[HisDMAX]

Checking my oil level following a recent change I find about a 2” area of exposed yellow insulation along the back of the engine compartment!!! FREAKIN MICE!!! It appears they too like the heat produced by my block heater. No way is some diseased riddled rodent going to take up residence in my truck! I don’t live in the country but I do have some nursery stock planted around our lot and have seen a mice but they belong in the field not my truck! I have seen no further evidence in or around the truck since my first discovery.

There are plenty of things that they can get into in my garage and I would be annoyed but not my truck! (Truck doesn’t fit in the garage yet ultimate truck mod coming this year)

War has been waged and to date the cat and I have bagged about ten, all in the garage and outside, winged one by the truck didn’t leave enough blood to track! Got a twofer this morning! I am not yet wearing camouflage and worrying the wife but I am getting close the Bill Murry Caddy Shack obsession.

So this isn’t just a complaining session I provide a recommended protective procedure.

1 Park truck and plug in
2 Place traps near all access points (recommend inside front tires)
3 Place traps in other areas in garage etc. they like to run along base of walls etc.
4 Use chunky peanut butter “They come for the peanut butter and stick around for the nuts!!”
5 With area secured for the night, rest easy
6 Check trap line first thing in the morning and replenish traps as necessary
7 Repeat process until satisfied ….. I’m thinking spring!!

One other step I will be adding when not brutally cold is “the hungry cat” in the garage at night!


I am glad it was fiberglass insulation and not a wiring harness!! It could have bee

 

[problemchild]

Ants..........
When I got home from my 14 day trip my kitchen was full of ants. I went on a "mother of all RAID spraying trips". I sprayed a trail of ants from my kitchen to a trail of them about 100 feet away. I killed them all. Im sure they will be back but it felt good to kill them anyway.

 

[CMC-GMC]

Had a friend in Tucson have to have his wiring harness replaced at 1200 miles on his new truck. Pack rats got into.


Not fun!





cmc

 

[Pick]

Those sticky glue boards work slick too! Except yesterday we caught a mouse in cupboard. Dog heard it, got the door open. Glueboard and mouse stuck to dog! Fortunatly wife was home when this happened and she got to clean up the dog!

 

[Mackin]

This is some funny Sh!t .....

Mike I was laughing real hard but nearly wet myself reading Picks' dilemma ..... The visual picture in my mind I got ..... Glue trap stuck to dog ,squealing mouse, wife, you get the PIC .....

Bwahahahahahahaaaaa

I'm a little worried about ProblemChild ..... "I killed them all. Im sure they will be back but it felt good to kill them anyway." EEEEK ???

Mac

Edited by: Mackin

 

[LARSONEM]

I've got about 25 traps set around my two Gold Wings in the pole barn. Them d--- rodents still get around the traps and I don't catch as many as I would like to. The final straw last winter was opening the Gold Wing trunk and finding evidence of one in there. I live in a newer home that is quite tight. I've caught 7 in the basement in the past month. What tipped me off was finding one of the cats sleeping downstairs at night. Poor pudder tat ain't caught a thing. I have become the head mouser!

 

[Idle_Chatter]

I see you're suggesting the best mouse bait ever - chunky peanut butter!

That stuff is like "mouse cocaine" and is the best bait I've ever used on a trap.

If you have particularly wary rodents - dunk the traps briefly in boiling water to get the oil and human odors off and bait with a fresh gob of chunky trying to minimize handling. Last time I did that, the trap went off behind me before I'd gotten ten feet and I thought it had "misfired" - Nope, scratch one nibbler!

 

[Bronco]

I wish I had a belly jiggler, but this is a true story. About 6 months ago went the the garage and tryed to start my wifes car. Crank but no fire. Tryed diagnosing the thing myself over the weekend but finally had to tow it to the repair shop. My cell phone rings about an hour later. The service writer tells me I owe him 70.00 bucks for cleaning a massive mouse nest out of my air box. Never even thought to check the filter, had just changed it 2 weeks earlier.

 

[CRUSHER]

MACKIN---------You're not the only one worried about PROBLEMCHILD---

--LOL!!!!!!!!-----Phil

 

[srode]

Good luck with the mice, know what you're going through! A few years ago in the Spring, went to start up my motorcycle after the long Winter nap and it cranked slow, put the charger on it, finally fired...KA-POWW.... blew dog food all over the garage from the exhaust pipe! Mice had packed it full. Had to pull the whole exhaust and dump it out. Checked the air box, yep, it was packed too. Lucky they didn't eat through the filter and get it into the motor. Next over to the 69 Camaro to wake it up, same story, slow crank, battery charger, KA_POWW..... dog food all over the driveway ... both pipes! Air cleaner packed too on it! All told, there was probably 15lbs of dog food packed in both! No damage to either, got some good laughs out of it though. The following year I started keeping the dog food in the house during the Winter, and traps were added to the garage. Edited by: srode

 

[HisDMAX]

srode,


Thanks man! I just finished wiping away the tears I was laughing so hard!! I think it was the KA-POWW.. and the visual of 15 LBS of dog food LOL. These little rodents are insidious!!!


Mac, CRUSHER I guess I won't mention why I like the glue trap idea or the Hav-a-Heart trap. I guess it would be more of a HALF a heart trap....


None bagged today but that doesn't stop the relentless persuit or vermin!!!

 

[a64pilot]

problemchild,


Don't worry about the peanut gallery. some of us understand you have to kill something every day just to maintain profencency (sp?)

 

[Victory Red]

I park outdoors still to this day since for whatever reason i just never get around to dropping off my bike at my mom-in-laws for winter storage(always want that one last day of riding). Anyhow my 2000 Silverado was victimized under the fuse panel in the hood taking out my speedometer.


This time of the year we always have a rodent problem(DNR river land across the street). I could always hear them messing with the dog food. I have 1 wife 2 daughters that made me use a humane trap the first year we were here. When we got suprised with our little boy 18 months ago the thought of mice in the house drove me nuts(on occasion I'd see them upstairs in my office). So away went the humane trap and got a real trap. I also have a 3yr old golden that loves to catch and release to catch again. Shame I can't get her to kill them for me, she prefers catching a rabbit here and there, eating half of it and throwing up on the carpeting in our great room.


Man life is good

 

[nobull1]

You guy's make me laugh

.Made me think of a story in one of my farm mag's about the hav- a- heart traps.Man was having a lot of problems with raccon's in the chicken coop and wanted to deal with them humanely.It was real long so I will give the short version"How to catch raccoon's at the chicken coop".Set hav-a-heart trap by front door in late evening directly in route of raccoon going to the coop,make sure bait, latches,catch etc all working proper.In morning all things working proper you should have raccoon.Take raccoon "in trap" to back of field behind farm release than beat him to death with a stick

.Got to love them hav-a-heart traps

Everyone wins almost

 

[flhrciblueice]

I use a combo of a Jack Russell Terrier, glue traps in the house & garage and I use poison in the attic to take care of the field mice in the winter. I start my bike(and usually ride it a few miles) at least once a week in the winter to keep the pipes clear of nests. I do have to clean out the saddlebags every now and then. I also keep the bike on a lift during the winter. A couple of years ago we received a call for a structure fire @ about 0300 in the middle of January. Since it was pretty cold, I figured I would put on my bunker gear prior to leaving. Mother mouse had chewed holes in my gear bag, coat, pants, hood, and one glove and made a nest to have her babies. Needless to say, I had to use my backup gear. When I got back home, I sealed the hole in my gear bag and removed all my gear. I then put the terrier in the bag with the mice and closed it up. She had a blast with them.

 

[Bronco]

This is the best thread on the whole site. Who needs comedy central!

 

[Pick]

flhrciblueice, we use the same method at our place, we have 2 JRT's. Since the weather got cold we have been putting glue traps in the lower cupboards. If we catch a mouse the Russell's will tell us, they will start sniffing the cabinet door, going nutso. The trick is to get the glueboard out of the cupboard with out the dog getting it. They have jumped 3 feet and torn the mouse off of the board before I knew what happened. Last week my wife called me at work and told me my "son" got the pantry door open. He had a glue board and mouse stuck to his side, he was going beserk, because he could not reach the mouse on the glueboard. How he got it stuck to his side is anyone's guess. That glue on those glueboards is really tough stuff to get off anything.

Life is never dull with a Russell or two in the house

Edited by: Pick

 

[NoWake200]

I had to trap a Cardinal once, the son-of-***** would flap himself to death every friggen day in the big mirrors and black stripe of my ol Ford. I could not shoot it because I did not want to hurt the truck....everytime I would open the door he was off into the woods...and could never find him. The truck would even be gone for days when it was parked at the airport..but once I was home he was flapping and attacking himself in the mirrors all over again!!!! This went on for about six months....he distroyed my mirrors and this had to STOP! So I got the real big glue traps and placed them all along my steps...and sure enough 5 minutes after doing that I had my bird.


I really felt bad, but I was really tired of the scratches and poop all over the place. The little fellow put up a fight to the every end.

Edited by: NoWake200

 

[flhrciblueice]

Life is never dull with a Russell or two in the house

Amen to that!

The JRT has two speeds: WFO and asleep.

The only problem is her speeds tend to coincide with my 17 month old's(yes, baby girl has the same two speeds).

Never a dull moment!

 

[EngineerBill]

Came home from a horse show and parked the 1991 350 gaser in the barn with the horse trailer. One week later got in to start it and to pull it out of the barn and it would hardly run, smelled real rich in fuel, stalled alot. So after getting it out of the barn I opened the hood and the intake manifold was covered with hickory nuts and leaves. got out the shop vac and cleaned it all up. Don't know what made me open the air cleaner and woh! it was full of hickory nuts and leaves, packed full. When I got done I nearly filled the shop vac with nuts and leaves. The truck ran ok after that, but a week later same problem, recleaned truck and moved it up to the garage and no problems after that. That was 10 years ago and just recently I was under the truck and found some old blackened hickory nuts in a frame pocket/hole. - freakin chip & dale the chipmonks


Engr. BillEdited by: EngineerBill