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How To Stop Mice From Attacking Your Car

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Last winter, I stored my Benz in the garage. With the terrible winter we had, I never really had a chance to drive the car. So when I went to pull the car out of the garage in the spring, I had a few issues to deal with.

First problem? Dead battery. So I hooked up my trickle charger, let it charge overnight, and the next morning the car was good as new!

Unfortunately, when I started the car, a series of warning lights started flashing. And my top wouldn’t retract. Uh-oh. 🙁

I ended up taking the car to a local mechanic that I have used for years. He called me back the following day, and told me that mice had chewed up a series of wires under the hood, and had made a home there! It took some work, but he was able to repair the damage. $450 later, I’m back on the road..

Since this car spends a lot of time in the garage, I set out to find a way to keep mice at bay. Check out this solution I came across:

Get a 5 gallon bucket and smear peanut butter around the inner rim. Fill the bucket about 1/4 of the way up with anti freeze (I use the non toxic RV stuff). Put the bucket where you want it and then lean a stick from the floor to the top of the bucket. You’re done.

The mice will climb up the stick to get to the peanut butter and fall in the bucket. With the steep smooth sides and the slick antifreeze the mice are trapped. The antifreeze keeps the mice from rotting all winter hence no smell. I use this at my summer place and it works like a charm. I just opened up for the summer season and there were 15 mice in the bucket and no mice damage at all. Just go off into woods and dump the bucket (this why I use the nontoxic antifreeze), hose the bucket out and you’re done.

I would this stick trap right next to you car the next time you put her down for the winter. You may need to change out this every 4 weeks to keep the peanut butter fresh.

An interesting way to deal with mice and protect your cars in the process. Something to keep in mind if you plan on storing your “weekend car” this winter. Hope this helps!

Zander Chance is a technology nut who is always first in line to try out the latest tech gadgets. He also has been an active affiliate marketer for the past 15 years, and he writes about his adventures in that on his blog.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Melanie

    November 7, 2012 at 11:51 am

    We had mice nesting in our car and found out due to crazy things happening with the electrical system and our battery always going dead. It was recommended to us to put a mouse blocker in the car to protect it after the repairs were made. We purchased and installed it a few months ago and have had great results. No new nests and our battery is staying charged (we check under the hood now weekly)
    Car repairs were $450 and to think this could have all been prevented with a simple $50 mouse blocker. http://www.mouseblocker.com I hope this helps.

  2. Craig

    December 27, 2012 at 9:47 am

    We have been using the mouseblocker for over a year now and its been great. My truck was damaged heavily last fall by mice and we were directed to the mouse blocker by our local mechanic. No problems to speak of since having it installed. We have just purchased another for my motorcycle (it looks like they moved in there now)

  3. Dave Lawson

    June 15, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    I bought a new 1996 Toyota Camry Wagon and put 250,000 miles on it with no major work (excellent mechanic!). Was aiming to get it to 500,000. Mechanic said I should think about a newer car so I asked him to keep an eye out for a good used one.

    Couple years later he said he’d found one but not my usual type of car. Saw it, bought it … ’81 Pontiac, 25,000 original miles,one-owner Grand mother moving to Australia. Kept it as a “spare’ while still using mainly Camry.
    One day while in store, Camry caught fire under the hood and wrote itself off (whole wiring harness). Now I realize it must have been mouse nibblers that did it! Pontiac now has 40,000 trouble-free miles and I’m about to order MouseBlockers and “Fresh Cabs”.

    My son’s collector Chevelle was completely wrecked by mice where he had it store up-country… devastating to him!). His sister has just set up bucket and spinning peanut butter pop-can trap and is eliminating rats and mice after her garden and bird feeders.

    Great post and comment, thanks!

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