Fun with rodents...... NOT!

[Gene Beaird]

Okay, while putting the race car and trailer back in the shop after last Sunday's autocross event ( I won class, BTW), I caught the scent of rotting flesh.  I started the search, discovering dead mice in several distant locations of the shop.  Kind of odd to discover several dead mice, but I had recently restocked my mouse bait in the shop, about two months ago. 

I discovered the body of a pup under the front of our 95 Impala SS.  Still catching the smell of dead things, I started taking the car covers off everything and sniffing around.  When I ruffled the cover on the 68 Calais, my wife said 'there's something under there, whew!'  The search was on. 

The stench was strongest under the hood.  I could find nothing, though, but tufts of hood insulation down by the fan clutch.  We started picking at the hood insulation, and the smell got really stronger.  I pulled it down a bit and peered into the void, discovering two little bodies up in the insulation.  It looked like an adult and a pup.  We got the BBQ tongs (our long forceps weren't long enough) and picked the bodies out.  We got rid of those bodies, but the smell was still there.  I kept peering up into the insulation, and it appeared that they had built quite the residence up there.  Since it had been picked at, and it was splattered with compressor oil and dirt, I decided it was probably better to take it down and survey the damage. 

I carefully as possible, removed the anchors and we deftly removed the insulation intact.  We found one other body, and a little mouse house with several rooms.  So, the smell now appears to be gone, but so is the hood insulation. 

While I'm not fond of hood insulation, the engine compartment looks quite incomplete without it.  Does anyone make replacement hood insulation for a 68 Cadillac Calais?  If not, is there material I can acquire that i can cut a replacement from?  I have retained the old piece to use as a template.  I'll probably convert it to a cardboard template so I can get rid of that dirty piece, but I haven't made that decision up yet. 

Failing finding some replacement material, I'm thinking of maybe using some bed liner material to make a faux hood insulation mat.  I'm not sold on this yet, either, so I'm open to alternate ideas.  Heck, I may just have the underside of the hood cleaned and painted to match the body color, who knows? 

What options have others used?  Thanks.

[Davidinhartford]

I have a few traps in my garage.  Plus I will periodically put out some poison pellots.  But then you risk the mice eating them and dying in the car.

I need to get this automatic mouse catching device below.

[Gene Beaird]

We have the bait out, which was supposed to make them go out looking for water, but that's not been the case lately.  I also have tins full of moth balls out to hopefully discourage critters of all leg-count from entering our hallowed walls, but that's been dicey lately, too. 

We're going to double-down on fixing entryways, we'll be walling off a cutout for some future plumbing work with some concrete patch this weekend.  I've already spray-foamed the obvious holes. 

Unfortunately, the auto-mouse catcher can't be programmed, and they usually catch what they want.  The minute you get one of those for the local vermin, it decides it wants to play with grasshoppers, or something.  Get one for a household pet, and it wants to drag those 4-legged 'gifts' into the house for you.  :-)  We do have a few strays running around the property, mostly 'barn cats' from the neighbors, but they haven't been keeping up lately. 

I think the nest in the Cadillac had been there for a few weeks, and the mom just recently discovered the bait and brought it home.  The other adult we discovered, under some shelving, had been dead about the same amount of time the others had.  Odd.  Hopefully, we're done with rodents for a while.

[Chris Conklin]

You can get pre-cut hood insulation at USA Parts Supply for around $39, part no. 8.021X.

[Steve Passmore]

.[/quote] 

I've already spray-foamed the obvious holes. 

[/quote]

I dont know if your mice are any different than ours here in the UK Gene but ours will eat through spray foam in minutes, tried that, been there.

[Doug Houston]

Life in he country holds all sorts of sport for us, chasing rodents, to little avail.

I've been using some stuff called: "Tomcat", that I buy from my local hardware store. It's blocks of compressed meal, warfarin (I think), possibly sugar, and other unknown ingredients. It comes in blocks, square in cross-section, and about 1 1/2 inches in length. You get a little plastic bucket of the blocks for around 10 bucks.

I usually set two or three of the blocks, nicely aligned, near a place in the garage door, where the "victims" can squirm in. The following morning, one of the blocks is completely gone, with no sign of it ever having been there, and  with some nibbling on one of the others. A few days of this, and no more eating the bait. this suggests that I'd run out of pests.

I usually special order the Tomcats, but some dealers stock them regularly.  Some times, when I haven't had the blocks out, there has been a hole eaten in the bucket cover, and evidence of eating at the blocks, right on a shelf in the garage!! Whatever was eating at the blocks, never will be back!!

[62droptop]

whei i had little friends visit, they would actually help themselves to the box of poison i would buy for them
they would even open it and serve themselves

i have mixed feeling about the bait
i will kill them if they eat it, but them can croak in some pretty inconvenient places and really stink it up
like a heater box

i think the bait also may attract the critters too as they look for a food source

i have used a bucket method that works quite well
i use a roller with peanut butter set up   across an open 5 gallon pail with a stick ramp for them to climb, they climb up, step on the roller and fall in the bucket and are unable to climb back out
a bit of water in the bottom will assure a quicker demise forthe pests
l

[Gene Beaird]

Steve, While the spray foam won't stop them from chewing through, they haven't yet.  I guess they either find the other, much easier access ports, or give up and go away, or the hawks get 'em.   

I have boxes of rat bait on each side of every door.  That's the easiest way for them to get in.  I try to keep those bait boxes fully-stocked. 

Chris,  thank you, I'll go have a look on their website. 

Yeah, I've seen the bucket setup work well.  One posting I found online the guy fills his buckets with anti-freeze.  They don't float as well, and sink when dead, significantly reducing the stench. 

Thanks all. 

[R Schroeder]

I remember reading this last week, and thinking I have to get some poison. I ran out last winter, and didn't have any in the garage all summer.
Well, I had my heavy car cover on top of my leaf vac and the buggers got into it. Ate holes all over the place and left a nice mess behind.
I went to put up the car for the winter and that was my surprise.
I did buy a lighter cover for it earlier this spring , so I'm still good.
I did like to use that heavy one in the winter though.
Oh well , my fault.
Roy

[Gene Beaird]

Yep.  My experience with the little monsters comes in fits and starts.  Nothing for a while, then I find a couple of dead ones laying on a car under a cover smelling things up.  Then, nothing for a while. 

I received the replacement hood insulation I ordered.  It's a flat piece of insulation material, not molded like I was lead to believe.  I'll paint it and throw it on the car to see how it looks.  Hopefully, it's better than I think it does in my mind.