Mice in the car

[skippi Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close skippi]

Hi,
i recently discovered i have mice in my new Prado. First we found evidence of them in the glove compartment, and after setting a trap we actually caught a mouse. Hoping it was just one but playing it save we set the trap again, only to find mouse #2 trapped. We now have 3 traps in the car and have so far caught 4 mice. We have a ARB snorkel installed, but i cant see how they would get in the car through it
Anyone have any ideas?

[Guest Close Guest]

Hard to say not knowing where you are located?

If bush, then obviously a mouse problem would exist more than a city.

They would have to come thr either an open door or window, or have managed to get in thru the air conditioning vents?
Otherwise they have chewed thru a boot somewhere, trans shifter, engine bay etc. There isnt too many other spots they could get in.

PLease place your location in your profile.

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

Dear god!

Mice and machines really don't get along well at all. Had plenty of experience with this when I used to be a wheat farmer.

Impossible to say where they'd be getting in. Once they find a spot though, they keep going back there. My advice to you is to get the car out of there. Move it elsewhere for a while and bait everywhere. Mice need to eat so they won't stay in the car forever. Traps are fine but if you really need to get rid of mice then poison baits are the only answer. Just be careful with pets if you have any because cats love 1/2 sick mice to play with. Put your Prado far away when you do this though because you don't want them dying in it!

Mice will go to great lengths to get into a nice dashboard or bury themselves in the firewall insulation. It might be an unplugged hole anywhere in the bodywork which allows them access to crawl all through the wiring conduits or inner bodywork spaces. Mice can get through holes you'd never believe.

You really don't want mice getting a foothold in your car because not only will they eat everything in sight they will make it absolutely stink like you wouldn't believe. You will not get rid of the smell once it's there.

New Prado?? Did the mice come with the car?? If so then straight back to the dealer with the dead mice and tell them to sort it. If that was me I'd be wanting a full inspection of the car. You do not get mice in cars without some sort of damage. Chewed wires or insulation. It's what mice do. Mouse infested new car from the dealer.... not good enough. Not your problem.... the dealer's problem.

Mice from your garage: get the car out of there and sort out the mice. They will come back!

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Spot on IP !!

Move your car and go and buy one of each of the 3 types of rat bait !! They are an animal of repitition, once they are in your car they will return. The old rule of thumb was for every 1 you see there are 10 still hidden.

Be very careful !! I had mice and bush rats get into a Landrover discovery and a GT4 celica, they did $1000s damage !!

They ate all the bonnet insulation in the disco, randomly chewed the wiring harness and finally got a bit thursty and chewed into the windsreen washer hose, which was why I opened the bonnet !! OMG !!!

The celica had a nest around the battery and on top of the exhaust, after not driving it for about 3 days the nest caught fire !! Again they had randomly stripped the wiring harness, eaten all the bugs and dead bird ? in the air cleaner and off the intercooler and chewed into the rubber headlight mountings.

It is a fairly common rural problem and a debate as to whether you bait inside the engine bay continues as to if you are attracting them there in the first place. You may need to check if you have a dead animal or something they are initially attracted.

It appears they do not like wd40 but love the smell of fishoil. The only way I have stopped the buggers getting into the engine bay is to open the bonnet and leave a light on over night. I always bait around the main house and sheds with traps and baits. I also monitor my other vehicles looking for their scats/urine and little footprints.

If they are only little field mice you can get a simple plastoc trap from the supermarket that clips open. I have found the best initial trap bait is peanut butter or armonds.

As for getting in, if they are field mice they can fit through a number of spots, but they have probably chewed their way in.

[lawrance Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close lawrance]

In my younger days I used to remove airconditioning systems to clean out all the junk that had built up in the cooler unit and reassemble and regas the system.

On one occasion, this owner came to us with a car that had a stench most foul. We stripped the a/c unit and found dead mice churned up to bits by the a/c fan.

It took a lot of scrubbing and cleaning and more cleaning and scrubbing of all the bits and pieces to get rid of the smell before we could reassemble the airconditioning system.

What a pong dead, minced rats make!! :evil:

[Matt Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt]

umm.. 180kms east of rocky.. are u in the middle of the pacific?

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

ever thought of placing either a python or domestic cat in the Prado?

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

umm.. 180kms east of rocky.. are u in the middle of the pacific?

Not really the middle, but they must be some ingenious mice! And your snorkel would certainly earn its keep :lol:

[skippi Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close skippi]

Mice in the car

ok ok sorry guys! Its the other way, 180 k's west of Rocky, my bad ops:

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

So skip are you a billy bolderer or a black lunger ??

[Steve & Sandra Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve & Sandra]

We used to have this problem in Leonora. Nothing worse than one falling off the clutch pedal and running up your trouser leg. Peanut butter works a treat they do like the crunchy one.

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

Spurio I had to laugh at your rat nest catching fire story!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The little field mice are the worst because they can get into very small spaces. I'm thinking about that dust ingress thread we had a while ago where a rubber grommet was missing on some of the blokes' wiring route up the back, letting dust in. I'd bet the little rodent would get in someplace like that too!

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Spurio I had to laugh at your rat nest catching fire story!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Apparently it is quite common??

Apparently once the battery goes that it, I was stupid enough to put it out :x I should of let if burn :lol:

It is amazing how much plastic is in the engine bay !!! Turned it into a big half melted blob, insurance paid for the repairs to all the electrical bits and a new bonnet, but we could never get rid of that stinky burning plastic smell. So we sold it :cry:

[GXL05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close GXL05]

I too one morning was checking the engine oil and i found rat/mice
s....in the engine bay near the air cleaner outlet. I cleaned and the
next day same thing. I put some borax in the engine bay and it has
been a year now no more little fellows...