In case anybody wants to know what mice can do to a car, here's what can happen. Finding the occasional seed pods on top of the engine was tolerable, but this stinks! What you are seeing is the blower motor from my wife's '05 Legacy. She said she was hearing funny noises when she turned the fan on high, so when I dropped the blower motor out, this is what I found. The white stuff used to be a cabin air filter. Many thanks to this forum for having the information on how to get to what was left of the cabin filter, but no thanks to Subaru for such a $%$@$! design!

zoiks! just be happy if they're not chewing on your wiring! Maybe put some of the nastiest stankiest dryer fabric sheets you can find under the hood, i hear they hate those. hehe I should take some pics of the numerous mice nests I am finding in my basement....

I had mice eat through my crank sensor not once, but twice! Then I left a bag of Werther's Candy in my Brat and there is still pieces of shredded golden wrappers in there.

tiny pic... cant see.

 

mice suck

A few pieces of "one bite" put in locations under the hood in plastic cottage cheese containers will eliminate the problem (terminate with extreme prejudice)

 

one bite is a product available at most hardwares for warfin resistant rats. small pieces are better to "entice" the mice. Put a low flat pan of water close - they eat the stuff and go for water because it makes them thirsty, they eat a little bit, drink lots of water and literally bleed to death internally (yeah, I'm not a friend to vermin)

 

Keep it out of the reach of chewing dogs (particularly LABS or greyhounds). The dose isn't usually enough to hurt a cat if it decides to chow down on a dead mouse, though.

 

kill them all ... wipe them out!

Buy some cayenne pepper and sprinkle it in the engine (avoid the exhaust headers and the air intake at the base of the windshield). They won't climb back after that. And if you're parked in a garage, leave a little capful on the floor. Once the recognize the smell they'll leave it alone.

Remove the feed souces for the mice, (bird feeders, dry dog and cat feed and any other thing they might eat) then leave them only poison I took a 1and1/2 plactic pipe and tied to the fence by the car and put the poison in it so nothing else could get to it and this took care of our mice problem.

blower motor fans are kinda like excercise wheels for pet rodents....they do like their excercise and a warm protected place to burrow into, and the blower duct tunnels are fun for mice, rats, etc.

I had other rodents eating my ignition cables 2 of them (yees subie runs on 2 cyl but not great). The i put chlorate cubes (these WC things with their hangers) at 3 places in the engine bay and no problems afterwards.

 

(once had a rodent decapitated by starting the car, clever animal puts his head between the belt and the alternator pulley:grin: )

I have been fightng this problem all winter with my XT6 since it really isnt being used...4 boxes of moth balls...worked for a short time..now my car smells like old people and the mice are still having a field day.Tried everything but the poison cause I dont want to be smelling dead rotten rodents come spring.

An RV'ers trick is to place small pieces of Irish Spring bar soap in stategic locations - mice don't like the scent.

 

The problem with poisons is the mice may die inside your vehicle, in a location not easily reached - then you have a real smell to contend with..

My dear old truck had a mouse problem as soon as it would snow.

 

I fought the little buggers for 17 years ... and here's what worked for me. Mice HATE mint. Despise it.

 

Go to your nearest health food store or natural foods store and get a bottle of spearmint essential oil. Sprinkle it where the mice are found (nests, etc.) and they will leave the area! If you keep it inside your vehicle while it is in storage or in a long-term parking space they won't come in, either. Put it on something which isn't flammable and wire it to accessible parts of your engine. Dab it on any access points you think they might be using, save your tires. Most of the oils won't do anything good to rubber or other hoses.

 

Works in your house or garage, too, and won't make other animals sick. You may find guests in your car may wonder why it smells like a mint farm, but it's more pleasant than mothballs or dead mouska. Or even hantavirus.

 

(I will admit I'd also done the One Bite on my manifold - as in 'you won't leave while I'm polite? Eat this, rodentia!')

 

Dang things ate up my engine heat liner down to the metal, but it WAS snowing a horrific ice storm in WA at the time...

Mice ate the wiring in the trunk of my convertible. It killed him. Found him in spring. Darn mice.

here's a new way to keep mice out of your engine bay!!

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=85098

 

just kidding - wouldnt wish this on anyone else...what a mess!

I have been fightng this problem all winter with my XT6 since it really isnt being used...4 boxes of moth balls...worked for a short time..now my car smells like old people and the mice are still having a field day.Tried everything but the poison cause I dont want to be smelling dead rotten rodents come spring.

 

the dead mice will die and dry up within a week or two. Of course, if they die and dry up inside the car... it'll stink for a loooong time. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll die outside the car. It's worth the chance IMO.

Yes just had damaged wiring on my daughters car sorted that was traced to mice - they had a nest in the fuse box!