Hi: The car I bought this Spring had a mouse problem at one point with the little buggers chewing through seat foam and wires. I now live in the country in Canada and do not have a garage so it will be parked outside in the snow. Indoor heated storage would be about $1000.00.

I've searched online for solutions and have come up with the following. . .

Mothballs which I think by the Spring the car would smell awful.

Dryer sheets everywhere. Again a Springtime smell but not as bad as moth *****. Any ideas of what brand to use?

Wrapping the car in plastic. I would think with the wind the plastic would wear out the paint in spots.

Irish Spring soap?

Traps all around the car.

Anti freeze in buckets around the car with peanut butter as bait.

I was going to build a plywood box and drive it in, but I showed my plan to an ex woodworking teacher and he said the snow load on the roof might be an issue. $500.00

What has worked for you?

 

I know it happens but how do the little buggers get in there? Have you thought about putting a cat in the car and feeding him. Cat food's cheap and doesn't smell too bad. You could then tie a dog up outside the car to keep the cat inside.

 

How they got in the car is still a mystery to me, but I did see a nest under the lower seat foam. They don't need too big a gap to squeeze into.

The other really big problem was that they easily can get to the engine to munch on wires there as well as they stripped the wires leading to and near the transmission.

 

Of course, cats are more destructive than mice, and smell equally vile.

I say just set traps around the car. Empty the kills every few days and re-bait. All should be well. BTW....mice love peanut butter. Excellent bait.

 

So do dogs!!

 

Yes we do.....but we're smart enough not to lick a mouse trap {twice}.

To the OP.....I read somewhere on here that mice don't like fabric softener sheets. You could load the car with those. They won't hurt anything and they smell good.

 

This could be addressed by adding a pitched roof & reinforcing your design, but probably wouldn't be mouse proof.

A variation on this idea would be one of those inflated car enclosures---put your car in, zip it closed & turn on the fan. The only way in for the mice would be through the fan or through the air exit (if one exists). It requires electricity and is designed to be used in a structure so you'd want to combine it with your plywood box/shed idea.

 

When my dad puts the boat up during the winter time in Minnesota, he uses the irish spring soap trick. Always irish spring. Never understood why, but he has NEVER had any problems with mice in the boat. In fact, we built the shed one winter before we actually started putting the boat in there. By spring, there were mice EVERYWHERE in the barn. Next winter, in went the boat with about 10 bars of cut up Irish Spring soap. ZERO mice.

I have seriously researched why it drives mice off. No one has an answer, only that it does.

 

You may not have to worry about mice if you park it outside like that.
Mice what to come inside somewhere. You would have a greater chance of mice if you parked it in a garage.

It is extremely easy for them to get into anything they want.
If you can put a pencil through it, a mouse can get in.
There are plenty of openings on any vehicle large enough for a mouse to gain access.

 

Tell my Dodge ram that dang thing got ate up with mice last year. But you know, the closer I park it to house, I don't have mice issues. Parked it by the house for years and never had any. But my carport is up by my barn now.


to the OP, keep serching and you'll find my suggestion and possible cure for mice by using peppermint and cotton *****. I just posted it about a wreek ago maybe.

Search with the word mice and go back no farther than 3 weeks.

 

here I found it for you

use peppermint to prevent them.

get a bottle of peppermint and some cotton ***** and some little half zip lock bags. Take the bottle of peppermint and turn it upside down a couple times onto a cotton ball. Place about four to five of them in a baggie. Leave the baggie unzipped/open and place it near suspected points of entry and also in around the engine bay in suspect areas.


You don't have to use a lot, just one here and there. A friend of my wife who has a couple cars stored in a barn and also have a camper told her about this and it seems to work.

You'll have to use the trial and error method on how many baggies and where to place them.

I did try this with my camper a couple months ago and it didn't completely stop them but there was a huge difference in mouse activity the last time I visited my camper last weekend. Now I just have to increase the numebr of baggies and fine tune the placement.


I had/have a mouse issue with my pick up. I opened the glove box and a mouse was inside my koozy cup I keep in there. Tried to grab him but he got away.

So I found a stick of peppermint candy and opened it up and set it in the glovebox. Couple days later there was a dead mouse sitting outside my pickup and I couldn't find a mouse inside so I guess he ate the peppermint and it killed him. I tried this just to see what the effects of peppermint was on mice.

I store my pickup and vette or STS under a carport up by my barn so I do have mice issues. I've tried some of the store bought solutions but they cost like 7 bucks a package for 4 packs and they only last a month or so.

My wifes friend said they don't have mice issues with the procedure I outlined.

Worth a try. (I would probably change the baggies once a month or two but she said they leave them in all winter and it seems to work)

If you are going to have your car sit for periods of time I would go ahead and get some mice poison as well just cuz. Use a small plastic container with a lid, so you can put the lid back on when/if you want to drive it.

 

It's a Dodge, what did you expect?

 

Poor Mike

 

I get no respect.

But I have friends

 

This year i'm parking the C4 on a sheet of plastic and putting a ring of mothballs around it and dryer sheets stuffed around inside. Their cheap. I really hate to poison them and have them dead in the car .

 

Good luck with any method you try. I just finished cleaning out my dash board, under the seat and in the rear hatch are. Oh also under the intake and spare tire carrier on my 85 when I got it back from being stored in my garage in CT. I tried the poison traps glue traps everywhere in the garage and under the car. The little SoB's took the poison with them up into the nest and died there. I pulled about 12 victims out of the car. I got lucky though. They only chewed a couple of the radio wires and vacuum lines for the HVAC system. Just fixed them all up and put the dash back together. Sprayed the areas with the enzyme type pet smell remover. Has eliminated 90% of the smell. I still need to remove the seat and check under there and clean out. That is this weekends project along with cleaning the carpets. Bottom line is I think they are going to do whatever they want to really. I don't think anything is 100% effective when they are looking for shelter.

 

Yep, the peppermint oil on a few cotton ***** tossed around the garage works. It smells OK to me but those miserable meesez hate it!

 

Maybe not 100%....

 

Okay, I found out why mice don't like Irish Spring soap.

Mice don't like the smell of.....

It's just the smell. Irish Spring soap, spearmint extract, tobasco or anything that has the smell of a strong flavor. Hell, according to this article, if you pee around the car every once in awhile it'll help keep them away. I like Irish Spring because you KNOW if it is still there. Is there a little greenish block sitting there? Yep, it's still working. I don't know how long spearmint extract in a cotton ball will last... or your pee for that matter.

2 cents given.

 

I have my Vettes in storage for 6 months during the winter. I have been able to eliminate the mouse problem by purchasing 20" wide Flashing that is 25' long ( need 2 rolls) from Lowes or Home Depot. I surround the car with the flashing and join the two ends with Gaff tape on the inside. The mice can not climb the slick steel nor go under it. It is a steel wall between the mice and the car. Hope this works for you.