Mice!!!

[SgtMoonracer]

So the wife and I do the bi-weekly grocery shopping, and I pick up a 40# bag of oil sunflower seeds for the birds. I leave the bag of seeds in the back of the LX so the mice don't eat through it in the garage before I get it dumped into the seed-storage-metal garbage can.

I take the sunflower seeds out the next day, and notice two piles of hulled seeds lying in the back of the LX, and a hole chewed in the seed bag. Not good.

I bait three mouse traps, and leave them in the rear and between the first and second rows of seats.

Today, I find two dead mice in the traps, and the third trap missing the bait, but not tripped.

How in God's name are mice getting into the passenger compartment of my LX?

 

[JayM]

Firewall...any place there is a rubber grommet for pass through is a possibility. Hate those Fer's

 

[C6H12O6]

My Cruiser spent some time living in France before I owned it. While there, the previous owner had a "marten repellent system" installed at the Toyota dealer. Evidence of some tooth marks on the foam cover over a hose in the engine compartment and an alternator replacement receipt from about the same time. Damn animals can be a pain.

 

[ItGoesTo11]

Yep, front firewall, through the A/C boot on the passenger side which has a handy hard line they can use to crawl right up to it. Or there is supposed to be a way for them to chew into the passenger compartment through the climate control ductwork. Start at the firewall, shine bright lights at it from the engine side in the dark and have someone look from inside to see if light is leaking through.

 

[tarbe]

I put a box of mothballs in my '93 to keep the little buggers from turning the Cruiser into a condo.

They tore the cardboard box apart and used it in building their nest!

 

[nissanh]

They crawl through the external air circulation door and chew the blower fan.

If you are storing the cruiser for a week or more make sure surroundings is clean and clear. I even leave the hood open over the weekend (TX has rear ally and that's how I get the truck to the back yard of my house)

 

[hankinid]

I've never, knock wood, have had a mouse issue. Maybe it's my Avatar?

That said, a marten is not to be fooled with unless you think you need a new bodily orifice.

 

[Julian Stead]

Cats rule the streets in the UK, I have never seen or heard of car damage due to rodents until I went on this site.

 

[Northbound]

Christ I was driving my
40 this summer and a mouse crawled out of the heater vent. Startled me, but grabbed it by the tail and tossed it out.

Mint is another very good preventative.

 

[Landpimp]

Drove 5 minutes to work.....pulled in and smoke was coming from engine bay......I opened the hood as my dad walked by.......3 mice ran away....one was smoldering
........the old man about fell over laughing

Every 4.7l be it 100 or tundra I have seen has a nest back by the starter, on the tundras they seem to like the knock sensor wires....

 

[Northbound]

We have a log house - I will never make that mistake again - so there are plentiful opportinities for them to get in the house. I spend one night with a shop vac sucking live ones up as they tried to get away.

They just landed with a thud in the container still alive. Drove them about ten miles away and released them per my wife's instructions.

 

[SgtMoonracer]

Well, just an update. I've gotten three total in traps in the LX, but none since Saturday. I got three or four additional ones out of the garage, but I know I'm just scratching the surface in there. Still no luck in finding out how they're getting in.

 

[BlueWeim]

Get a cat.

I was having mice problems in my shop. Chewing seats on four wheelers, chewed the wires on a harness on my tractor.
So i started putting out poison tablets for them. (Kinda like sugar cubes). At the rate they were disappearing I started feeling like the grim reaper but never actually saw a dead mouse. I went and started my tractor a few weeks
Later and it made a god awful noise. Little bastards had been carrying the bLocks and stashing them in the fan shroud on my tractor. So I guess the joke was on me.

So just a bit of advice from my pest control guy. Dont put out too much poison at once or they will just store it and not actually eat it, and just get a cat.

 

[Sandroad]

Mice can get into the HVAC blower through the engine compartment. Open the hood and look in the area right at the hinge. There's an opening into the fresh air intake large enough for a mouse under the plastic trim that also serves as a water drain from the mesh area along the bottom of the windshield. Once into the HVAC system they can chew a hole into the truck under the dash. That would be my guess for the entry. Sometime ago I posted a photo of the screen I fastened over the entry points at the hood hinge area. I'll see if I find that.

 

[White Stripe]

I've seen them crawl into the hvac system, and many times they die up against the evaporator core. So when u turn on the hvac, u get a terrible smell. It's a smell of dead rotting rodent mixed with their feces and urine left in the ducts. I charge customers plenty(about 2k) to take the whole hvac system apart, disinfect everything and remove the dead critters. I hate doing it, so if your gonna make me do it, I'm not doing it for cheap. I also instruct them to have the vehicle detailed, that adds another couple hundred to have everything inside shampood. One customer had over 10k in repairs due to all the damage rodents caused, they chewed wires throughout the vehicle on their fairly brand new Lexus.

 

[patride71]

I have problems with them nesting under the hood and between the hood and insulation on the underside of the hood in my 80. I've used mouse deterrent in the cab floor, passenger floor and cargo and never seen any sign of mice inside the 80. They still nest under the hood, but deterrent, glue traps, mothballs and a bar of Irish Spring have helped quite a bit. Where I have my 80 parked I can't leave the hood open, but I've heard that helps quite a bit too.

 

[ItGoesTo11]

Mice can get into the HVAC blower through the engine compartment. Open the hood and look in the area right at the hinge. There's an opening into the fresh air intake large enough for a mouse under the plastic trim that also serves as a water drain from the mesh area along the bottom of the windshield. Once into the HVAC system they can chew a hole into the truck under the dash. That would be my guess for the entry. Sometime ago I posted a photo of the screen I fastened over the entry points at the hood hinge area. I'll see if I find that.

A photo would be very helpful! I'm awaiting some warmer weather before I tackle this job...the pic would help a lot.

 

[fng36]

Irish Spring soap. I have found that Irish Spring soap works when storing vehicles outside. I put a bar on the upper control arms and rear axle as well as inside in the front and back/trunk of many vehicles over the years. Never had a mouse problem

 

[bamabrock]

They are evil creatures who will steal the souls of your children, but they do serve one purpose:

 

[Sandroad]

Here's the screen cover I made for the "port of entry". It's needed on both sides.