Mice! Just bought a 2018 SR. Anyone living off grid dealing with mice?

Hello. Maybe the strangest new taco owner question that has been asked. I live off grid and am in a constant battle with mice. The engine bay is defendable but they like to get inside cars and trucks. I hate it.

My Cherokee is totally impossible to keep them out of completely. Are there any weak points in the interior I should know about? For instance the Cherokee back seats have a hole downward straight to the ground. Anything like this? Thanks for the advice. Super excited as I just found a phenomenal deal.

 

Mothballs always work. Put some on floor under truck if you can, tie a bag or two under the hood.if all the rubber stops are in place they shouldn’t get into the cab.

good luck

 

Thanks, i will look up the rubber stops and make sure they are all there. We usually leave the hood up at night my buddies 2006 has an issue with mice getting in. Rarely but it happens.

 

https://www.earthkind.com/product/f...7NLLX4HmLBFROxBSbWcSsYlEc1kWzFhQjRzUcxJUQalo4
You don't need to be 'offgrid' to have aggressive mice....
I haven't had any luck with mothballs. Real peppermint oil ( not the cheap cornmint) is supposed to work and seems good in the 2 months I've applied it. It's also less toxic and obnoxious to humans than mothballs.

 

Neither pure peppermint extract, nor mothballs, nor dryer sheets, nor ultrasonic deterrents of any kind work. If you're using them and not having problems, you just don't have a problem. They'll be back, or they're simply gone for the time being.

You have to kill the rodents. Pick your preferred method of murder, but you have to eliminate them. It's the only way.

 

I live in a rural area and have actively collected black racer snakes and 'stocked' the around my house
I do not have a mice problem because of this combined with a few traps in my garage

 

Sad but true. Ever since I turned to mass murder they have not been in my trailer once.

My dad (in a different part of northern az) recently bought one of those electric shock traps and it seems to work real well. Way less nasty than toxic bait.

With my jeep it's just scouring it for food crumbs, leaving the hood up and parking it away from the trailer.

 

Absolutely.
The only snakes we kill around the house are copperheads. The rest have my blessing.
They just can't keep up with the mice in these parts.

 

I have a gopher snake about 100 foot away from my trailer I've been hearding closer. But I think he's slow and doesn't quite understand what I'm trying to do.

 

This Thread made me step outside to check the traps this morning. We have a one car garage, but two vehicles.
Without the traps, this little critter would have been in the truck overnight, deterrences be damned...
I probably catch 6 to 10 a week under or around our 4Runner that sits just outside our garage door on the concrete.

 

I have one snake by each door into the house - or at least I think I do
I have zero shrubs or debris or trash cans against the house and have a mowed 6+ foot gap between the house/woods that I keep pretty clear
I moved the actual garbage out into the woods out front so it is not near the house nor my truck
No food goes in the trash in the garage either

I have gone out of my way to eliminate food, eliminate cover and obtain deterrence [the snakes]
I also keep a handful of those plastic binder clip like traps in the garage because every spring/winter about 5 try n make it in the house. I can't use anything toxic because of my dog - he puts all kinds of random shit in his mouth so nope-

 

We have people around here that rescue feral cats - anyways some of those cats go on to become actual working barn cats..
Aka they live in someone's horse barn and their whole job/value is to catch mice so they usually only get fed a little bit of food each day [not whole meals or they get disincentivized]..

Every now and again I see someone who is trying to place these barn cats on farms that need them
IDK if you ever have that kind of thing where you live, but that is an odd but effective method as well

 

this. Victor or the yellow paddle knock offs (easier to load and trigger). peanut butter.
in garage: a couple under truck, one in truck bed, one in cab. just remember where they are at night if you are heart attack prone.
i feel sorry for the mice. they are just trying to survive. if you get to know them they are pretty cool. but it is me or them.

 

Lol, not an easy snake to catch!

 

nope!
and they bite..
but sometimes they are out sunning themselves on the road when it is cool out

 

Over 150 posts on this thread and lots of good info.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/effing-mice.461226/

 

I prefer the yellow paddle traps as well, but I grab what's on the shelf.
I do a winter mixture of peanut butter and Nutella. The Nutella mixture molds within 72 hours in the summer, but come winter, if I have a traps out with both they always go for the Nutella mix..

 

i will try nutella experiment. mine prefer creamy to chunky peanut butter

 

Try a carrot instead of a stick. If you can find a pet shop selling already-mice for people with snakes inside in aquariums then buy some and "lead him in" with free food. The worst you are out is a couple of dollars.

 

Mice deterent.

I've tried, dryer sheets, peppermint oil and sachets, buzzer/lights, moth balls to no avail. The best was the snap traps! Sticky ones no good for me. My truck smelled outside like mouse piss which just attracts them until you clean that smell out with bleach or other. Nothing got inside, luckily.

I even had one mouse come out and watched me replace the knock harness his friend chewed. Unfortunately, he couldn't swim.

What helped was to do the A/C cabin intake screen mod, clean piss smell and I did a cabin filter snap cover screen mod (no pics) as they started chewing that piece to get into glove box and then would have gotten inside cab. Also, I didn't but do the air filter screen mod too. I found one nut from squirrel in there.