Found this a couple of days ago on my ‘02 V6:




Must have been one very busy mouse. This car is my daily driver and rarely sits more than 12 hours.

Fortunately, I didn’t find any evidence of chewed wires or other damage.

 

Home sweet home, Karl.

 

Cut a bar of Irish Spring into some chunks, to stash in your bonnet area. Has worked for me in multiple jags over the years.

 

how are you not wiping the engine down every two days?

 

I was busy changing the air in the tires and topping off the blinker fluid.

 

Mice are bad. I'm constantly putting baits around the sheds here. They will eat the hell out of the cars wiring and interior if you aren't careful! This is a huge warning sign sadly, not a "wow, a cute little mouse" thing

 

Malibu, mouse central: here we (and I) use motion activated lights. Only thing that worked for me.

 

I've had good success with Tomcat Rodent Repellent, available at most home stores. It's a blend of Peppermint, Cinnamon and Garlic oils, which mice, chipmunks, voles and squirrels apparently dislike. I spritz it around the engine bay and front wheel wells every so often when I remember:



On my work van, a rodent kept chewing the wires for the brake fluid level sensor even after I repaired them. I wrapped those in aluminum foil and no more chewing. Not something you really want to do to a Jaguar, but if the infestation is really bad it could help protect critical wiring while you figure out how to deal with the rodent problem.

I like Doc's idea of cutting up a bar of Irish Spring soap. I used that for awhile as a teenager. It worked well to clean my sweaty body after sports, but it also seemed to repel girls...

It can help if your yard is home to a good snake population, a feral cat, and a family of foxes.

Cheers,

Don

 

Hahaha . . . farm life in my region soon teaches you that homestead and sheds will become home to rodents (mice and bush rats) or their predators like the tree goanna and diamond python, which are both non-venomous. You can have one or the other . . . never both! Fortunately we had resident pythons in the walls and roof space of our homestead and sheds. Across our years on the land, we never saw any rodents or their detritus.

Sole downside was the white faces on installers of roof space insulation, who scurried back down with two 8-10ft long python snake skins which had been shed as our well fed residents kept rodents at bay. They confirmed that this was a common find in rural areas.

As they rarely. if ever, enter homes or other human inhabited areas, pythons were valued house or shed guests! Otherwise known as carpet snakes for their beautifully patterned and coloured skin, they are highly territorial. Less welcome are the 4-6ft long tree goannas (lace monitors) which can inflict nasty injuries from sharp claws, if one mistakes you for a tree!

Now I live on the edge of town, so mice are a seasonal problem in my big shed. Trapping and special attention to warm engine bays are mandatory.

Cheers,