corner spread eagle.  Some were big enough that the hind end was not even in the trap.

[Luap McKeever]

I've found the best way to keep them out of your car is make sure you leave your vent closed (on recycle). This closes the flap that lets them get inside the duct work.

Our beagle is better than 3 cats. She loves the little critters.

[oldbike54]

I've found the best way to keep them out of your car is make sure you leave your vent closed (on recycle). This closes the flap that lets them get inside the duct work.

Our beagle is better than 3 cats. She loves the little critters.

 Yep , our adopted "Tri-Terrier of Doom" is damned effective at rodent control .

 Dusty

[Doppelgaenger]

You could try gassing them to kill what's in the car

Buy a bunch of dry ice and put it into buckets or pans of water inside the car and lock it up tight. Pretty soon they'll all suffocate. It's not a permanent solution because it won't have residual effect, but you'll likely kill everything that's in the car. If you're lucky they'll all try to run away and die out in the open.

It goes without saying you don't try and get in the car without airing it out for at least ten minutes lest you suffer the same fate as the meese.

[rodekyll]

I don't understand the level of disneyfication that has folks listing the viruses and plague carried by vermin and then a description of how they safely transport the germ generators to someone else's house and gently let them go.  It's a very sweet gesture, having your li'l hearts bleed like that and all, but it's not solving anything.  You're just moving the problem into someone else's car.  If you're going to go through the motions, do it for real.

THEY'RE VERMIN!!!!  KILL THEM ALL!!!! 

[atavar]

THEY'RE VERMIN!!!!  KILL THEM ALL!!!!

+1
Also kill all mosquitoes!  I can't believe the world would change if we made mosquitoes extinct. 

[oldbike54]

+1
Also kill all mosquitoes!  I can't believe the world would change if we made mosquitoes extinct.

 Except lots of birds and fish would go hungry . The food chain is the food chain .

 Dusty

[twhitaker]

Unicorns used to be in the food chain. Do you notice any difference since they've left?

[Nic in Western NYS]

Well, now we know which websites you spend your spare time on...

That google search for predator urine and mice will probably be affecting the ads that pop up in my browser for a while.

[oldbike54]

Unicorns used to be in the food chain. Do you notice any difference since they've left?

 Sure , we no longer have Gnomes or any Pegasi (Peguses?) ...

 Dusty

[rodekyll]

Except lots of birds and fish would go hungry . The food chain is the food chain .

 Dusty

Skeeters are specific carriers.  We can eradicate all the west nile carriers for example without killing ALL skeeters if we approach it intelligently*.


* The Monsanto model of blanket-gassing regions of the planet, killing EVERYTHING in order to get the specific target is NOT intelligent.

[oldbike54]

Skeeters are specific carriers.  We can eradicate all the west nile carriers for example without killing ALL skeeters if we approach it intelligently*.


* The Monsanto model of blanket-gassing regions of the planet, killing EVERYTHING in order to get the specific target is NOT intelligent.

 Witness the misuse of the pesticide Mirex , killed more birds and fish than fire ants . Of course it wasn't designed to be sprayed from crop dusters 

 Dusty

[Triple Jim]

It goes without saying you don't try and get in the car without airing it out for at least ten minutes lest you suffer the same fate as the meese.

I suspect you wouldn't stay in a car full of CO₂ two seconds after you tried to take a breath, so no need to worry about suffocating in there.

[atavar]

Except lots of birds and fish would go hungry . The food chain is the food chain .

 Dusty

There is plenty of stuff out there to eat.  they would adjust.  Nature is flexible, not fixed as some would have you believe.

[oldbike54]

There is plenty of stuff out there to eat.  they would adjust.  Nature is flexible, not fixed as some would have you believe.

 A bit of investigation into the huge increase in cases of diabetes among Native Americans might be in order here Attie .

 Just to clarify , only for scientific reasons , no social or political content intended .

 Dusty

[segesta]

Please no sticky traps. That's a horrible way to die, even for a damn vermin.