Mice in your car - Don't trust smelly soap bars to keep them out!!!

Had a very nasty surprise when I got the car out of storage a couple days ago. It seems I had the mice from hell take residence in it over winter. I was driving it daily before it got put away in November. It's a nice car, with no rust holes, so they would have really had to work at getting in. I had always read in a couple magazines not to use old-fashioned mothballs, as they are corrosive. These same magazines suggested using bars of 'smelly' soap (ie, Irish Spring). It didn't work. They took up residence, got into my nice seats and headliner, and EVEN HAD SOME OF THE SOAP for a snack! See the below attached picture. Just thought I would share my experiences since I got burned using it to keep mice out, If you read or hear that is it a good alternative to moth-balls, at least you have read my experience.

 

You can trust cornmeal and plaster of paris, half and half

 

Petrified rodents.And it works.

 

Never heard of the soap trick before...

But "Bounce" dryer sheets work really well- plus they smell better then moth balls!

 

Snap traps or some device to KILL the mice are the only real way to keep them out. Dryer sheets did not work at all for me.....

 

I have had very good luck using the green {blocks and pettets} poison purchased from a farm supply store.. Place some water close to the poison after eating the green stuff and drinking water this will speed up death.. I also use glue traps along the walls of the storage building as rats have bad eye site and travel along walls. The more you use is like a big net the more you catch{kill}.. Bobby..

 

Or, get yourself one of these little guys...

 

After i lost a whole seat to mice one year I loaded all my cars up with the cheapest nastiest smelling drier sheets you can find. At least one box per car spread all over. Haven't had a problem since

 

This is a good deterrent.

 

I had a problem with mice but i just left a bait trap on the trans hump and never seen them again. Its tough to get that pee smell out ive found.

 

Just went through cleaning up my barn find '63 Falcon. After 20 yrs. of sitting in a barn, the mice had moved in everywhere! Rockers, headliner, seats, trunk, dash. When I cut the old headliner out I even found a mouse skeleton where one had died of old age and dried up!
The smell was pretty bad, but as I removed more and more of the interior, the smell gradually went away. I cleaned and painted the floors, installed a new headliner, replaced the seats front and rear, and removed all the door and side panels to vacuum and clean.
It smells like a new car now, and I hope I've checked, cleaned, and painted every spot they could have hidden! Don't want to do this again!

 

I place lots (I mean LOTS) of bait bars around the cars for the little criters to eat.

If they get full on them, I have more place inside the car on the floor.

So far, they haven't eaten the ones in the car, so I guess they haven't gotten in the cars.

 

my routine is a couple dozen dryer sheets in the car, including trunk and engine bay.

beneath the car I scatter a half-box of mothballs

put bait around the exterior of the building.

knock wood, so far-so good

 

mothballs keep people out, not mice.

 

I did the same thing Deuces ,, got a big ole tom cat at the shelter
he cleaned out my mouse prob,

 

Here is a product that really works. Its called Cab Fresh....I believe it was developed for garbage trucks etc. Available at farm/fleet type stores. Smells good. I use in 6 cars stored for 6 months and rv too.

 

We have a big ol black cat who patrols the garage and sheds for us. We saw mice the first couple weeks we lived here, but I haven't seen a live one in years now.


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I had a problem using poison, the mice would eat it then crawl into my car to die. I won't use glue traps, as I don't think anything deserves to die that way. What worked for me is drilling a hole in either side of a 5-gallon bucket, about 2" from the top lip. Then I drilled a hole in the bottom of a round water bottle. Slid a length of all-thread through the holes and the water bottle, smeared peanut butter on the bottle and put a few inches of water in the bucket. Propped a piece of 2x4 against the bucket so the mice could get up there. Mouse walks on the all-thread to get to the peanut butter, steps on the water bottle and it spins them off into the water. (Have to add a little anti-freeze in the winter). Hey, we all are going to die some day, drowning isn't the worst way to go. The trap works, the mice do not die in my cars and there are not the issues that can come up using poison. Worst part was scooping the mice out of the water (get a slotted, long-handle spoon)

 

I've read on the size of a hole a mouse can get through, if you can fit a ball-point pen through, a mouse can get through it too.

I'd also recommend the green poison pellets but without the water source next to it. Let the mouse exit the vehicle searching for a way to quench it's thirst unless you wish to discover the carcass in your interior with a blood stain at the mouth.

 

Years ago I changed the oil in a lawnmower by sitting it on the bucket. Then for some reason I hung the bucket on the end of the garage door track (past the stops) and forgot about it. Months later I go to dump it and there's half a dozen mice corpses in the oil, which was like an inch or two deep in the bottom of the bucket.

So I suppose you could use old oil as a trap for them. Either way, the plastic bucket is a good trap because once they get in, they can't get back out, so they can't go die on your seat or under your seat.

 

Must be global warming, the mice are eating soap now. Problem with moth balls isn't that they are corrosive to your car as much as they are super toxic to humans, apparently some pretty nasty stuff. Even if they did work, your car ends up smelling like an old grandma's sweater. Plus, they are called moth balls for a reason, not mouse balls.

 

A few drops of oil of peppermint, on a cotton ball...... keeps rodents away.

4TTRUK

 

we live way out in the country. the woods are like 30 ft from my back yard and 15 ft from the side of the house. i park all our cars close to the road which is about 300 ft from the house.big parkin space. 2 shops full of cars for the winter. so mice found thier way into a few cars. one being my 6 yr old grandsons 65 mustang. it had about 3 inches of thier droppings in all of the floors and even under the seats. i vacuumed it outand by the time i got done i had problems breathing. in just a few minutes i couldnt breath at all. son drove me to the fire dept .just about 1500 ft from the house they put me on oxygen still didnt help. they checked my blood pressure and before i could say no i was in the back of a ambulance headed to the horsepital.one of the firemen said boy you should have already had a stroke.oxygen level was like im dead.well thats what he said.lol anyway in the ambulance they put some meds in the oxygen i cant remember the name of it but its the same my granddaughter uses for her asthma. by the time we got to the horsepital i could breath again.they did all the vital work things were headed back to normal.good! then they said the dr. would be in to see me in a minute. 1 hr later i was still waitin. my pain meds were in my safe and im startin to hurt bad. so no dr i slipped out the back door. they caught me.lol but i left there anyway.i will not under any circumstance vacuum out another car if the mouses have moved in.so its killin fields here. poison on the insides of them cars and 5 gallon bucket traps around the outside of them.

 

A friend of my wife's recommended this, and it works great. Got the mice out of our crawl space and house a couple of years ago, so I use it in the truck. I still put the bait around the perimeter of the garage.
Take a low can, like tuna fish, and put about a 1/4" of mineral oil in it. Then put a few drops of essence of peppermint (you can get it at health food stores), and swirl it around. Every month or so I add another couple of drops of peppermint. I put one can in the cab and one in the bed under the cover. Seems to work fine, and the cab is minty fresh in the spring! A lot better than mothballs.

 

NEVER EVER VACUUM OR BLOW OR SWEEP RODENT DROPPINGS

Mouse and rat droppings carry hantavirus. 40% of people who get it die from it.

Sorry to shout but this is potentially fatal. There is currently no antidote and no cure. When you vacuum or blow or sweep rodent droppings the hantavirus spores become airborne. They attack the respiratory system, the kidneys and urinary tract, cause a high fever 104-105˚, shivers, sweats blinding headache etc. This can last for up to a week if you haven't died from it. The first sign is that you feel like you are pissing razor blades and you may pass blood in your urine, then the headaches and shivers begin. No meds will help any of it. Ask me how I know!

There were a bunch of people who died from it last August in Yosemite - all over the news. If you ever buy an old car and find or smell rodent urine or faeces, put on a respirator - not a dust mask but a full blown cartridge respirator, medical quality nitrile gloves, and use a wet rag or towel to scoop it up or clean it up very carefully. Dispose of any vacuum cleaner if you have used one to vacuum droppings otherwise the next time you use it it can reinfect you. The price of the vacuum cleaner is not worth your life!

Here are some links - please take time to read the information....

www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/

www.mayoclinic.com/health/hantavirus-pulmonary-syndrome/DS00900

www.hantavirus.net

 

Also- don't trust in other stupid internet myths like Dryer sheets. I have owned a pest control company for over 25 years and have seen so many people try this and fail, The mice or rats always chew these to hell and use them for nesting material. Fact- dryer sheets don't kill rodents so why take a chance of rodents destroying your stuff and bringing a health risk to you and your family? Use something that will actually kill them such as traps or rodenticide used in a tamper proof bait station to keep your pets out of it.

 

It may sound like bunk, but I have used these for over 30 years in my homes, garage, and MH. They do require 110 AC but I have never had any problems. Get them at lowes or HD any hardware store.

Put one on every wall. If it dosen't work send them to me and I will pay for them. John

 

Used the DeCon metod. One died inside frame, could not find it. stunk up the car a couple of weeks. Also started the car at the strip and one hopped out headed for parts unknown!!

 

I tried th Irish Spring trick too. Mice ate the soap, and shat in the Dixie cups I'dput the soap shavings in. Mothballs keep 'em OUT.

 

Hate to tell you but these units are a scam also. If they actually worked all hotels and the restaurant industry would use them exclusively.