get the mouse out of my truck

Also if you are using snaptraps, I've had good luck with slim Jim pieces. Stab them on the little spear part.

codrus wrote:

Ditchdigger wrote: All of that is mouse damage

How did you fit a mouse through the intake valve? :)

Exhaust valve. The muffler was full of mouse spoor too.

I think you've got some good advice about getting it out. Since someone mentioned a snake, I thought I'd add this anecdote. My shop (Eclectic Motorworks) frequently gets cars in with dead mice and mice damage. Occasionally, we get one in with live mice--the worst was a Mercedes 220S that came in on a rollback and at least four live mice jumped out of it as it was being winched down. This story even tops that. We had an MGB in for a recommissioning--it had been in a barn for 10+ years and was full of dead mice. Maybe 15 or 20. As one of the guys was pulling mice and other trash out, he even found a snakeskin. No big deal. The next day, he got the car running and went for the first drive. He returned to the shop and popped the hood to check fluids, etc. Staring right at him, sitting on top of the valve cover, was a live blue racer snake. It had apparently been living in the car for weeks while it was in the shop. The snake was as scared as the mechanic, and slithered on top of the gearbox. We called a snake handler from the local nature preserve, put the car on a hoist, and the snake was returned to nature later that day.

--Carl

p.s. We've also seen dead mice on top of pistons, having crawled in the exhaust as mentioned. We've also had mufflers completely clogged with nuts and other things carried in by mice.

Spring traps for the win. Simple and provided you tweak them a little and use good bait, they work a charm. I usually file/sand the trigger plate where the retainer bar goes thru to get rid of any burs , I also bend the plate a little as well as the tip of the retainer bar and also file the end of the retainer bar a little to smooth it out.

I bait using chunky peanut butter, Reece's peanut butter cup or pumpkin seed. I apply a little cooking oil to the tip of the retainer bar as well. Should be almost impossible to set, but almost garunteed to go off if a mouse so much as licks the bait.

Good luck, you need to get that sucker out before it makes a mess of your wiring, upholstery or both.

I'm going to try some of the repellents suggested. Every time I use my riding mower mice have nested in the cooling shrouds.

A couple of years ago, I started my old tractor up out by the barn, drove it across the yard and parked it for half an hour. Then it started running so rich that there was fuel dripping onto the ground. Here's what I found when I went to check the carb:

slowride wrote: Put a snake in there.

And then when the mouse is gone, there's a species of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.

i had sticky traps on hand, they work well in the house. put one on the floor surrounded by 4 more to hopefully get it. the bastard ate the peanut butter and got unstuck. now all 5 have a piece of dog food on them, and i'm going to get a couple old school traps tomorrow if no stuck mouse in morning.

i put bait packs all in our crawlspace and in the basement where the dog/kid can't get to them. they work well, but sometimes my house smells like dead mice for a while. like right now, i think a colony of them died in my bedroom wall because it smells like death in here.

Woody wrote: A couple of years ago, I started my old tractor up out by the barn, drove it across the yard and parked it for half an hour. Then it started running so rich that there was fuel dripping onto the ground. Here's what I found when I went to check the carb:

Sucked to be him...

We took our first Lemons car to judging and it still had rat crap and acorns on the intake. We were used as an example for show people what a proper Lemons car looked like. We even got a trophy that year. "Most Likely to Leave in an Ambulance."

I vote snap trap and peanut butter as well. I've caught 28 mice in a week with 4 of them. Several times I set them twice in one night because they would snap, I'd clean the trap, reset it and it would go off again. That was a bad year for mice. The entire neighborhood was overrun.

We had a mouse in the shop a couple years ago. Toasting a blob of peanut butter had the mouse into the trap box I laid out literally as soon as I turned my back.

Mouse escaped the trap box, though. I felt like that guy in the movie where he tried to get teh groundhogs and kept failing.

I recommend chunky peanut butter and small pretzel pieces on or in the trap of your choice.

In reply to patgizz:

BTDT, you can't bait a glue trap with anything oily or they'll get free.

Glue traps smell nice too me thinks. we once had a hunting cabin overrun with mice so we set out a few, one mouse would get stuck in it and another would come along to eat on the stuck one and get stuck himself. Needless to say we eradicated that place of zombie mice with 22s and rat shot. If you do use snap traps be sure to put them on rubber floor mats or something, they can be grousome

In reply to Apexcarver: I've seen that too. Maybe we were at the same autocross. I've also seen it at Summit Point on the Shenandoah Circuit.

If you use any type of poison, there's one thing to remember: whatever eats the poisoned mouse gets poisoned as well. So, your cat, dog, ferret, or chicken might pay the price. I vote/use traps.

Poison the little bugger and he goes off somewhere to die. Remember he can't open the doors .....

I never thought the little bastards would eat aluminum, but they invaded my BBQ last summer. They ate the grease out of the drip pan, but also the aluminum foil liner. I found little chrome mouse turds in the bottom of the BBQ.

I hope it hurt a LOT !!

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/jt-eaton-little-pete-multiple-catch-mouse-trap-solid-lid-423-p-9808.html

Can catch 9 mice at a time. the JT Eaton Universal Glue Board (166) and put in areas of rodent activity.

Maybe the mouse doesn't know how to unlock the door. Try leaving a door open.

After reading and trying ALL of these ^^^ same suggestions when I had a similar problem, poison was the only thing that worked. Snap traps and sticky traps loaded with peanut butter, all over the basement and inside the car did nothing, but apparently they loved the poison to berkeleying death.

Every winter, I get a few in the garage and a few more out in the barn. I have always set traps in the garage, but never in the barn because I don't go out there much in the winter.

A few weeks ago, I set up eight spring traps with peanut butter in the garage and made a bucket trap for the barn. A week later, all the traps were intact and the bucket was empty. I thought to myself, "Gee, I hope the mice are okay this year..."

had the same issue in my exploder several years back. We put a no kill trap in the floorboard baited with peanut butter. Next warm day the little rodent was in the trap when my wife came out of work. I really didn't want to use a snap trap, I've had mice in my shop leave blood and guts all over before dying in those. Poison likely gets you a dead rotting mouse deep in the dash if it doesn't crawl out and die where your dog can eat it.

I tried a bucket trap in my shed. Heard scuffling and thought I was successful until I watched the big ass rat hop right out of it while cleaning the peanut butter off his whiskers.

Guy I know uses 55gal drums with a cantilevered pvc pipe over it. Drops the rat in, no way out. When the rat dies of starvation he tosses the body up on the shed roof. Birds handle disposal. He's a cold bastard.

deadmau5

Ohhh, he's only a baby.

Find one, there's five.

Sorry.

Good progress

Our shop is over run right now, I have snap traps, sticky traps, a canti lever trap over a trash can and dryer sheets so far.

The canti lever trap and the glue traps have been far more effective, caught at least 20 in each.

But the one bugger in my office has avoided everything, I can hear his little arse every freaking evening, I think he has assumed co ownership.