Ok. So today is the day. About 2 months ago I had to put my car in my storage shed cause I needed my garage for some other work. Well I got it back out about 3 weeks ago and I thought there was a faint dead mouse smell. That was 3 weeks ago, now it IS A DEAD MOUSE SMELL. How in the HELL do I find the damn thing? Just start ripping stuff apart? I tried to get an idea on where to start but it seems to smell everywhere. Any tips would be great. This afternoon it begins!
Start at or in the seats. Most seats are open on the bottom. Mice love to get the padding as use it for a nest. Pull the seats, examine them.... do a sniff test. With the seats out look under the dash. Look for trash and padding material (the nest). Also check the underside of the car.... frame rails and under the fenders. Hopefully you can find it before you have to pull interior panels. It’s possible it may not be in the car but somewhere in the garage. If the garage has a ceiling.....sometimes nesting animals die in the high heat of an attic.
Yup. Full interior. Ive also been putting of replacing the heater core, because it was leaking and i bypassed it. So im going to start on that and pull the seats to make that easier and hopefully find the critter at the same time
mice will stand on top of the visors and eat into the headliner. pull the sun visors down and look for a mouse hole.... damned rodents....
I found two dead mice in the headliner of the wagon, a huge nest in the glove compartment and they eat a hole in the rear seat, they had a whole community under the seat, I gutted the car the stench was awful. Hopefully, they haven't damaged anything. HRP
The car has been running and driving. Actually bracket racing more than anything. So it's not like it's been sitting in a barn for 20 years. And it definitely ain't alive anymore.
Take your car for a long drive on a hot day. With the windows rolled, up if the smell pretty much goes away, it's outside the cab. If the smell is hanging in there, it's inside. Drive the car long enough to mummify the little bastid, it won't smell much at all anymore.
Does the car have open headers or exhaust? Might take a look there. Animals like easy access and protection from the elements and predators. Look for small holes if a mouse or rat can get its head through a hole it can get the rest of its body through it. As a last resort some exterminators actually use dogs to smell out rodent nests.
That’s one of the reasons I always kill rodents in traps instead of poisoning. I have never had a trapped rat crawl away to die they are always dead - smashed up in the trap. Now if you or one of your neighbors is poisoning the rats they will crawl into the hardest to reach spots of your cars or house to die and stink! Not to mention the poisoned animal can die out in the open and re-poison your family pet or other wildlife if they ingest the dead rodent.
I got the old California duster out to freshen up the Merc, right away saw pieces of paper covering the paint, wtheck??? Closer inspection, deep inside the duster, a mouse nest with 3 deceased babies...
Hello, The dead mouse or animal smell is pretty powerful. In our old house, one guy got in the framing behind the drywall. Using the sensitive nose, I smelled the whole bedroom, bathroom walls until I pinpointed the smell. So, I cut out a small hand size hole into the drywall. "Lo and Behold", a dead guy was just starting to lose his hair. He trapped himself as he squeezed between the drywall and framing, got into a 2x4 trap and bit the dust. I caught it just in time. The smell area was doused with bleach and some Amway Corp. L.O.C. soap that gets fish smell off of your hands. The combination of both got the dead mouse smell out of the small bathroom wall. My wife appreciated that move... The hole was not that bad to patch up. Then a few weeks later, I found a small nest in the garage framing. (no drywall here) Where there was a support brace to the 2x4 framing, it made a little "V" and that was perfect for a nest. But, the smell made me do a full search in the garage. @Oldioron had the best solution... FOLLOW YOUR NOSE. Then dispose of the remains in a Zip Lock baggie. Behind the washer and dryer, those little guys made another nest and one got trapped under the flexible dryer hose leading outside of the garage. The "nose... knows" and it was easy to find and fix. The smallest 1/2 inch hole or crack is an invitation to start living inside. So, find those holes.. Speaking of dryer vents in the garage or leading back into the house... I put a small 1/8 inch hole screen over the outside vent cover to prevent even lizards from getting inside of the clothes dryer. You just have to remember to clean out the screen every two weeks. Jnaki Living on a high hill with only a barren field sloping down behind the house has its advantages (great views and lots of privacy), but it also draws critters into the yard and the smallest hole is an invitation to enter and start their partying. Bad mouse and friends... but, they are so cute.
My experience with this has been in/under the seats amd/or in the heater ducts. On the convertible they seem to be fond of the boot space. I did have one creative little jerk that got on to of the air filter and ate a hole in the underhood insulation and somehow managed to stash bird seed (the love safflower seed) in the stamped steel supports/frames for the hood. I have figured out how to get the seeds out. Mice can get through VERY small holes.
Give it a week or two and your car will be filled with flys. Should be easy to see where their coming from or going to.
Given the statement about the heater core leaking, I'd start there also, mice like antifreeze. And it's usually fatal. Turn the blower on and smell the air stream. Nothing is worse than dead mouse stench. You have my sympathy. Sent from my E6810 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thursday, changing oil, etc. on my wife's DD. Lifted the air cleaner element and there was a softball sized wad of yarn and cotton. Innovative little bastards. Element did its job.
I had something long these line with my OT daily. Squirrels or mice were starting to eat my hood insulation. Found out that they hate the smell of peppermint. So I got a small bottle of peppermint oil and place a few drops in the engine compartment. Problem solved that night. Noticed the same thing on my wife's car. Same solution, same outcome...
Hello, Today, either we have good luck or filled up all of the small nooks and crannies, as there are no mice inside of the garage or house. It is an impossible job to fill up all of the entrance holes and cracks. We don't like the traps as we hate looking at end result of bulging eyes and don't like poison because of our little dog. It is a dilemma, but we once used to have them in the garage, rafters and yard. Now, it is two out of three that are mouse/critter free. So, to keep the critters out of house and garage, we use plenty of different ultrasound devices to attack their sense of being. (at different frequency levels and make/models) Those devices work, don't harm the dog and we see mice in the neighbor's yards, but not ours (except for the farthest reaches of wild plants/shrubs). For some reason, our neighbors do not like the ultrasound devices, so they use traps. For them, it is a constant job of setting the traps and emptying them. For us, leaving the mice and other critters out in the yard gives the bigger, meat eating animals a small meal here and there. Jnaki So far, in the 19 years in this ultrasound device laden house and garage, no mice, droppings, or critters caught inside of the walls. Yippee!
I had my Vette in storage for several years and when I got it out, there was evidence of mice in just about every place mentioned above. I stripped down the interior, replaced the seat stuffing and covers, new carpet and pads, new top....still has that smell sometimes. They got into my heater duct, top padding, even a small place where the fiberglass panels were bonded on the deck has mice smell in it. I wish you luck ......I am still dealing with it nearly a year later.
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