berkeleyin mice!!!

Hey guys, 

Got home from work today, had a quick snack and decided to hook up the A/C gauges to my 06 Sienna to see what the level of charge it has. A/C seems weak at best. Popped the hood and heard a bunch of acorns and such rolling around between the hood and the insulation on the bottom side of the hood. Pryed the insulation away from the hood some and loads of acorns fall out. 

Figured I'd tackle that after messing with the A/C. Decided to remove the wipers to get the cowl cover off so I can clean up the acorns and such that I can see under there. Get my shop vac out and start cleaning up the debris. Notice there is more stuff in the drivers side corner. Reach in with my fingers to loosen up the debris. I feel something weird. Sure enough there is a pretty good sized mouse comes scurrying out jumps onto the engine cover and disappears in the back of the engine somewhere. I then unbolt the wiper assembly for better access and ckean it up really good. 

I then decided to check the hvac system by pulling the cabin air filter out. Sure enough there's a big nest on top of that. Suck it up as best I can with the shop vac. Who knows if there are more mice in there, but if there was they're in the shop vac now. Cabin air filter is chewed on a bit and filthy. It only went in about 3 months or so ago. I also changed the oil about a month or so ago (I'll have to check my records) and there wasn't any acorns in the hood then. So they haven't been in there long I don't think. 

How do I keep the mice away? This is a car I drive everyday. Most days only a few miles so it sits a lot, but I honestly drive this car every day. 

Checked my records. I changed the oil on 3/14/2020 and there were no acorns in between the hood and insulation. Cabin air filter was changed on 1 /1 /2020. 

Pretty sure mothballs will repel mice. They smell awful though.

What your truck really needs is a cabin cat.  Of course you'll have to feed it and provide a litterbox (which may smell worse than the mothballs!) but it'll get rid of the mice.  

JBinMD said:

What your truck really needs is a cabin cat.  Of course you'll have to feed it and provide a litterbox (which may smell worse than the mothballs!) but it'll get rid of the mice.  

I'm allergic to Katzen too. I do like Katzen however. 

EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) said:

Pretty sure mothballs will repel mice. They smell awful though.

This has always worked for me for numerous winter storings of a variety of Miatas.  I just put some in old plastic bowls, one bowl per footwell.

einy (Forum Supporter) said:

EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) said:

Pretty sure mothballs will repel mice. They smell awful though.

This has always worked for me for numerous winter storings of a variety of Miatas.  I just put some in old plastic bowls, one bowl per footwell.

Yeah I bet that moth balls work, but I'm not sure I want to smell them in my daily driver. 

The zoning lady told me to stick a bar of irish spring soap in the car, and they haven't had mice in 40+ years of winter storage.  I'm going to try it this winter

In reply to Mazdax605 :

I wonder if you could put a mesh bag of mothballs under the hood and either not smell them or minimally smell them in the cabin?

No help, but I gotta mention that you should be careful about cleaning up after mice.  Hantavirus is bad stuff.

Cleaning up the urine is hellish

Mr_Asa said:

No help, but I gotta mention that you should be careful about cleaning up after mice.  Hantavirus is bad stuff.

Cleaning up the urine is hellish

Great, something else for me to worry about. 

In reply to Mazdax605 :

Here's a quick how-to if you've got urine https://www.cdc.gov/rodents/cleaning/index.html

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

The zoning lady told me to stick a bar of irish spring soap in the car, and they haven't had mice in 40+ years of winter storage.  I'm going to try it this winter

The leperchauns the soap attracts eat mice, so that'st true, but then you'll be dealing with hungry leperchauns after a while... and they're carnivores. 

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

The zoning lady told me to stick a bar of irish spring soap in the car, and they haven't had mice in 40+ years of winter storage.  I'm going to try it this winter

Tried that as my friends swears by it too. Mice ate the damn soap! And they still are around. 

There have been a couple of other threads on this issue. I guess it is a common problem when you have extra cars around.  My favorite tip from an earlier thread is a few drops of peppermint oil on a cotton ball, placed in the areas the mice seem to like. Apparently it smells good to us, but not to mice. The only downside is that it wears off after a week or two, and you need to freshen up the peppermint oil.  

The other thing is to make sure you don't provide a food source nearby for the little critters, like a bird feeder, or dog/cat food in a shed or garage close by. But it sounds like in this case, they are enjoying acorns from a tree in your yard. 

If there is any way you car drive the car regularly, even if it is a trip around the neighborhood every week, that will usually keep rodents from settling in.

Clearly people aren't reading this correctly. I drive the car every day. Not far, but every day it gets used. Loads more on the weekends, but it moves every day.I checked the cabin filter/fan area this morning before leaving for work, and there was no evidence that the mouse returned. I sorta stuffed a bar of Irish Spring soap between the fan assembly, and the cabin air filter yesterday evening. Let's see if that works.

I worked at a building that had a problem with seagulls hanging around their building and flying over their parking lot making a mess on the cars. They play a recording of a seagull in distress (sounded like it was screeching as it was being eaten alive) on a loop and it kept most of them away. I wonder if you can get something like that or maybe the ultrasonic devices work. I see them advertised frequently. I can understand it if you set the car on fire, to me that would be a reasonable way to get of these unwanted visitors, Good Luck!

JBinMD said:

What your truck really needs is a cabin cat......

Is that the new Trunk Monkey?

Mice were getting in my wife's old 2012 Rav4, so I took off the wipers and cowl, then using some wire, I "stitched" a piece of hardware cloth over the fresh air vent (had to drill lots of little holes. That kept them out of the interior. Another thing you can do right now is to make sure to always park it with the recirculation on, as that closes a door to the fresh air intake.

You need to put some heavy duty wire mesh over the entry points into the HVAC system.  Once they they have gotten in, they will come right back.  Had this happen in 2 Toyota Highlanders my wife had.  Couldn't believe there was no screen over the HVAC opening.

Contrary to popular belief, mothballs, Irish Spring soap, or Bounce dryer sheets don't keep mice away.  I've seen mothballs and Irish Spring with chew marks on them, and the dryer sheets make dandy mice nest material.  People have put them in their cars and then have not seen mice, but they are two mutually exclusive events.

maj75 (Forum Supporter) said:

You need to put some heavy duty wire mesh over the entry points into the HVAC system.  Once they they have gotten in, they will come right back.  Had this happen in 2 Toyota Highlanders my wife had.  Couldn't believe there was no screen over the HVAC opening.

I would like to do this, but I don't know where the opening is. 

In reply to RX8driver :

I like the idea of making sure the recirc door is closed, at least that keeps them out of the cabin if they do find a hole somewhere else.

stuart in mn said:

People have put them in their cars and then have not seen mice, but they are two mutually exclusive events.

If anyone thinks they need it, I have a supply of unicorn repellent, and I'd be happy to sell it if the price is right. 

Correlation != Causation

Mazdax605 said:

I would like to do this, but I don't know where the opening is. 

Check it out.