Well It's finally nice out here in Mid-Michigan, and I was going to start prepping the Hurst for the summer, and making sure everything was good to go. Well I open the passenger door to find some under dash insulation (first pic) so after a few mins of following a nice little trail, I open the air cleaner lid to find such a pleasant surprise.... Ironically I think we can rule out dryer sheets and moth ***** as a preventative measure... the first pic you can see the dryer sheet on the floor, and in the second the last remaining mothball, which is puzzling as to where the rest went.. Looks like a dash removal is probably in order.

 

It's never a good thing to get that type of surprise. Better pull the back seat too in case they got under there. I hope they didn't chew up the wiring and you'll need to see if you find any evidence of that to avoid a more serious issue. I guess you'll need to find a better approach to keeping them out of the car in the future and hopefully none of them went down the valve cover vent pipe that isn't connected to the air cleaner. Nice car.

Brian

 

I have had good results with plain old sticky traps inside and outside the car during storage.

 

Yikes! Hopefully they didn't do any more damage than what is seen.

 

I caught this little driver's seat button-chewing bastard a few weeks ago. It preferred HeluvaGood's monterey jack & jalapeno with its trap.

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Irish Spring soap. Put shavings of that around inside the car to keep the critters out. They can't stand the smell.

 

Sorry to hear the little buggers got you again Ryan! Have you turned the key yet, like the others have said, do a close inspection!

Pat

 

No. That does not work. I have even seen them eat the soap.

 

No, luckily I haven't turned the key yet. I'm going to go thru the whole thing and inspect before she comes out of the garage.

 

reminds me of the cocky mouse jokes...

"yeah, I eat D-con for breakfast..."

 

Yup

 

Reminds me of the old cartoon...I hate meeses to pieces ...yeah I found out that the dryer sheets aren't as effective as I hoped as well, but what does still work is dcon. They came they ate they died and never had a chance to set up shop

Hope you get them and any evidence of them out quickly and easily

 

I put a row of four traps screwed to a 1x3 on the inboard side of each wheel. Gets them as they climb up and down the tire. I wouldn't put a trap INSIDE the car. A friend did that, and a week later he found a blob of rotting flesh and maggots. Shampoo'd the rug five or six times before he ordered a new one.

 

"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

 

Has any one had any experience or knows how to take the dash off without destroying it? I feel I'm gonna need to take the entire interior apart to ensure myself there is no other issues.

 

Sorry to hear about the problem with your Hurst.


I'm another who tried Irish Spring soap in my pick up at work,the mouse ate the soap!

 

Mint oil! Put some drops of mint oil on cotton ***** and place them throughout the car.

 

I place dryer sheets on top of the tires and around the engine bay and no problems yet.

 

I had the same problem with one of my Riv's. I put mouse traps on the garage floor with peanut butter, one next to each front wheel. Got the little bastard in about 3 hours.

Since it's on the passenger side, remove the glove box liner and shine a light in there to see how the wiring looks. Hope there's no damage other than insulation.

 

Mouse traps, sticky traps (the peanut butter scented ones), and bait (poison) boxes placed around the car will help best. I had issues with mice under the hoods of my 2 daily drivers outside and the poison and traps helped get them. When it comes to mice, it is best to trap or kill - not repel.

Now HOW did those bastards get to the carb - chewing through the air filter??

 

If there were no signs that actually too residence in the interior, I would not pull the dash. Just lay on the floor and look up with an inspection light and a mirror. Hopefully they did not do much damage under the hood.

We had a bad problem with squirrels on the car lot. It sems one of the tree hugging salesman was spreading pecans around a few winters ago. So we had a bunch of free loaders squatting under the hoods. They can do a lot of damage in a short period of time.

 

Well from what I can see so far, I started on the drivers side, and I can see where the insulation has been ate thru. However where my speedo cable goes thru the firewall, that grommet wasn't sealed very well and pulled thru, so I'm willing to bet that's where the bastards were traveling. I haven't checked on the passenger side yet, I spent most of the night trying to get that grommet to fit, but no real damage so far. I did noticed while I was down there that my carpet smells like ****. So I think once I get the bulk of the mess cleaned up, I'm gonna take the seats out and do a very thorough steam cleaning.

 

Same here, they ate it, forget dryer sheets too, they took them and incorporated them in their nest a few years ago.

 

Cats. I know a lot of people can't stand them. I live in the country. Got 4 fixed cats living in garage year round. My military truck stays outside, lots of places for mice to get in, goes for months without me even opening its doors. In 5 years, never had to deal with rodent trouble. However, you may need a good cover to keep paw prints off.

 

Don't use De-con in the interior of the car, mice will die some where in the depths of your car some dark place you will never find, like in the defroster vent tube and every time you turn on the heater years later you will get to enjoy the fragrance he left all over again....Tedd

 

Sorry to hear.

I almost replaced the Alero with a Volvo S40 today. Time for redog to go into the garage, but that didn't happen. The Volvo is a 1.9L Turbo and it's slower than my mom's Cavalier So it's good to know what to put around the car just in case.

I might live in the city, but I'm seven houses down from the city/suburb line, which is all woods. In the 6 months I've been there, I've seen possum, Skunks, a few Foxes and a raccoon or two. I'm sure there are bats flying around as well during the summer