Mice are devouring my customers Subaru's , and ideas how to stop it ?
 

I fixed their legacy a few months back, mice chewed through all the fuel pump wiring, and some light wiring to the rear of the car.
Monday, I had their 2015 Forester in, shifting funny and trans codes. Sure enough, found chewed wires to the intermediate shaft speed sensor . Repaired that on Monday with good weather pack connectors, shrink wrapped it, then wrapped it in electrical tape.
Back in this morning. They ate the wires next to my repair. I see they are also having a field day with the insulation in the transmission tunnel.
I am pretty sure this has soy based wiring insulation .
They live out in the country, on 11 acres, have a few barns and are surrounded by farm fields , so the mice have a good food source.
They have cats, and said there are plenty of snakes around. They have traps in the cars, and get dead mice daily ,but cannot seem to stop them.
I told them it is just a matter of time before they get in behind the dash and do some real $ damage
Any ideas ??

you might have to get rid of the car- find something they won't dine on. What else can be done?

park on a lift

Do they park indoors or outside? I think if outside, they're stuck. But if in a garage (though maybe not a barn), at least there are ways to seal up a place to limit critters.

Try putting a bar of Irish Spring soap in the area (without the box). I have them on all my cars. When you open the hood it is quite fragrant!SmileWavy

Mothballs may work....

May keep your customers out of their cars too...

Dryer sheets work well. Not potienally messy like soap.

We've had better luck with the cars that are outside rather than in the barn, go figure.....

American iron appears to be less tasty than foreign.

Put a moat around the vehicle literally or figuratively. The old suburban parked away from the house in the rocky driveway get's no visitors. Golf in the barn gets mice. The mice are in the barn in the walls etc. It's cozy in the barn and cozier in the car in the barn.

We've tried the electric noisemakers, dryer sheets (makes nice nesting material), etc.

I actually hate squirrels and chipmunks more than mice... they make more damage to the house.

E

Bounce dryer sheets inside and out. Bounce seems to have an odor the furry critters don't like. Might also try some moth flakes around the perimeter of the car but not inside unless they like a strong lingering smell. Mice are also highly incontinent so there are probably pee stains everywhere in that car. If they have cats, I would stay away from poison and glue traps.

Timely post. My wife just told me some friends of ours had friends in Huntington Beach that went on vacation for a couple of weeks. Got home and found out rats had gotten into their Prius which was sitting in the garage while they were gone. Dealer said to call their insurance company as it was $6k to get the smell out and fix the damage to the Prius.

Was visiting a friend for a week. They had mice in there house. I got some sticky traps and put them were they said they usually see the mice running when they enter the room. Heard a noise and went to check it out. There was a dish rag from the hamper across the room covering the sticky trap! Told my friends I had to leave because those mice were too smart and I didn't feel safe.

Maybe you could undercoat the car and dust the undercoat with moth crystals while it is still wet. Not enough to make the car stink, just enough to discourage the rodents.

Tomkat pellets. Zzzzzzzzzz.

park inside a circle of this stuff poured on the floor of the garage. They sell it at Lowes and HD. It smells strongly of moth balls, so be warned.

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cat
 

Many years ago mice got into my wife's honda pilot and did $750 worth of wiring damage.

I put a glue trap under the engine and caught a mouse that next night.
1 week, 3 traps, 3 mice.

No more problems after that.

I think most of anything you do would only be partly or temporarily effective. I posted sometime back asking about the same problem with the instrument panel wiring for my tractor. A long time ago, mice/rats ate the insulation off of the wiring behind the instrument panel. I replaced it and within a month, they had eaten the insulation off of my replacement wiring. Apparently the insulation is soy based. One of the members here suggested buying wire with PVC insulation, which I did. However I haven't had time to redo the wiring to see if it works. I doubt it would be worth it to try that with a car.

I read somewhere of new wire coatings being made of a tastier material. supposedly the fault of yet more overbearing EPA regs.

Enough poison to kill a elephant

Short of having a shipping container delivered and parking in there, not much. The idea of parking on a lift is one other way but that is a bigger pain in the butt than parking inside a shipping container. I presume it would be safe to have rodent proof vents on the roof the shipping container. I have no idea what a shipping container delivered to them would be but likely less than a new car or constant repairs on the Subie.

Bubble gum. Sweet and tasty, stops up their plumbing

Spray those areas with bitrex and vinegar.

Proper traps.
Snap and done jobs, not those silly glue ones.
Peanut butter as bait.

Keep baiting until you get a week clear, then leave a few down as indicators in case you get more.

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That is what is under the hood of my wife mini now.

Two weeks ago; new wire loom $600 + $600 installation/testing + $250 of taxes. Luckily the insurance is picking the bill - $300 deductible.

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These throw-paks really work. Don't open them when placing them. The paper is scented to attract mice and rats.

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I have a car in storage and use unscented glue traps. The guy at the varmint store said to use unscented so as not to attract the mice. I put a few along the base of the walls and some near each tire/wheel. In the last few years I've only found a couple of caught mice and never any in the car or damage to the car.

Just use these

https://www.amazon.com/Pest-Stop-Systems-Little-Nipper-Mouse/dp/B005LV27PY

We get mice every winter. Briefly.

Why not hire an exterminator?

Go nuclear. Traps, poison, glue, cats, etc... Splurge on a few hundred bucks. Thats probably less than lost time diagnosing one wiring chew through...

I had mice appear in my garage last spring for the first time in 15 years. Found a dead one under my work bench at first. Then I set traps and caught at least 5-7 over the summer. Just caught 2 more this past week.

Also, I got my M3 going this past summer for the first time since 2013. In the process I discovered that they had gotten in to where the computer is housed on the car. Since this car has a V8 swap, this is a GM computer and it's held in there by non factory means. I found some high density foam squares 9" x 9" at the hardware store. It's basically wedged in there between several layers of these. The mice seem to like those, found bits of that stuff all chewed up. No apparent damage to any wires yet. For the life of me, I don't know how they got in there. That area and the harness leading to it are weather sealed. I'm terrified these little f**kers are going to destroy this car.

Have them get a cat or two and keep them hungry. BTW, had a groundhog chew through a braided fuel line on my brother's truck once. I parked myself about 50 yards from the truck one late afternoon and took care of the problem... then I fixed the fuel line.

While looking up what Bitrex is I found this.

Barrier™ with Bitrex Wound Care Spray
https://www.qcsupply.com/barrier-bitrex.html

The little animals just chewed on wires in my engine bay of the S-10 that I park in the driveway and park on the street.

Only about four small wires in a harness, truck still runs.

I discover this after the truck would not start, I pulled the broken wires so they would not short out, wiggled a few connections and it started right up.

I'm doing he repairs later this week, don't want to leave wires exposed all winter.

Bingo...tho I do give the pack a small knife slice before placing it. Mice like to feel concealed, so I place baits and traps behind a board leaned against a wall.

Mostly for pack rats, but during the expansion season, when the litters scatter, we have to leave the hoods open on all the cars and pickups. They won't nest in the engine compartment if the hoods open. Mice maybe? But it seems to work for both.

In Eastern Oregon you know when its expansion season and exactly who's getting plagued. Open hoods.-WW

ps. No, pack rats never leave anything cool when they steal/trade.

When I lived up north I surrounded the 911 with these when November came. One single ball every foot or two.


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Lots of mouse solutions offered here:

https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/

From the OP...

"They have cats, and said there are plenty of snakes around."

Three way attack. Poison, sticky traps and snap traps. I have apple trees in the yard. They attract mice every year. Everything is placed where pets can't get to it. The poison says "one bite" but it sure disappears. Snap traps work on mice heavy enough to set them off so that is why I use sticky traps for the smaller mice. Big mice can escape a sticky trap.

I never used poison because of the feral cats in the neibourhood but they are all gone this year so now all out buildings get several bait stations.

Ugh.....Hate them. Had them get under my motor home and chew thru several air lines. PITA to fix. I've since installed a string of LED lights under the motor home that are on constantly and haven't seen any signs of the bastards.

But are they keepin em hungry?

Honestly the mice have been really bad this year. We have them in the house and in my pole barn. War has begun and so far I feel like I'm winning with the combination of dcon and traps.
Mice are like Barry Sanders back in the day. You can't stop em.... you can only hope to contain em.

Some people think hedge apples will keep them away.

I thought that was for spiders and other insects?? I never tried putting one in the crawl space for mice and never tried it for insects either.