How To Keep Mice Out of Your Car

Mice and rodents seem just kind of naturally attracted to classic cars. Especially if they still have a lot of their original interior components like the old straw and burlaps they used to use in the upholstery. And it doesn't take very long before you know their damage became, can become real expensive to repair. So the best precaution is to keep them away from your car in the first place. So let's just look at you know a few of the options we have to keep mice away from our car and keep them out of our cars. You know to start with you know whenever you're going to store your car for extended periods of time, you know that's when they become real havens for rodents. And you know things like the exhaust system. You know the exhaust system, it's a big open dark place where they can come and they can you know go inside the exhaust pipe and have a place to store all their acorns or any food supplies as well as bring in a bunch of nesting material. Problem is as soon as you try to start your car in the spring, you suddenly have no way for the engine to get the exhaust out and now your car doesn't want to start. So a way to prevent that is to grab like either bronze wool or steel wool and shove that in the exhaust pipes. What this does is mice don't really like to chew on steel wool. It hurts their mouth so they'll give up and go somewhere else. And it's easy to remove in the spring. You also want to do that if you've got like a air cleaner that has a big long snorkel on it and you know there they like to crawl in that and then build themselves a big home around your air cleaner there. So a little bit of steel wool in that snorkel will stop them before they even have a chance. You know the best way to keep mice out of your car is to keep them out of the building. You know if you take the precaution to make sure you have a good tight building, you know if you set your baits. You know, you normally don't want to set bait like traps or even poisons near your car because they rely on an attractant. They rely on having something there that the mouse wants. Whether it be peanut butter or food, or you know even the poisons themselves have an attractant to it so the mice are drawn to it. You don't want to bring the mice into your car. So never put traps near your car but it's okay if you have them further away in the building itself because then they can be drawn to that and hopefully kill them before they ever have a chance to get in your car. If you are going to use poisons, you know use something that has a delivery box or container. So if you have children, or dogs, or cats, they're not going to become exposed themselves to the poisons. Another thing you can try is the noise makers. You know there's a few different brands on the market and what they do is you know they emit like a high frequency noise that you know supposedly the rodents and small creatures really can't tolerate. So they'll just move on. They won't want to hang around. I don't know. I've had limited success using these but some guys swear by them. One of the best ways to keep mice from ever considering going into your car is to use you know the scented stuff. The stuff that they don't like. One of the things they really don't like is peppermint oil. And you don't want to use like the you know the garden variety peppermint extract at your grocery store but get the you know the pure peppermint oil. And this has a really strong smell. If you put that on cotton ball, put that inside your car. A lot of times that strong peppermint smell will keep them away from the car. And when you're you know as soon as you return to your car in the spring you can take out all, pick up all your cotton balls and your car is still smells kind of minty and that last for a few days. Other things that guys have tried. I know like TomCat has released a spray that you can spray on stuff around your car. And this is actually contains a lot of peppermint oil as well as some other you know natural oils that have a really strong, pungent smell. And the mice have a real aversion to anything with a strong smell. A trick that a lot of guys use is the dryer sheets. You know and Bounce tends to be the one that a lot of guys will gravitate to. But you know basically it's just a process of laying several dryer sheets throughout the car, in the trunk, and even under the hood. And what this does is this supplies a strong smell that apparently the mice really hate. Irish Spring. I know a lot of guys have said that this is their favorite. You know I've had luck with it and I've had bad luck. I've had some that I've actually placed on a car where it was clear that the mice had come along and tried to chew on it and use it as food supply. But you know some guys will still swear by the Irish Spring soap because it has a real strong fragrance smell and cut the bar into small little pieces and then leave that around inside the car. There's also the old standby, moth balls. Moth balls have been proven over the years just to have a really strong smell that the mice absolutely hate. However, you know, from the downside they are made of a chemical that's toxic to humans. So you don't want to be breathing this stuff in all the time. It does dissipate quickly as soon as it's out of the car but it leaves that car with that sort of you know moth ball smell that you know for me I just can't tolerate. But it can be a good way if you just throw them underneath the car. A good way from getting them in the car because they just don't want to go near that area. Mice seem to be especially attracted to the headliner of your car. And the way that you know for whatever reason one of their favorite access points is to get up and be on top of your sun visors. And then while they're sitting up there start chewing through your headliner until they get access. And then they've got a big dark enclosed area to build their nests and urinate and everything inside the headliner. Best way to keep them out of there, Keep your visor down when you park it. So what's the best solution? I don't know. Because I've seen guys have good luck and bad luck with each of these products. But there's also a couple other tricks you might want to try. And you know guys who have been in pole barns where they can't really seal up the building. Where there's still going to be mice around. They've found that you know opening the hood, you know some even say opening the trunk, so there's no dark hidden areas. And what that does is mice are attracted to dark disguised areas where they can build their homes and be undisturbed. If the hoods up there you know there's clearly light coming in and they don't have an area to hide. Mice tend to be attracted to wiring because most modern wirings use kind of a soy-based plastic that can actually, they'll start chewing on it because they think it's actually a source of food. With that you know, What's the idea? Do you cover your car or not? I've heard some guys say never cover your car because the mice will be attracted to it. I say keep the mice out of your building then put a cover on it to protect your finish.