Mice in my truck

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  • phylodog

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    Mar 7, 2008
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    I popped the hood on my truck yesterday to add some washer fluid additive and found a mouse nest on top on one of the batteries. This ain’t gonna work for me. Anyone know of a repellent which would keep them out? I can’t do poisons because we have cats who catch and sometimes eat the mice.
     

    PaulF

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    Apr 4, 2009
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    Career auto mechanic here, and I've seen this a bunch. Maybe I can help.

    If you have engine mice you obviously need either an engine cat or an engine snake. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, in typical midwest winter weather the startup time on your engine snake can be a bit long. Conversly, you never have just one engine cat for long...pretty soon you'll be dealing with engine kittens.

    But for real...put some mothballs in the area you found the nest, and some traps in the area you park the truck. The mice are attracted to the warmth of the engine and the shelter of the engine compartment, so glue traps under cardboard boxes might be a good strategy. The sooner you attract the mice away from the truck the better off you are...they like to eat wires and hoses for some reason.
     

    d.kaufman

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    Mar 9, 2013
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    Get a bar or two of Irish Spring soap. Quarter or half each bar and put in an old sock and place them in the engine bay. It has worked well in a couple old cars we have stored in the shop where I work
     

    NyleRN

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    Welcome to rural living. Popped the hood on my truck couple years ago to change the headlamp bulbs. Had to move the air filter box in order to do so on the passenger side. When I moved the box about 60 acorns come falling out everywhere :runaway:
     

    K_W

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    Fluffy nest, smells like ammonia, has poop, has chew damage = Mouse nest
    Fluffy nest, smells like nothing, no poop, no chew damage = Chipmunk hibernation den
     

    cedartop

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    Chipmunks for me. I take dozens of them a year with the .22 and they are still all over. They are in the engine compartment and the mice go in the bed. My pickup sits a lot more than it is driven.
     

    patience0830

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    Not far from the tree
    Fluffy nest, smells like ammonia, has poop, has chew damage = Mouse nest
    Fluffy nest, smells like nothing, no poop, no chew damage = Chipmunk hibernation den

    Chipmunks chew too.

    Had a Taurus that the wipers quit working. Opened the cowling and found about 2 1/2 gallons of pignuts and rodent nest in with the wiper motors. One of the pignuts had rolled between the motor and the knuckle that held the drive arm for the wipers and popped them apart. Chipmunk was using it for storage.
     

    thunderchicken

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    Since you have found a nest make sure to keep a very close eye on under hood components especially wiring. I regularly have cars come in the shop that have been parked a few days and a critter has chewed into wiring. Also very common to discover damaged wires long after they have been chewed and corrosion has set in.
    Haven't really found any good preventatives to run them off. Good luck
    Oh and they also like to chew on nylon fuel lines so keep your eye open for fuel leaks.
     

    bwframe

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    Chipmunks for me. I take dozens of them a year with the .22 and they are still all over. They are in the engine compartment and the mice go in the bed. My pickup sits a lot more than it is driven.

    I battle this every year, mice and chipmunks. They'll eat seals, wires and make nests in places very hard to get to, like your blower fan.

    The dual duty solution is a small hav-a-heart with a standard mousetrap set on the trigger. Superglue a raw almond to the mousetrap trigger. I've never had problems with neighborhood dogs or cats messing with the almond. I do catch a bird once in a while, its rare that they get caught by the mouse trap. Just open the hav-a-heart and they fly away.

    Varmints rarely escape this setup and it's likely you'll have to clean out and re-bait often during the fall and spring. It's good to have a water source close for dunking the whole trap with Alvin or Theodore.

    I still shoot a fair amount of chipmunks with the air rifle, but it doesn't compare to the traps. I have three loaded all summer in various locations.

    This doesn't show the mousetrap on the trigger. I discovered that trick after finding that mice were eating the almonds, but weren't big enough to set off the hav-a-heart or that they did set off the hav-a heart and were small enough to escape.

    20180522-203733.jpg
     
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