I searched and found threads about how to keep them out, but what if you find a vehicle and it has them. How do you get rid of them? How do you keep them out later? How do you clean up? What about diseases they carry?
Mice almost always carry the black plague. Just use a little D-con, and wear some gloves to remove the corpses. You'll be fine. The vehicle will pretty much always smell like piss though until you gut the interior.
getting them out isnt the hard part... keeping them out is. Mice will always migrate to the closest thing that smells of other mice, and I've learned a few tricks from my years growing up on the farm (gutting 2 combine cabs to clean up mice ****, in some places almost 8 inches deep, also helped) if you plan on gutting the interior, make sure you wash down the interior with bleach water. This should kill most of the deseases they leave behind, and will do a number on the smell they leave as well. If you don't plan on gutting the interior, vacuum up all the turds and if possible, steam-clean the carpets. Once you get it as clean as you can, set traps like glue-paper. Don't use poison, cause they *******s are gonna die in some small little crawl-space and stink to high heaven. Mice hate the smell of Irish Springs soap (don't ask me why, I love the smell ) so I leave some of that in the trunk, and some shavings under the seats. Make sure you wear a dust mask or resperator when you initially start cleaning, it takes seconds to put on and may save you a lot or grief down the road.
freshly ground coffee works good to keep them out.Heard dryer sheets works but my buddies interior got chewed with them in the car.
To keep them out use cottonballs soaked with peppermint oil. They hate it and will aviod wherever that smell is. That will last for a few months. Same thing goes with garage/shop etc. It won't kill them just keep them away.
They make this stuff, and i cant remember what its called. It is in a little yellow box and smell like a x-m*** tree. Mice hate this stuff, I have seen it at alot of farm stores, auto parts places and at farm equipment dealerships.
I use D-con in the shop and it hasn't been a problem getting them in the cars. I like the D-con because it dehydrates the little devils turning them into little mouse mummies. Hmmm, maybe there might be a market for mouse mummies with the R-Rod crowd. I can see 'em hanging from a rusty mirror right now...
I've had good luck putting moth balls into a car after I've gutted it. (But I don't mind the smell of moth balls, and it wouldn't work for a car you're driving.)
I put decon out and put a small tray of antifreeze in one corner, the little ****ers drink it like koolaid. Just walk around and pick them up they dont go far. Make sure to keep your pets away from it though.
If I am not mistaken the active ingredient in rat poison deydrates the mice and makes them go in search of water, aka outside. Doesn't mean some of them don't make it or get lost along the way but that is the theory anyway. Supposed to keep them from dying in the house, or in this case car.
Thats When you got yourself a true "RATROD" Thing that sux bout the Decon is that the rats and mice tend to get it all over then other animals can get it cats, dogs etc...
If you use the stick or bar poison, be sure to anchor it with a piece of wire. Otherwise, the big mice and all the rats will just carry it off and hoard it for a rainy day.
Great - that's what I was looking for. So if I do gut it would it be wise to get a new heater box and all that or should ' could I run the old one?
(But I don't mind the smell of moth balls")[/quote]Just curious- How do you fit your head between their tiny little legs?
I use Irish Spring Soap in my cars to keep them out. I also have a home made mouse trap inside the building I store my cars. The trap works great catching mice. The trap is a 5 gallon bucket that has antifreeze in the bottom of it. There is a a wooded ramp that leads up to the top to a dowel that is ran through the top of the bucket. The dowel runs through a 20 oz. pop bottle. Then there is peanut ****er spread on the middle of the pop bottle. The mouse goes up the ramp in search of the peanut ****er. It then goes out on the dowel and then onto the pop bottle where the bottle spins around dropping the mouse into antifreeze. It kills the mice without any bad smells. I just have to reload the peanut ****er every couple of weeks.
Get a mask to wear when you commence cleaning the vehicles out. Ever heard of "hanta virus"? It's in their poop, and when you stir the dust and inhale it, it can make you very sick. Flu-like symptons to begin with, then worse.
Here's one for you: The Ketchall. http://www.kness.com/Ketch-All.html I've used them for years -- always keep one or two in my garage. No poisons, no baits to attract ants, nothing to snap your fingers. American made by a family-owned company. Funny as hell: the mouse goes inside, thinking it's found a tunnel, and BAM! It trips a lever and a paddle slaps the mouse into a cage before he knows what hit him. I bought one years ago at a flea market, and thought it was funny, but didn't think it would work. Wound it up, rolled some marbles inside to watch the paddle slap them into the cage, then put it on a barn shelf and forgot about. A few years later, I was cleaning out the barn and found the thing and opened the back... it was full of mouse skeletons. And the spring was still wound. It had been catching mice all those years. I was sold. One thing, though: This summer, I smelled something rank and thought I must've caught a HUGE rat in the thing. Turns out, it had caught a mouse, but then a large rat snake smelled it and came in the garage after the mouse. Snake stuck his head in the hole and BAM: the paddle smashed his head and broke his neck. I had some paint cans sitting on top of the trap, so I hadn't noticed it right away. So then I had a rotten snake corpse, wound all around the paint cans... maggoted mess. So be sure and keep the Ketchall out where you can see it.
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