How does one get a mouse into the car by mistake?

Call gail: 800— yo-mouse.

Or eat one potato chip while driving. I do seem to have OCD on this topic, I know.

(Chops intact,Nstate.)

i dont know about gail’s story but i ended up with a rather embarassing trip to jiffylube thanks to a mouse. i used to take my car there, and the usual jiffy lube technique of “replace the following part X or add detergent Y immediately or your car is doomed” started to bother me a bit, it seems like they assume that their customers know nothing about cars, and they milk that for whatever they can. Anyway, I was there for an oil change because my car had been sitting without running for a while, and predictably about 10 minutes into the oil change the grim-faced tech walks into the waiting room and calls for the owner of the 1996 saturn, as if he were a veterinarian about to tell me my puppy died or something. I walked over, skeptical of what he was about to say, and he held up my air filter, which had a dead mouse compressed into it. I took his suggestion to replace this part immediately.

@jgoose – ROTFL – Serious! That is too funny! On a related story – at a place in Denver, my girlfriend at the time was getting her oil changed. The mechanic had informed my girlfriend that the automatic transmission fluid looked terrible and was “gritty” and ‘legally’ he couldn’t allow her to leave the shop. She called me worried about the legal ramifications, and wondered what to do.

I had a simple answer….Tell the mechanic to look INSIDE the car. Take notice that it was a manual transmission. Smile at him real big when he turns to you with a red face. Start car. Leave. :)

So, jgoose, how do you keep the mice out of the various parts now? The ones that rented apt complexes under the hood in my car ate many of the parts related to heating and A/C.

ouch… I drive my car alot now so i dont think they get time to get their loans approved before they are evicted in any number of unpleasant ways. There are a few ways I have read about though, from collector car magazines where the people are really intense about keeping mice away. one person described large plastic bubbles that can go over the car, which sounds a bit extreme to me. a more reasonable and interesting method that someone mentioned was to leave a few paper towels around the car, in the areas most sensitive to mouse damage (under seats, under the hood, on the dash or seating surfaces, etc.). This serves a dual purpose; you can periodically check the towels to see if they are disturbed or missing, as a mouse will very likely grab the easiest building material possible, and there is little easier than paper towel. Then, at least you know you have new tenants and it is time to get the papers moving for an eviction. The paper towels also give the mice something to build with that isn’t your car, giving you more time to detect them and possibly providing them with enough ‘stuff’ so that they don’t decide to get into the auto dismantling business. Another approach would be mouse traps, but a word of advice if you use humane traps, do not release the mice anywhere near your house or car, they are good at finding the nearest potential home. best approach is to drop them off at your least favorite neighbor’s house.

jgoose; how did you know about my “bad-neighbor” policy? I killed one mouse next to the accelerator two days ago w. a trap and found disposing of it really disgusting so am going back to my Havaharts. And the rule around here is at least 5 miles away.

Some folks have suggested stuffing sheets of Bounce and containers of shredded Irish Spring, but that was a bust. I found little teeth marks on the soap shards, to add insult to injury. The mouse have also eaten holes in the plastic flanges on my garage doors so that they can come and go at will. It’s a good thing that I am retired…but what a hobby to have thrust upon me!

well, i dont know why bouce and soap would be specified unless it was to be a repellant, the towels are more to appease the bully, as much as it is difficult to admit that the a possible way to deal with the little b4$t4rds is to give them what they want. It sounds like you have very determined mice, maybe it would be worth investing in a moat and drawbridge? Then you could have all the neighborhood kids attempt to lay seige, you could take up a hobby as a medieval castle-defender. sounds like more fun than trying to come up with ways to get medieval on mice. If i think of anything else I’ll let you know