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Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:18 am

I want to park a car outdoors for a while and I worry about mice getting into it. Does anyone have a tried and true method for keeping the mice out? I have heard Bounce dryer sheets and moth balls, any experience with this?

Don

Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:46 am

Kitty Cat

Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:03 pm

Both dryer sheets and moth balls will deter mice, I'd switch them out every 3 months or so.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:26 pm

Go with dryer sheets...They smell better. :D

Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:47 pm

I've also heard steel wool works good but that's only if you want to block their entrance. They can't get through the stuff.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:26 pm

silvertonguedevil wrote: I've also heard steel wool works good but that's only if you want to block their entrance. They can't get through the stuff.

They may not pass through it but they WILL dig it out and remove it if it is blocking a known passage route, even when tightly packed in!

Dave

Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:53 pm

scottvw wrote: Kitty Cat

I tried that once but after a few weeks the smell was so bad I didn't want to go in the car. I'd rather have mice in the car then leave a cat in there for weeks at a time. Cat only lasts about a week and a half, then it dies.

I have found leaving a roll of bounty paper towels in the trunk of my 911 kept them from chewing up other more expensive stuff. They like to chew up the paper towels.

Traps work too, but you really need to check them on a daily basis so you don't have dead mice stinking in there.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:34 pm

the sticky pads that smell like peanut butter work the best around here for catching them. A good tip is to make sure your car is very clean inside, and food sources are not near by. This eliminates food for them, and also will alert you to their presence faster if you see fresh crumbs or turds somewhere inside or around it.

Once I started my Beetle after the winter and a cup full of corn shot out of the tail pipe. 2 dead mice by my pedal cluster. There was a bag of corn and bird seed near that i found out was their buffet. Now I plug the holes, remove the food and check on it once every few weeks.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:32 pm

....hell I'd leave it there. It may grow up to be a 'rat' then you'd have yourself an original 'ratrod" :lol:

Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:47 pm

small containers of household ammonia placed in the compartments.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:11 pm

put a dish with some antifreeze on the floor, they drink it, they die

Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:24 pm

Stewart little found the bag of do food i left in my trunk for 2 hours. Then he found the glue trap the next day.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:31 pm

I wish the PO of the car I bought did something to prevent mice from getting in the tunnel. I pulled out enough trash, material, plastic bags and old socks to fill a 2 gallon bucket. That was some nasty stuff in there not to mention the mice poop.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:35 pm

Couple bars of Irish spring soap under the seats......l

Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:54 pm

Glad my nabors have cats and we have never had a rodent issue.

Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:30 pm

I have a hawk. It lives in a cedar tree in my front yard. Its very gratifying to see little piles of fur poo under the cedar. :twisted:

Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:15 am

Theres been a ton of posts on this - so I'll make it quick - where I store my cars, I can have a small piece of plywood laying outside for a couple days and they will start a nest under it. I am HUGE on ultrasonic pest repellers in my storage garage - have never found an occupied mouse nest there - have found the start of them, but they never stay. Outside is a little different. I have a partial shed over our pickup - I run an extension cord to it with one repeller hanging inside the window. That wont help your engine and trunk unless you put one in each area.

In lieu of that, we recently bought a travel trailer and the RV place sells "peppermint" rodent repeller balls. I have seen over and over that peppermint is a good repeller. If you dont want to use ultrasonics, try that. A lot of the other stuff is debatable whether it really work or not.

Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:45 am

The RV suggestion is a good one. I will try that. As the car will be going to the country, there is no way to keep the mice at bay since there is an infinite supply of them. I have to make the car unwelcoming, which if peppermint works, sounds great to me.

Don

Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:40 pm

sunroof wrote: I want to park a car outdoors for a while and I worry about mice getting into it. Does anyone have a tried and true method for keeping the mice out? I have heard Bounce dryer sheets and moth balls, any experience with this?

Don After extensive research I have found that PEPPERMINT OIL, PLANT STEMS & LEAVES makes mice lose their senses and go away fast. I grew some this last year and put it under the hood and in glove box and under seats. NO MICE PROBLEM ! Irish Spring chunks works too! Ultrasonics devices are OK but need to be moved around so they won't find a way around the noise pattern. Dryer sheets become their party (potty) places. Moth balls stink and melt and don't work. This is what I have come to believe from many, many post on Hagerty Classic Cars web site. But my home grown PEPPERMINT is the best!

Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:52 pm

My best mouse story, ever: had a mouse in one of my cars. Wouldn't leave after all the usual peppermint, mothballs etc. stuff. And, kept springing the traps and cleaning up the peanut butter!! One time I almost got him: he left his tail in the trap!! Bobbed his tail right off! Pretty sure he was in the vent system somewhere, so ...one hot summer day I let the car idle with the heat cranked way up, and one door propped open about an inch or so. Left it run for an hour or more. No sign of him for the next couple of days. Then, I checked my trapline in the garden shed and the shop ...and there was Bob, my tail-less mouse, dead in a trap. Happy day ...for me, not Bob the Mouse!