If I had to choose one solution, it would be the giant bag approach suggested by Bob. Might even toss out some mothballs onto the tarp before raising up the edges, that way, if they did get into the tarp somehow, it would probably not be a very welcome enclave inside.

Kirk

I also have cars in a steel bldg in the middle of a forest.... here's my results:

Electric repellant: doesn't work
Mint: doesn't work
Bounce: Not sure, first winter with it, but I caught a LOT of mice this winter with traps: in the cars, around the cars, etc. So I doubt they were deterred. No mice in car, but....
Traps: Peanut butter appears to work better than cheese for me.

I've got a version of a new "mouse trap"...

5 gallon bucket, remove handle. Get a Campbell soup can of broth, hammer a hole dead center of each end and pour out the broth. Get a wire hanger and "cut" the straight portion out of it. Thread the wire through the soup can. "Hang" the wire through the old holes where the handle was on the 5 gallon bucket. Wrap bacon around the soup can, and wire it on with piano wire. Wipe some peanut butter on the bacon. Put 6 inches of water in the bucket, and add a little liquid soap. Put a small wooden ramp up the side of the bucket, centered between the wire ends. Mice run up the ramp, jump to the soup can,...."spin", and fall to their doom....

Still looking for a real solution.

By the way... I have an old 56 VW beetle my dad bought new at the factory, and that one we rolled onto a tarp and wrapped it up.... NO mice for several years now.

Eric

Give 'em a computer game. Works for children...

http://www.hereinreality.com/more_fu...mouse_game.jpg

The 5-gallon bucket is called an Adirondack Mouse Trap around here. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much good after November, when the water freezes.

bummer on the Bounce sheets. i used those this winter and have no mice BUT it was an unusual winter in terms of weather. I also put mothball hangy thingys (sorry to be so technical) on either side of the garage door and tossed a few into known mouse hiding spots. must've been a combo of the three that helped.

i didn't do the bare moth balls as i have a toddler and those things are incredibly toxic.

big talk... people around here have been sent to jail for killing cats.

I would certainly suggest putting any and all of the above items in the engine compartment as well as the cabin since the engine seems to be the point of entry. And then, there's the heat valve by the trans which is wide open most of the time. Before storing a car, why not pull the heater lever(s) up to close the opening to the transfer tubes?

Rube Goldberg would be proud...

http://randomnumbers.us/wp-content/p...ad_cat_101.jpg

Make it a link and I will. Looks to be funny.

Nothing funny about animal cruelty, but I understand he may have been only jesting. If anyone knows me at all, it's my standard comment about cat killing, kidding or not. I personally don't approve of even killing mice, rather just moving them along and letting nature take its course.

But, anyone can see the humor in Sorterik's contraption.

see the positive side of the mouses. How many mouses are in the forest: some thousand??? I think that you can make some traps to catch them alive. Then go to the nearest chinese restaurant and sell the mouse to them to make some pepper steak.

I personally prefer the glue traps. The little suckers are still alive. You then have to drop the trap in a bucket of water to kill them. When the bubbles/thrashing stops, mission accomplished!

OK... what about the jackstand/pan of water idea with a few inches of used motor oil replacing the water (recycling, kind of). I'd worry seriously about a mouse that could climb a steel pole while covered in motor oil. Kinda messy, though. Try the tarp/mothball solution first.

i liked the oil in a pan idea until i got to how you lower the car in the spring.

of course, you might make some parts money serving little mouse beers to the mice while the girl mice are trying to climb the poles covered in oil......

We had two cats I became allergic to. They finally died of old age. Last fall, the mice came. Havahart doesn't work--they come back unless you ship them to the next state. Terminix put poison around--big mistake--they died in the walls, and I can still smell them after 6 months--and I'm allergic to the poisoned mice like the cats. Fortunately, they aren't as toxic to me as they were in the beginning. I used Renuzit odor killer--in the duct system. I have traps in the garage and cellar. Last week, one dead one trapped in the cellar. First I've seen since December. Mouse repellant? Maybe poisoned mice. Anything else I'd like to know. Interesting the poisoned mice are much more toxic to me than the healthy mice. Same as with sick cats.

Almost half way through your amusing "Gold Porsche" book. Just traded my SC for a Boxster. I read you fixed your green Phaeton? on Mt Auburn St. I lived around the corner on Trowbridge while in grad school-in the 60s.

Walnuts. Boy, do they love walnuts. My wife left a cup of walnuts in water out in the kitchen overnight. Next morning, no walnuts. Ultimately, we found walnuts in several places around the house. Traps are the only way.

Anybody know how long those fake cheese yellow plastic bait traps last? I've had some out for several months. Does the cheese smell in the plastic last indefinitely?

I like the snakes. I put out some flat sheets of tin and wood around the northern Michigan property. Also have a big south facing door on the garage with a nice smooth concrete pad for the snakes to soak up the heat. Every fall I prop a concrete bock on the footers with some nice mouse poison under them on each wall of the building. Coupled with the bounce scattered in each vehicle, my mouse problem has almost gone away. Milk snakes like my place and the worst I have found are lots of their abandoned skins on the engine block and an ocaissional snake skeleton. Good luck.

Diverdan

Curts right . Dryer sheets are cheap and work great .

That reminds me ..........my car is sitting in an old dairy barn waiting for the engine to go back in . Need to get over there and place some in the car .

Leave the hood up. They don't like the light.

Won't the battery go dead? (Or do they shut it off when they're finished eating your wires?)

Personally I liked a combo of mothballs and traps.

What do you do when the water freezes?

Whoever thought that the Golden Plated Porsche would smell so much like fox piss.

What about just inverted cones on the jack stands? It works for squirrels, and unless the mice are falling from the rafters...which is possible...i think that might help. I liked the tarp Idea also. Who knows, frankly in the area you are talking about its a losing battle any way you slice it. Otherwise you are looking into lava, and that can get expensive.

I swear to god i will pistol whip the next person who says mouse traps with peanut butter...