Rodent Rage!

[Max Von]

Putting my car cover on last week I noticed a small hole in the fabric near the door mirror. Hmmm..strange, must have caught it in the hood latch. Couple of days later I find what looks to be a mouse nest in the trunk compartment comprising of pieces of my Noah car cover, foam from the defrost vent tube and some of my nice velour trunk carpet! AARRRGGGHHHH! I placed a mouse trap with some peanut butter on the trigger next to the nest site and went to bed with visions of decapitated rodents dancing in my head. Next morning brought a confirmed kill! Yea!! Figured I'd bait the trap again just in case his friends came over. Three days and no kills. Problems solved right?
Well, I drove the car yesterday and thought I smelled something"funny". I keep my synthetic chamois in its tube under the seat and thought it had just gotten a little "gamey". Tossed it out and had a nice drive in the country. My nose told me that something was rotten in Denmark still. I got home and literally did a U.S. Customs anti-terrorist style teardown of the interior, trunk area, smugglers box and engine compartment and found nothing (except for $0.37 and a stale lifesaver mint).

Went down the street to procure some high test libations to ease my pain and turned on the A/C as it was quite muggy out. HOLY ****!!!! The stench could have gagged a maggot! I literally had to stop the car and get out to gasp a few breaths of fresh air! Great, the evaporator box must have a dead mouse in it and deal with losing the clips and blah blah blah. Pelican to the rescue! Did a search and discovered that I could access the inlet for the A/C under the passenger side floor board. I wish I had a digital camera so I could share my discovery. There were four dead infant mice (really smelly) and the missing pieces of my car cover and other carpet munchings ( careful). Cleaned up the mess and checked the air inlet to be sure no other rodents had been sucked into the evaporator box.
Can anybody recommend a good odor neutralizer? I've cleaned everything really well but I still get a wiff of decomposing mouse ass. I suppose I was lucky that they didn't live to eat some expensive hardware. What can you do to keep these pests out of your car? I don't want to bait a trap in fear that it will attract more.

[GSpreeman]

How about a house cat in the passenger side?

My grandfather was a farmer and discovered a mouse had moved into his '64 Mercury Comet while driving down the road and mouse decided to explore his pant leg. The car was fine, my grandfather was fine, the mouse didn't make it.

[Joeaksa]

Same thing in my old 72 model except that the mouse got in the motor through the fan. Could not figure out why it was not running right and finally put another motor in the car.

When I took the top cover off of the motor found the nest below:


If you have had them in one area you might want to check the entire car over and then get a cat and station it in the garage!

Joe

[JDaniel]

I found this the other day...

Good thing it was only the Audi. I guess I should take the beater out for the occaisional spin in the summer.

[kcope]

Mothballs will keep the rodents away. Might help with the smell too. (Unpleasent V Disgusting)

[ccandgc]

Try several liberal applications of Fabreze and leave all doors vents and trunk space open...heck, put a fan and leave it on high!!


ChadC
71 911S Targa

[Zeke]

How about baking soda?

[Shawzy]

I feel for you bud.

I stupidly carried home grandma's garbarge in the trunk of the volvo.

Stunk up the passenger cabin for weeks!!!! I would air out the trunk, and the next day the fumes would still burn out the eyeballs/nostrils. Stench causing bacteria is hard to rid of.

I scrubbed the entire trunk carpeting with deorderizing cleaner, and then covered it with baking soda. Steam clean was to be the next step but so far so good.

good luck....and thanks for the thread i will be extra careful with storage....

[vesnyder]

Has a similar story happen in my '67. Had a family of mice living in the shift tunnel. Placed some poison in the garage and the entire family must have got it and died - HOLY ***** - that smell was unbelievable. Even the vacuum that I used to clean it up with had to be fumigated. Thanks for the reminder to never let that happen again!

[Adam]

Joe, you're damned lucky there wasn't a fire!

Max Von, Great story!

[Max Von]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did do the baking soda and the Fabreeze thing with good results. Funny thing is that I have 5 vehicles in our driveway and the mice selected the Carrera over all others. Perhaps even lowly rodents know a good thing when they see it.
Our neighbors have a 28lb cat named "Big Boy" that I tried to recruit today but he seemed more interested in the Hooters wings I brought home than looking for some skinny mice.

All the best,

Max

[orph]

From past experience, I would recommend that one use caution in soliciting the services of a cat for rodent control.

Several years ago, after just completing a total restoration on my '66 Corvair Convertible, I parked the car in the garage adjacent to the house. At this point, I'm talking less than 24 hours after completion of the restoration. As many visitors had come to see the vehicle, I decided to leave the top down. The following day, I left on a 3 day road trip. In the interim, my wife in coming and going with her car, and in parking in the same garage, noticed a mouse running across the floor. In her infinite wisdom, she solicited the services of the outdoor cat and simply put her, the cat, in the garage.

Upon my trip return, I noticed the cat , whom spent 99 % of her time hanging around the yard, was not insight. In questioning my spouse, she suddenly recalled where she put the cat, but also indicated she had not seen the cat in the garage during her coming and goings for the past couple of days. Well, I headed directly to the garage thinking that this cat probably had scratched the paint, or minimal at best, had probably left paw prints all over the Corvair. I guess I had not even considered what I actually found, and that was on the floorboard of the passenger's side, were 4 brand new kittens ! On the plus side, it appears the garage was also rodent free.

[atlporsche]

I had this problem...as did the original owner...during his "I dont' know what I'll do with this thing phase" he had it HANGING from aircraft cable in his garage. he GREASED the cable, and actually had a sighting of a mouse sliding down the cable then WHACK into the rotor, then onto the floor.

When I replaced the muffler I poured out a pile of birdseed 6" high and 12" around. That thing weighed a ton when I took it off.

Iwas replacing front floor pan, and cut through the panel wall under where the gas filler is...FUNNY, it smells like DOG FOOD...I don't have a DOG!!! awwwww crap....the entire panel in the drivers footbox where there's a double wall was FILLED.

I've never seen a mouse here, then again, there's several neighborhood cats that are always sleeping on my deck.

sjd