Mice in my heater

[black86roadster]

With winter in high gear in western Washington my car spends alot of time in the garage,

However the mice in my neighborhood like to spend time in my garage as well,

I drove my car the other day and my heater fan seemed to be working very hard, and I noticed somthing that smelled dead coming from my heater.

removed heater/ac fan motor and found a large nest clogging my fan blades, and found a dead mouse in the air-duct directly behind the fan.. remove dead mouse and his nest.. clean everything i can reach, shop vac etc.

How do I keep this from happening again?

 

[atmmac]

same thing happened to my 97. It was stored in a garage for 2 years before i got it. My heater wasnt working right so i took it in for service. They found acorns in my heater. They said they completely cleaned it out and to put moth balls under the car when i store it.

 

[Texan]

Old trick

Have always put Downey Dryer Sheets in my cars when I put the cover on 'em for the winter. Living in Ranch/farm country we have a lot of field mice looking for a nesting place when old man winter starts growling. I put several sheets in the interior and in the trunk. Have never had a rodent problem. Also, give the ride a good smell when you pull the covers off.

o~\o

 

[Jman]

Here kitty, kitty

 

[jmccloud]

Mice

Use lots of 'Victory' traps. Bend the catch to make it a 'hair' trigger. Peanut butter for bait. Check the traps at least 2X per week.
Worse than your heater, they'll make nests out of the foam in your seats and even the carpet underlayment. The nest usually ends up in the heater fan too! Talk about stink!
The oil thing is on the money. My uncles used to pour old oil (had to be 'burnt') in the 'out buildings' to keep rats and other rodents out. It really does work but will make a concrete floor unwalkable.
So, use the traps.

 

[lew]

Does anyone know how the mice get into the heater? Might there be a way to block the entrance into the car and or heater?

Lew

 

[tnovot]

mice

Many years ago when corn & bean fields were close to my subdivision and before we got a cat, I had mice problems in my garage. A farmer told me to get some hedgeballs (called by different names in different parts of the country but the green things about the size of grapefruit you see on trees in the fall). He told me to cut them in half and place them on the outside of the garage by doors and places where mice could squeeze through. I did that for a few years and never had a mice problem during that time.
Hedge balls are getting harder to find. Even now that I have a cat, I use mothballs in and under both my Corvette and T-bucket.
The dryer sheets would certainly be a more pleasant odor when opening the cars in the spring but the naptha from the mothballs airs out pretty quickly.
Terry

 

[jake167victoria]

We live in farming country in the Northern Plains. Mice are always a problem with stored farm equipment cabs as well as vehicles. A lady up here developed a mouse repellent made from all natural products and markets it under the name "Fresh Cab". It smells great but repels mice all winter. I use it in my lake cabin which is empty all winter. I don't have a link but the company name is Crane Creek Gardens.

 

[86PACER]

.
The cats seems like a good idea. However this reminds me of a situation I would like to share with you all. My uncle kept his cat in the garage for the longest time. When my uncle pulled the car in after it was warm from driving home from work, his cat seemed to like to make himself at home in front of the radiator to keep warm through the night. He often found car hair near the radiator. The car was an old Cutlass that had the radiator fan driven by a belt. He started it up one morning to go to work and hear the cat let out an awful sound as soon as he turned the key. He shut it off and found blood and pieces of the cat under the car, no bull%*#. Then he had to come up with a story to tell the kids who asked why the cat has not been seen lately.

Recently my own cat had 6 kittens. They stayed in the garage. Soon they were runnnig all over the place and even climbing up inside the engine from under my vette so that I could not get them. When I would go to start the vette up, I would count to make sure I had all the kittens before starting it up.

 

[motorman]

get peppermint leaves at the health food store and put them all around. my wife used them to keep the mice out of the drawer at our camp. just put them in mesh bags and tie them up.