I have a '98 Explorer and after a shop visit, was told I have mice living in it. (As I mainly walk to work, it sits for days at a time.) There were no obvious signs of the critters except the mechanic smelling mice urine while inside. Anyone ever have this problem with their Explorer? If so, where would be the places in the vehicle that they would most likely find a nice comfy home? How can I get rid of them? (The shop said mothballs would work, but I have my doubts.)
Thanks,
John B.
We had mice in our '99 Explorer too. I set traps but they stayed away. They ended up chewing some wires and my stereo quit working. I called an exterminator and they laughed at me (pretty funny huh?) and told me to use poison from Home Depot. I probably would have but they suddenly left and never came back, problem solved.
- Greg
By all means - do not use the poison! The mice might die and start to rot in an inaccessible place, requiring a lot of work to clean them out. Use a trap, and I have found the best bait to be a candy bar - Bounty, Mars or something similar. If you capture them alive and release them, do so 1-2 miles from your home. They have an uncanny ability to find their way back!
I never had them in my Explorer but did in a S10. One ran up my leg while driving.....It's amazing how high a person can jump with a seatbelt on!
Out here in Arizona, we have big mice (aka packrats). On a cool evening, they will climb into the warm engine compartment of your parked car and start nesting and chewing things. A couple years ago, a family of packrats got into my '02 Explorer, pulled off big chunks of the fiber blanket that is glued to the firewall, and made a nest on the top of the V-8 engine. There is a big black fiberglass cover over the top of this engine, so the area between the cover and the top of the engine was especially nice for them. I discovered their presence when I found that a couple wires and a couple vacuum lines had been cut in half. Don't know how long they had been there, but when I took it to the mechanic, he popped the black cover off the top of the engine - and found a whole family of very dead, dried, baked packrats.
Sure beats poison!
Bill
-------------------------
John B. wrote:
I know about your pack rats, I was on vacation in 75 in Arizona and drove one of them several days away before I managed to chase him/her out of the vehicle in Oklahoma. Fortunately, only damage was done to the food stored in the trailer I was pulling.
The worst chewing experience I ever had was a Gerbil that got loose in the house. I later found all the insulation chewed off the wires that went to the Electric Stove. It did not manage to short out the wires or electrocute itself, but I was certaininly a surprise to see the damage. We eventually found the Gerbil alive.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.