HELP! - TV Mice/Rats Question

There are lots of preventative measures, most of which are ineffective. Like peppermint oil,mothballs, dryer sheets, a picture of Dick Cheney, etc.

Mice like dark places. A light left on under the hood at night is a common, and effective, way to prevent pack rats from nesting and eating wires. Give it a try. A simple, low voltage light at the end of an extension cord will do. A friend direct wired an LED light to his battery. They draw almost no power and are quite bright. He said that did the trick.

Good luck.

Ed

Had the same problem with mice with my riding lawn mover, they kept building nests inside and chewing the air filter and other plactic stuff. Fresh cab and Critter Ridder works for short periods but puting D-Con where they can find it is the only good solution. The bigger problems are the squirrels that caused a $1000 damage to my truck. I have tried everything to keep them away with no success. Can't find poison any the Squirrels and chipmonks to eat.

rbtglove wrote:
Had the same problem with mice with my riding lawn mover, they kept building nests inside and chewing the air filter and other plactic stuff. Fresh cab and Critter Ridder works for short periods but puting D-Con where they can find it is the only good solution. The bigger problems are the squirrels that caused a $1000 damage to my truck. I have tried everything to keep them away with no success. Can't find poison any the Squirrels and chipmonks to eat.

as Joe Biden would say, "Buy a Shotgun."

that will take care of your squirrels and chipmunks.

I bought this house on .6 acre in 2005. The back 1/2 of my lot includes a small creek and woods. Usually I've had 6-9 indoor/outdoor cats. Absolutely no mice, rats, moles, etc. Eating up anything on any of my RVs. Heck I've spilled my chicken feed on the garage floor before & it's still laying there undisturbed several weeks later!

Now the possums come into the garage frequently to eat the cat food I leave out, but they don't nest in the RVs!

I read somewhere that someone installed white LED lights under the hood of his vehicles and swears it worked no more problems. Would not draw much current from the vehicle battery.

I bought some electronic gizmos, it is about 2" square, maybe 3/8" thick and plugs into 120Vac. They were at Costco, 3 pack for $10. I put them on a power strip next to a couple of washer/dryer pairs we had taken out and wanted to keep the mice out while we stored them until we got rid of them. Seemed to work, no mice in 6-8 months. I have never seen them for 12Vdc, but perhaps you could figure something out.. We use the peppermint oil on cotton balls (3 cotton balls in mesh sleeve with 2-3 drops of peppermint oil every few months). It helps, not sure it stops them all.

Took DW to the dentist this AM and we had just parked and she opened her door and out jumped a full grown mouse from her purse. She almost crapped her skivvies. LOL

I just had to tear my son's truck dash apart to clean out the blower motor area. I pulled out a dead rat and his tail, and after pulling out a bunch of leaves I pulled out a thankfully dead pgymy rattle snake about 6 inches long still fully intact.....man did his truck stink bad!

Check and seal all possible entry points. Mice can get into spaces as small as a dime, but use some foam insulation spray to seal any small entry spots.

In regard to the mice, use your basic mouse trap with a small rolled-up piece of bread with peanut butter on it. On a recent camping trip I noticed mouse feces near the stove. I put two traps out and got one that night and two more over the next day. No more after that. Also, I just read an article about mice and an "expert" said the basic mouse trap made of a piece of wood and wire spring is the best for killing mice. I agree.

A while back I had red squirrels in the ceiling runs of my 5th wheel AC. They did some electrical damage that cost $1,100 to repair. (Most of the cost was labor for removing the ceiling to check and repair the wires.) To seal the entry points someone on this site recommended foam insulation with small chuncks of steel wool poked into the foam before it hardened. Later I found evidence that a squirrel tried to reenter at the point I blocked w/foam, but ran into the steel wool and gave up.

Shoplights on timers under hood (or on ground under engine facing up). Works for me.

I've had at least 3 vehicles cost hundreds of dollars over the years. Used to have bait boxes around the property. Rats were supposed to eat the bait, then go off and die. Instead, rats took the bait, hid it under my car hood to snack on later, and built a huge nest right on top of car battery.