Mouse home or highway in a 69 Dodge Coronet. Is there an end to it?

[canblue]

I am sure that many of you have had experinc with mice and your stored vehicles. Well this is my first encounter with them since we bought the car in 1997. The mice invaded the head liner and literally destroyed it. Pee and poop all around the windscreen and door glass. Had to remove the liner. Coild not stand the stink. Did this and left the car in the garage. Put out some mothballs and mouse poison. We soon had he smell of dead mice but could not track down the source. I first thought it was in the roof ribbing but we found a nest under the drivers rear window. Car is a 2 dr ht. I have included a picture indicating where they made their home. We could access the nest using a hole just under one of the slider channels. You cannot see the hole. It is just covered by the channel. The channel appears to be a square tube. I do not know how long it is. We hve pulled material and many dead mice from this tube for about 18 inche so far, our max reach. Questions: Does this tube stop at the B pillar(door) or does it carry through to the front fender area. They have been using this for a home for some time. If it runs from the rear wheel well to the front fender then I am thinking of drilling holes at either end to flush out the entire nest. I am hoping that there is someone outh there that hs enough body repair to help me with this problem.

Sorry for the long winded explanation.

 

[aldal]

Sorry for your predicament, just an added note I had mothballs in small boxes everywhere in my 49 Ford a few years back and the mice chewed the boxes completely away right up next to the mothballs. To this day I am not sure if I had bad mothballs or if they don't work.

 

[terzmo]

I am sure that many of you have had experinc with mice and your stored vehicles. Well this is my first encounter with them since we bought the car in 1997. The mice invaded the head liner and literally destroyed it. Pee and poop all around the windscreen and door glass. Had to remove the liner. Coild not stand the stink. Did this and left the car in the garage. Put out some mothballs and mouse poison. We soon had he smell of dead mice but could not track down the source. I first thought it was in the roof ribbing but we found a nest under the drivers rear window. Car is a 2 dr ht. I have included a picture indicating where they made their home. We could access the nest using a hole just under one of the slider channels. You cannot see the hole. It is just covered by the channel. The channel appears to be a square tube. I do not know how long it is. We hve pulled material and many dead mice from this tube for about 18 inche so far, our max reach. Questions: Does this tube stop at the B pillar(door) or does it carry through to the front fender area. They have been using this for a home for some time. If it runs from the rear wheel well to the front fender then I am thinking of drilling holes at either end to flush out the entire nest. I am hoping that there is someone outh there that hs enough body repair to help me with this problem.

Sorry for the long winded explanation.View attachment 337232

I use decon pellets all around and in car..visors in down position..never a problem BUT decon discontinued the green pellets for a solid chunk of crap

 

[kiwigtx]

Apparently hamsters hate rats & mice....and rats & mice are scared of hamsters.....so if you had a hamster in your storage shed, maybe that would help.

 

[Mike67]

Can you get a shop vac in there?

 

[flypaper]

i would bet there is more that you will never find
they will nest in down in places that will never see daylight.
one car i restored had 13 mouse nests in it.
they were inside of the frame rails,inside the roof support structure
inside the rockers,inside the cowl
and every other place you could imagine.
the only reason i found alot of them is because
the car needed so much metal replacement and it got totally taken apart.

 

[Jason69 RR]

I feel your pain. Do yourself a favour, invest in this baby. Car Capsule.... it stores your investment in a pressurized vinyl bubble. It exchanges air 4 times an hour.... although not specifically designed to keep rodents out, they say they haven't had a single reported case of mice getting in. Best money I have ever spent. Less than the headliner I had to repair! Cheers Jason

 

[moparker]

I use traps. I set them around the garage up on shelves and window sills so my dogs can't get to them. I have had the mouse issue also. The traps allow you to see if you're doing any good and they cant go and die somewhere like with poison. Also don't want my dogs to eat the poison or get a hold of a mouse that has eatin poison.

 

[Dako]

Keep your ride closed up when It's parked. No rust holes or missing body plugs, and with car closed up (doors, windows, trunk lid, vents...) there's no real way for them to get in.

 

[canblue]

Thanks for all of the input. Love the hamster ad and the large condom solution. . I would still like to cleanout the current nest(s) that I find so I am still looking for an answer to.... is that channel closed at the door pillar? I will be checking the other side for the little critters. The dead rotting ones I need to get rid of so that I can drive the car, that is after I replace th headliner that they also used as a home and bathroom.

 

[wagonman]

Keep your ride closed up when It's parked. No rust holes or missing body plugs, and with car closed up (doors, windows, trunk lid, vents...) there's no real way for them to get in.

When working at the dealer I had a late model 2000 or so Olds come in with a dead mouse smell. I was really bad. Was a Govt car from an Indian Res. The little bugger Crawled through the cowl screen into the heater box, down the rear seat floor foot vents and died under the rear carpet when he couldent back up. What a PITA and I was thinking Hanta Virus the whole time. Those little guys can get in anywhere...

 

[Dako]

When working at the dealer I had a late model 2000 or so Olds come in with a dead mouse smell. I was really bad. Was a Govt car from an Indian Res. The little bugger Crawled through the cowl screen into the heater box, down the rear seat floor foot vents and died under the rear carpet when he couldent back up. What a PITA and I was thinking Hanta Virus the whole time. Those little guys can get in anywhere...

Yes, they can get in thru the heater box...if the door is open to let outside air in. Again, if everything is in the 'closed position' they pretty much can't get in.

 

[Dako]

Thanks for all of the input. Love the hamster ad and the large condom solution. . I would still like to cleanout the current nest(s) that I find so I am still looking for an answer to.... is that channel closed at the door pillar? I will be checking the other side for the little critters. The dead rotting ones I need to get rid of so that I can drive the car, that is after I replace th headliner that they also used as a home and bathroom.

It's closed. If it wasn't it would also be a prime entry for moisture (rust) and potential exhaust fumes if you had a leak.

 

[Pistol Pete]

Bounce dryer sheets inside the car, trunk, on the visors, under the seats - everywhere.

Been working so far and unlike mothballs, the car doesn't smell like Grandma in the spring.

 

[rcb]

Nice, I'll have to try the dryer sheets.

 

[the mississippi madman]

A couple of these hanging around help

 

[canblue]

View attachment 337819
A couple of these hanging around help

Thanks. Mine are just too lazy to chase even leaves in the wind.

 

[Shorthorse]

I read an article that said a mouse can squeeze their body into a hole about the size of a #2 pencil. If that's true, it would be nearly impossible to stop them getting into a car. I was having issues with my motorhome which is stored inside at the shop. I tried Bounce and mothballs but they didn't work. I also used sticky traps that always yielded a few. About a year ago I was reading a post about mice and someone recommended a product called Fresh Cab so I tried some this winter. It must have worked because there were no signs of any mice this spring and the sticky traps were empty.

 

[rcb]

Where did you find it at?

 

[Shorthorse]

Where did you find it at?

I found the stuff my local Ace hardware. Tractor Supply also advertises they have it.