I made the mistake of leaving a 25lb bag of dogfood in the car overnight, and when I removed it, I saw that something had chewed a hole in the bag. The molding is also pushed out by the pillar.

I made another mistake of putting dryer sheets in the car before I researched them online. Not only are they useless for keeping mice away, breathing the fumes isn't recommended. I've been leaving the doors open to air it out. I'll have to put traps in the garage and the car.

 

do you leave the hvac controls in recirc or fresh?

 

get some DCon for your garage, keep pets away.


dryer sheets, mothballs are all myths imho. to get rid of mice you need traps and poison.

 

In my experience, mice thrive of DCon. There once a very effective green pellet that congealed the little critters blood and they wandered off to die. I don't remember the name and I don't think it is available anymore.

Many years ago, we had a field mouse problem that the green pellets cured. Once saw a mouse wandering across the floor and a mouser in training went to "play" with it. The kitten cuffed the mouse around a couple of times but decided that the mouse was no fun since it didn't attempt to get away. The kitty left, the mouse keeled over and died. I picked the mouse up by the tail and it was already stiff as a board.

 

We have three small dogs with very good noses, so poison is not an option. I'll use traps. Keep checking the air filter behind the glove compartment for nesting and droppings.

 

Obviously we had small animals, both cats and dogs. The poison was in a detached unheated storage building. It was a very cold winter and the mice were seeking the heat of the family room. Traps work sometimes, DCon rarely.

 

I've found D-con to be relatively effective, but you have to keep the bait available at all times.

Traps work well, but you have to check and empty them regularly.

For unattended buildings, I use a resetting trap made from a 5-gallon bucket:

Bucket Mouse Traps |

Put a couple of inches of antifreeze/water mix in the bottom and the mice don't smell. Used antifreeze works fine. Keep cats and dogs away, they drink the stuff.

 

Thanks for the tips, but it's no longer my problem. Ex has remarried and moved to a more, er, up scale but rustic neighborhood. She still has multiple cats and dogs, plus deer, rabbits, possums, and raccoons. I'm not sure were they store the pet food, but I'll ask. Ex's husband does hot rods.

Me, I live in an apartment and have no pets ... or mice.

 

One of my friends thought he had mice in his car...he found an open box of tissues shredded, and saw pieces of shredded tissue behind the air intake grills by his rear fenders. (This was not a Fit, obviously)

Another friend took a mousetrap, put some peanut butter in it, and laid it on the ground outside the car. Within 15 minutes, the mouse came to gorge the PB.

I was amazed at how quickly the tap worked (and BTW, this was after a 35 mile drive away from home).

 

So did the country mouse become a city mouse?

 

No...it became an animal formerly known as mouse. :-(

 

in my experience it works fine, so worth a try.

 

Snap traps set with a small strip of raw bacon smeared with peanut butter makes a great bait in the car. Use glue traps against the wall of the garage. Poison WILL give you a big stink if they die in the car. Squirrels are a bigger problem. Traps that work well for mice and rats won't work as good for them.