Other: mouse deterrent, winter storage

[jpepper]

I have an accepted practice to expose as false. I recently bought a running Dodge pickup with an injected 318 Magnum engine. I am parting out the truck. I want to use the FI hardware and intake on a Stude 289. I had the truck sitting in the yard and a mouse started building a nest next to the left valve cover. I scared him away and destroyed/removed the nest. fortunately no wires were chewed on yet. I then placed a number of original Bounce dryer sheets in the area to deter the mouse from returning. A few days later I opened the hood to see if they were effective. The mouse was using the dryer sheets as bedding in it's new nest. So much for being a deterrent. I set a trap yesterday and set it on the valve cover. The mouse is no longer a problem. The best deterrent is an old fashioned trap. Dryer sheets do not have any effect based on my testing.

Jim

[swvalcon]

That or his sniffer wasn't that good and he liked the nice blankets that you had left him.

[rockne10]

I've used them inside the car, inside a closed garage, to no avail.

[Swifster]

Moth balls...

[jackb]

a mammal with a "wet" nose doesn't need much to head the other way...

[Blue 15G]

I haven't had luck with the dryer sheets either (inside the car). A cat works the best, but this creates other problems too.

[Iroll]

Snap traps are best, but you have to keep checking them and if you bait them with peanut butter and place them outside, you will draw the vermin in. I do use the snap traps in my garage where i can easily check them in the 7 snowy months. Outside, I place several of those green "Tomcat" poison cubes under the hood of the cars I have sitting. I check the cubes periodically, and replace then as needed. That way I can see if they have been chewed on, or are totally gone as is the case sometimes. This has worked for me.

I told a friend to put dryer sheets in her summer tires while they were stored for the winter, and sure enough the mice appreciated those sheets as blankets....

[dpson]

Cat, plenty at the nearby humane society for free.

[sweetolbob]

Moth balls...

If you do, put them in a mesh bag and get rid of them as soon as you can. The 74 Avanti I purchased reeked of mothballs and even with the interior completely stripped you can still get a faint wiff at times.

Almost as bad a cat pee.

I use the Tomcat green blocks in my polebarn, as previously described. I like them better than Decon. Decon is so weak now that the mice don't dehydrate when they die. They bloat up with blood and they eventually die but then rot. Tomcat seems to work better but I want my older Decon back. You don't want to see a mouse that is on deaths doorstep from Decon.

I wouldn't wish that fate on worse creatures than them, it's looks much like Ebola is described. Blood all over everything and everywhere.

Bob

[jpepper]

I've used the green cubes in my building. WHen I went to get a few traps I bought some deterent bags that are made from spruce oil. They smell but are supposed to be non toxic. The jury is still out.

[RadioRoy]

Remember that if you poison the vermin, there is a good chance of poisoning the neighborhood cat as well. Little Susie will cry when her Tommy cat does not come home any more.

[StudeRich]

Peppermint oil placed onto cotton balls...... This also repels many bugs

[jclary]

I have released black rat snakes around my man cave. I also have two rescued cats (now spayed) that patrol the grounds. I feed them just enough to sustain them. If they want a snack...they have to catch it. No obese waddling cats around here. To keep he cats from tracking across the vehicles, I have installed a motion detector that activates fans. The cats are unnerved by the fans and, so far, have not tracked across the vehicles as much.

Just the past couple of weeks, I removed a four foot black rat snake from my neighbor's house. I didn't release it in my shed. I figure that once the animal becomes a "house snake," it is more likely to return to a house. Therefore, I gave it away. Truth is, if one makes it into our house, my wife will have us living in a motel until she's convinced it would be impossible for another to get in. Even when I point out that snakes never chew on anything, she don't want to hear it. Even the tiniest mouse can cause hundreds of dollars of damage. Folks don't seem as bothered by them as the thought of the tiniest snake.

[nels]

I've been using moth balls in a can on the floor and they just plane work. The smell goes away in a week or so of driving use in the summer. Mouse piss smell seems to be forever. They also like headliners and that replacement is expensive.
Nice to clarify dryer sheets are not effective. I've been thinking about trying them; I'm glad I didn't.

[Deaf Mute]

Dryer sheets (CHEAP STINKY ONES) seem to work for me. DO NOT lay them on the seat though; we judged a car at the Menomonie, WI Zone Meet a couple weeks ago that had a bad stain on the rear seat cushion from a dryer sheet last winter. I put mine on aluminum foil on the floor & make sure that all ventilation ducts, windows, and doors are shut tight. I also have rat poison sticks at a few choice locations in the barn.. last spring, there were no teeth marks on any of them... a first. Irish Spring soap is supposed to work also, but we had a Ford Club member bring a bar of Irish Spring soap to a meeting one time with teeth marks and mouse turds all over it... so THAT didn't work.