Mice in the wainscote

[DerekW]

I'm erecting an iron fence along our front perimeter. The TCT estate is full of bricks waiting for a bricklayer to build the brick pillars for the gates (not one of my skills) and needing to collect another three bags of cement and twelve of ballast for the fence posts I decided to use the V6.

Last used three weeks ago and mindful of the starting problems that sometimes occur, I thought I'd charge the battery. Lifted the bonnet and two very surprised mice glared at me before hopping into the bowels of the area behing the firewall. Their nest, composed of the chewed remains of a large portion of my bulkhead sound proofing, filled the corner behind the suspension head on the nearside.

Obvious worry is the wiring in that behind-scuttle area, so I backed the car out of the garage, then applied a hose to every orifice I could find in the scuttle. One startled mouse jumped out onto the wing and I blasted him off with the hose, but I'll bet he's back in the car. I've left the car outside tonight with the bonnet up hoping it'll freeze their b****cks off, but short of setting underbonnet mousetraps, is there anything else I can do?

Incidentally, when I bought the TCT from Robert (old forum member) I found a collection of seeds and other detritus in the same area so it might be a preferred position for our wee tim'rous beastie friends .

Derek

[Dean]

Shame its not a Mondeo, it would be easy to rid yourself of these little pests...scrap the car
Stick a couple of traps by the strut tops and close the bonnet up and put it back in the garage, you should get them, if not leave the car in the garage with the engine running and the doors shut for an hour or so, that will get them

D

[Peter.N.]

Mice got into my sons pride and joy, a 2.8 Capri and consumed some vital parts of the interior - through the heater vents!

Peter

[xmexclusive]

Hi Derek

A well known problem particularly with cars parked outside. Field mice love the draught free underbonnet. Particularly if the engine is warm.
If they get well established you start to find little stores of hazlenut shells or similar around the strut heads.
The little barstewards also breath causing increased condensation but the party trick is that they widdle all the time.
This mixes with the condensation to make the a nasty mix that gets sucked up under any loose rubber on the strut head dome.
That then speeds up the rusting process.
Best to make them welcome as they will also be thirsty.
Drop of antifreeze in a jar lid could save them chewing through rubber hoses to get at it.
Now did you know that rabbits and rats seem to like the taste of underseal.

John

[robert_e_smart]

Jings Derek, that is bad!

I remember reading on the CCC forum about a member who found rat droppings in the glove box of his CX.

I found a mouse nest in my series 1 XM. It was abandoned thankfully. It was just on top of the rear wheel arch behind the rear seat belt. They must have climbed up through the vent in the boot, and up the back of the wheel arch trim panel.

I like the suggestions of ridding yourself of the blighters, especially the antifreeze! A good idea is to use the car for a while, the noise and movement will scare them, and hopefully kill them in the process.

One of the things I fear most is rodents getting into the car and chewing holes in the seats.

[Dean]

Roddents are a pain in the ass, i lost a good single spoke leather wheel to something that was in my garage

D

[XMV6 sadist]

Hi Derek

It could be worse. Apparently foxes in West Whickham in Kent have got a taste for break fluid, which isn't toxic to them and is sweet. There have been a few near misses but people in that area have to test their breaks every day before setting off.

Back to mice (short of setting the foxes on them) - pet controller traps are the obvious way to go.

Cheers

Tony

[onthecut]

Hi Guys.

Came to put the semi - mothballed camper van out of the drive the other day ----- brake pedal straight to the floor. Looked underneath -- rear brake hose chewed clean through ! Most gruesome rodent story belongs to a neighbour of mine. He had a Subaru, on which there is a length of flat run of serpentine belt. He'd come out, started up and noticed the alternator lamp hadn't gone out. Not being altogether mechanically minded, he came over and asked if I would stick my head under the bonnet. Lifted the lid and there was the belt hanging off the pulleys, along with the remains of a very squashed in the middle rat. It had clearly dozed off on the belt, not been fast enough off the mark and been dragged around between the belt and the next pulley. Bet it won't do that again.

Mike.

[demag]

I bought some of those electronic thingys off ebay, the sonic ones that produce sound waves out of our range but rather painful to rodents and insects. It took a few weeks but they never came back.

[DerekW]

Thanks Gents for the splendid responses, there are some excellent suggestions that I'll follow up and from the stories some comfort that it could have been worse. Incidentally in the cold light of day I found they'd also chewed up a large part of the underbonnet sound insulation in that corner, but a quick check of the electrics shows them all working so that's a relief.

Dave, my missus bought one of those sonic repeller gubbinses some time ago and it's been hiding in a drawer somewhere ever since. Thanks for jogging my memory, I'm going to dig it out and plug it in permanently in the garage. That'll larn 'em!

Derek