Mouse Moved My Insulation?
 

All,
After almost six years keeping mice at bay in my garage, this week I found TWO brand new mouse nests in the bonnet of my car - I was not expecting them this early in the fall, because I am still driving the car occassionally. One was behind the master cylinder, the other (which was revealed by the awful smell of dead mouse, now removed) in the smuggler's box.

I have done all of the searching and reading I can about preventing this going forward, but my question is where the little b*st@rds are moving this insulation from? One nest was more yellow / brown material, the one in the smuggler's box was greenish. See pics. I presume that this is insulation from somewhere in the car, but I can't figure out where it came from. Any help would be appreciated, I am worried that the loss of insulation from its original location could be bad for heat protection, etc.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1349369101.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1349369113.jpg

Thanks in advance!

Looks like under carpet insulation.

Photos show a better mouse trap. Coat the bottle with a little peanut butter.

Put 3 inches of water in the bucket.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1349370968.jpg

No mice here at Mikeyland with my lil' girl around, haha:cool:http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1349373361.jpg

Those little SOBs will bring stuff in from wherever they find it. I am in eradication mode myself and will post pics in a bit. I have found corduroy, cotton fabric, plastic, electrical wires, straw, vinyl (from my rear seats), a plastic spoon and fork among others. I would look around the garage for other sources where they are pilfering construction material.

Check around the garage too. The rodents may be pulling the stuff from someplace outside the car.

I have a boat that is in dry storage all winter and I would use dryer sheets to keep the rodents out. I found out the hard way that dryer sheets do not work when I opened up the boat and found several nests built with the sheets -- arrrgh.

I did a lot of research as you did and I'm trying some stuff called fresh cab this year. Putting it in both the boat and the car.

Thanks all, I appreciate the quick replies.
We have two cats, but unfortunately our detached garage is too cold in the winter and the local coyotes/fox/raccoons/sasquatch would eat them on the trip between the house and the garage anyway.

Kodioneill, love the design for the better mousetrap, but are you sure that the mice can't climb up and out of the sides of the bucket? or can't they even swim well enough to get over to the side? I think it's very clever, and I love that it's a DIY solution, isn't limited to only one mouse at a time, and is safe for my 3 year old who loves hanging out in the garage with me. I will probably build one tomorrow. Or two or three, the d@mn chipmunks ate all of the peas and beans in our garden this year, I'll show those little b@st@rds!

And I know that they're bringing in stuff from other places, I found a Kit Kat wrapper in the smuggler's box, and I don't even eat those things! But there was too much insulation to assume that it really came from somewhere else. Under carpet makes sense I guess, but makes me even more mad that they were crawling around the interior too!

There's another version for chipmunks. Deeper water, about 4 inches from the rim and cover the top with sunflower seeds floating. Put it someplace with a little ramp or bridge so they can get to the top of the bucket, preferably near a little wall or rock they run around on. They'll jump in thinking its just seeds and swim around awhile before, gone. I had a buddy in NY kill 40 or 50 munks with his. Definitely off topic!

I found dog kibbles in the primary case of my son's motorcycle when we bought it!

As for dryer sheets, I have no idea why but Bounce sheets keep them away but other brands make good nesting material, at least that is my experience. (I hate the smell of mothballs)

They drown and they never get out. Another good thing about this trap is, you don't have to touch a dead mouse just empty the bucket. Put in 3-4 inches of water.

Is that a 5 gal bucket? I'm going to give it a shot. Little b***ards chewed the tassles off wife's bedspread stored in garage and built a nest in the tunnel of the 70. Still don't have all the nest out. I want to cut em off at the pass and I have a bunch of buckets.

Supposedly essence of peppermint ,poured onto cotton balls, & placed inside a baby food jar type container-punch little holes in the top to allow the smell to escape. Smell ok to us-rodents stay away.

It's the Homer Home Depot bucket it may be 3 gal or 5. Any size will work. I have a friend who owns a hunting camp and he'd catch 15-20mice a night when he first tried this method.