I parked my car in my garage on Thursday night in perfect condition...got in on Friday and it drove like a sewing machine. I ran to the dealer on Saturday, because, of course, it was 3 days until Christmas. Stupid, stupid, stupid, mouse ate my spark-plug wire. I spent 3 days trying to catch him with no luck. When I left for AZ on Christmas eve my garage looked like the one pictured. Got my mouse....finally, but how can I prevent the dreaded little creatures from returning? Cost me $100. for one spark plug wire. Dealer said I was lucky he didn't get to my wire harness....

 

You can get those pest repellers at Wal Mart or Lowe's. You just plug them into the outlet and it does some sort of ultra sonic sound that supposedly chases them away. Although beware, they say they're safe for pets so I plugged one in in the house and the dog was walking around crying within half an hour b/c I guess it hurt his ears. I have yet to see a mouse in my garage and I live in the country.

 

huh, this is wat i need to repell dumb dogs poo-ing on my driveway!


thanks for the info!

 

Marigolds (the flowers) work pretty well, or you can get traps or baits...

 

Can you say C-A-T?

 

Inexpensive but high maintenance remedy:

Hello, SPCA ? Got any free kitties ??

Just kidding. I'm not sure which is worse, mouse chewing spark plug wires or ***** tracks, claws marks, and oily cat hair all over the paint job.

I'd go with the ultrasonic sound thing MINIkitty (how ironic) was talking about. Might work on the mice AND the neighbors cats.

 

It doesn't seem to deter the cats from my garage, It might actually be attracting them. I've been having to wrangle my 2 out of the garage for the past week, they keep sneaking past me and out there. Maybe they just like the new resident and are making her feel welcome.

 

How about a king snake? They're low maintenance.

 

Hmmmm... seems like a potential money-making invention. A device that emits a sounds so awful that it will drive away any beast that walks the earth, be it mouse, cat, rhino, or elephant. Wait... Rosie O'Donnell has that covered already. NM.


Good thought but serious drawbacks... such as: Snakes scare the hell out of me.

 

In the past when I have had a mouse problem, I set traps with a pinch of bacon in them. They can't resist. I get seasonal field mice every year and knock them out quickly.

 

hey MINIkitty- i was over at HomeDepot and saw these Victor ones.

they were those ultrasonic plug-in types. is there one that are better?
actually my main purpose is to scare dogs away. (no joke).

 

My experience with rodents under the hood is that they are either making a nest in there or they are getting something out of there to make a nest somewhere else (insulation in the firewall in the case of my wife's Mazda). Find the nest and you will be able to poison the little suckers.

 

I don't know if those'll actually scare off dogs, it might have just been a coincidence that my puppy started crying, he tends to do that sometimes as he carries his bone around the house (weird dog I know) However, I did have a lady tell me over Christmas about this stuff she uses in her yard, don't know the name but you might be able to ask for it at Lowes or Home Depot but it's like a powder you sprinkle in an area where you want the dogs to stay away and they stay away. The lady who told me about this had a dog pooping in her flower bed and she's a big gardener. Apparently it's in the same section as the traps and stuff. She said you just sprinkle it like down your property line and the dogs don't want to cross it for some reason, just put out a little every week or so. Hope that helps.

 

Get the round mouse traps that spin closed. You do not have to handle the mice that way and possibly expose yourself to the parvo virus (spelling?).

Quit handling the sparkplug wires after using peanut butter to clean the wax from your black trim!!

 

thanks, MINIkitty- i'll check around with the stores.

 

The best mouse trap I know of is a 5 gallon pail filled about 1/2 way. Then make a ramp with a 3 or so foot piece of board from the ground to the rim of the pail. About 2-4 inches down from the rim spread peanut butter. The little buggers will try so hard to get that PB that they fall in the water, swim for a while, then tit mouse up

Mark

 

dang, that's pretty severe... but if one ate my car i suppose i would consider
trying it.

 

The few times we've had mice I have tried all of the solutions available that I could find. The one which worked the best for me each time was the old fashion spring traps baited with peanut butter. Put 3 or 4 down along the edges of the garage floor and you will soon be rid of them.

 

Darn, I'd kill for a garage. That having been said. The rotating traps that spin the mouse in are not as great as they look. They also have the potential to get the mouse's head stuck in the mechanism, resulting in a gruesome, bloody mess when you get back to the trap. I've had better luck with Have-a-heart traps (mouse sized, of course) from Home Depot. Bait with P-butter and chocolate chips. Relocate mice at least 5 miles away...
Blackdog

 

As much as I don't like mice, I still have a hard time considering killing them. Probably a good thing I didn't decide to be a vet.

 

I was a catch and release kinda person til he messed with 'Rita. He kept springing the traps (8 of them) and eating the peanut butter. Our cat is too well fed. Catching his own food constitues "work". I poisoned the little bugger and he had the good graces to die where I could find him and pick him up with a shovel (while screaming everytime his little body slipped on the shovel) and tossed him in a dumptser. Sprayed Windex all around the garage floor hoping his relatives wouldn't come looking for him. So he's gone for now, but now I'm afraid more will move in.

 

Nicely done, Rita !

You were more persistent than Mickey.

 

Yeah- I'm sure I'll be a lot tougher should they attack Rosey but I spent summers in a log cabin where I'd wake up to the feeling of little feet on my pillow in the morning and that didn't really bug me. at least it didn't bug me as much as murdering one in a trap. I can see me getting one in a trap and having to have a whole burial for it. I'm a softy like that. I could let my cats out there if I ever do get one but I just know them, they'll bring me back a present if they do catch the sucker and leave that in my bed. so the cat's are out. I'll probably go the humane way and cart them up the road. The humane society is only a mile away, I wonder what they'd do if I showed up with a mouse...