******* Mice in equipment

[Old Doug]

When i was just out of school my brother found a half grown tom cat and brought him home. He was a great cat . Everyone loved him and he got everything he could ever want to eat but if was in any of our buildings he would hunt and eat mice. I was sitting in a chair he got a mouse brought it over by me and crunch crunch crunch he ate it then went and got another in no time and brought it over and crunch crunch. He didnt like the litter boxes every morning if he was in the house he would be by the door to go outside and do his stuff.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I was just working on a genset today outside Truckee. Mice love gensets and there are lots of them in the desert/mountains of Truckee attracted by the dry and the block heater.

Anyway the customer has been stuffing any access holes with steel wool in an attempt to keep them out, and the mice have been taking the steel wool and using it to build their nests along with grass from the area.

A little concerning since the biggest nest I took out was inside the main generator section and could have pulled the steel wool and grass nest into some live parts and shorted or started a fire. Steel wool burns real good.

 

[Bumpsteer]

I pulled the bass boat in one spring to get it fired up. Saw a mouse head sticking out of a water port on the lower unit......time out, flag on the play.
Grabbed an old B&D workmate, set it next to the motor.
Grabbed Fuzzy the shop cat, placed him on the workmate. He smelled the vermin, went on point.
I sat down, opened a beer.....
3 minutes later, Fuzzy had a snack.
I miss that a-hole, made it 17 years....

Ed

 

[FarmWrench]

Always been explained to me, if mouse can get its nose thru a hole, the rest of the mouse will go thru. Seen screen mesh on air inlets to HVAC to closable doors on all outside openings on machines, still had rodents.

Nope I should have taken a picture but had a dead mouse "on" the potato harvester control box. Turns out it tried to get through a hole and only got the ribs through and died before getting hips through. Somewhere I did grab a picture of a mouse in the same position on a chisel plow frame. (Yes I had a mess inside the box of chewed wires!)

 

[HardRockNM]

I evicted a family of mice from the blower duct on an F4L912W this week and it's not the first time for that engine; they have no trouble squeezing between the fan blades but nothing that eats them can get in. The mouse house tends to get wadded up against the TC cooler and tries to catch fire. I'd like to think that the instrument panel on that machine is well-sealed; the only varmint to get into it was the miner who thought grounding both terminals on the hourmeter and oil pressure gauge was a useful thing to do.

To say nothing of the ROUS living in the belly pan of another machine up there...

 

[DMiller]

Old Allis 180 I own has open holes to the Brakes, just large enough for Mice to enter, smelled the nest cook off one day so stopped and several well toasted vermin boiled out to escape, still smell it on occasion but too much trouble to take that apart.
Throw rat poison baits around in the barn as can get them, they are gone in days. Was explained very little is necessary to kill and dry up a mouse, will not kill what eats the carcass. That noted the eater will not have High BP Issues for awhile!!

 

[stinky64]

For repellent I use finely powdered cyanne (edit autospell) RED pepper..... they get a nose full of that sniffing around is FUNNY as HE!!

Keeps then out of the machines we got in the woods to.

Cayenne may be great for gardens and such but if sprinkled in a vehicle any breeze will punish the unfortunate occupant. Think of what cayenne does to the inside of your mouth, let alone eyeballs or mucous membranes.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

Cayenne may be great for gardens and such but if sprinkled in a vehicle any breeze will punish the unfortunate occupant. Think of what cayenne does to the inside of your mouth, let alone eyeballs or mucous membranes.

Or anytime I sprinkle it on food .... I get that everytime.

 

[reganj]

My .02,, mouse poison 50 feet away from what you do not want them in and put water beside the poison. The poison makes them go to water but they can not drink enough to not die.
The poison should be somewhat protected from rain/water so it does not get diluted.
If you put the poison inside of what you are trying to keep them out of, this is where they will die.
Or like has been suggested, get a cat.

 

[Pixie]

Mice in vehicles is bad but I'm thinking squirrels and snakes are worse ! Have a squirrel thinking a snowcat is his and I think a snake has died in my winter car ( '12 RAV4) It smells really, really bad even after an ozone treatment. Have the ozone generator going again tonight and I'll douse it in peppermint tomorrow.

 

[Pixie]

I made a claim on my car insurance for the smell. Some lucky body shop is going to come pick it up next week. Various homemade ideas and a big ozone generator haven't touched it.

I won't ever drive it again but maybe I can sell it or trade it in for enough to cover the rise in my insurance.....

 

[Welder Dave]

You need a Febreze sponsorship. If it worked opens a whole new category for them. How to keep your old jalopies sitting in the back 40 smelling fresh.

 

[treemuncher]

I made a claim on my car insurance for the smell. Some lucky body shop is going to come pick it up next week. Various homemade ideas and a big ozone generator haven't touched it.

I won't ever drive it again but maybe I can sell it or trade it in for enough to cover the rise in my insurance.....

Have you tried coffee? My father purchased a used box truck from Penske Leasing back in the early 90's. Their worst trucks were the ones leased by the fish markets on the coast. In order to make them sellable, they would cover the entire floor of the truck with ground coffee beans (store brand cheap stuff) and close up the truck for at least a week. Vacuum out the coffee that has absorbed the odors and the truck is decent without a lingering odor. Good enough to sell easily.

Years ago a lived in a tornado magnet (mobile home) with an addition that was previously owned by a chain smoking couple. It was mostly shag carpet in phlem green/yellow early 70's fashion. The smoke smell was unbearable for me. We did the coffee treatment with about 3 large cans and let it sit for a couple weeks while cleaning walls, windows, etc. After vacuuming up the coffee, the tin can was livable. The only difficult part to get smelling better was the hvac system.

Pure peppermint oil is available on Amazon. It does not last forever but I recharge my CabFresh rodent repellent bags with it and it really seems to help.

 

[Pixie]

I have CabFresh in most everything and a 16 oz. bottle of peppermint oil. Went around today and squirted a little of the oil in all the HVAC openings of all the other vehicles and refreshed the CabFreshes and other assorted repellant packs. Put about 5 drops of the oil in the exterior air vents of my old Tundra then drove it... made my eyes water !!!

Going to wait until tomorrow or Monday to decide what further to do to the reptile car. I can always cancel the claim if it seems like it's getting better ( ie drying out ). The key will be for any remaining odor to be subtle enough to trade or sell it. .... Can't have the loud peppermint smell !

Coffee sounds like a good idea. I happen to have some very old but unopened coffee....

 

[Welder Dave]

Cab Fresh was banned in Canada for awhile. It's back now but can't be advertised as a mouse repellent. Something to do with one of the ingredients. The name was changed to Fresh Cab and is sold as an air freshener for cabs. I found some other pouches called Uncle Gus's mouse pouches. I spray or pour peppermint oil on them. I found a spray bottle of peppermint oil. It's also sold in smaller bottles for diffusers.

 

[Tinkerer]

I have caught a lot of mice with glue traps.
I put a dab of peanut butter in the center of the trap, even though they are supposedly prebaited.
I learned the hard way that the trap must be screwed to a small block of wood to prevent a mouse from walking away with it.

I quit using poisoned bait a long time ago. Too often they died and I couldn’t find them until they were rotting.

 

[Pixie]

$3500 to replace headliner in car, shampoo interior, etc. Body shop suggests that I take the money and they will find a buyer for the car at a parts price. So I lose $2500 compared to retail but none of us have to deal with maggots or stink again from that car.
Ya win some, ya lose some and some are a draw.

 

[Truck Shop]

Grain trucks out here all smell real bad--by the end of the second week you don't notice
it in 100* heat.

 

[Pixie]

I've sold the dead animal car. Insurance only paid $3500 and autobody place wasn't sure they could fix it permanently. One of the kids that works there bought it for $1500 and I got the $3500 so about a $2500 loss. Insurance should have paid more as airbags in the headliner were chewed.

I'm just glad it's out of my life.
Still busy renewing the mint and CabFresh in all the cars and equipment.....

 

[stinky64]

At least it's gone and no more aggravation coming your way, at least from that turd.