believe it or not, this is a fairly common occurance. I have seen cat food, sunflower seeds, etc in the airbox and other places around the engine. we often find stuff like this when vehicles come in for repairs. sometimes nests under the intake manifold. sometimes we find the actual critters cooked and dead when their "nest" turned out to be an exhaust manifold or similar hot part.

many times people go to remove a part in the engine compartment or raise a vehicle on the lift and take a look from underneath only to see something (dead) looking back....


many times these rodents will eat things, such as rubber vacuu or coolant hoses and wiring harnesses, for what reason, I do not know, but I have done many an electrical repair due to rodents eating the insulation off of the wires.

also they will drag shreds of fabrics and insulations into the vehicle to build their nests.

good luck, get them out of there A.S.A.P. before they do any real damage.

later,
chris

 

Hey sorry I missed you at FFW. I was there Sat. Rained all day. I got my feet soaked. I decided to head home to VT. Good thing I did, I have been sick for the last couple of days.

 

When I store my truck for the winter, I plug up my exhaust and Fast Air tubes with a tennis ball or a wadded up rag.

 

park in a different spot, back it in or remove your airbox every night for a couple of weeks .....also find a better place to feed the dog..

I have a piece of "all thread" driven into the ground fastened to a plate that sits about 16" off the ground with the dog bowl attached to the plate and the all thread has grease on it ......no ants, no mice. no bugs....

 

I left the company truck sit for a couple weeks while I was on vacation. A bird built a nest in the air intake and I had no idea. When I took it in for service the mechanic found it in the air cleaner and wanted to know where I parked it. LOL

I live near a lake with lots of trees. I am always under attack from the small wildlife. I sent away for 3 of those sound things that you plug in a wall outlet.

Doesn't do much as far as deter spiders and ants but I haven't seen any mouse turds.

With cool winter weather on the way they will be heading inside so its a good heads up with this post.

Good luck, hope you catch him and his relatives.

 

Well I am no longer putting the dog in the basement so no more dog food for this mouse to get. I had stopped putting the dog down there about 3 weeks ago or so. I am guessing when the dog spilled her food and after I got home to bring her up the mouse or mice picked it up and brought it to their condo.

Checked it this morning and there is nothing in there but that don’t mean they didn’t show up looking for their food. I have 6 mouse traps right under the front left side of the truck with peanut butter on them and no takers yet. Figured when they showed up these traps would be on their way in or out.

I caught about 4 -6 of them about a year and a half ago using peanut butter, they love that chit. I am hoping since I removed their source for food that it will solve the issue.

Chris thanks on the heads up about these little suckers chewing on wiring and hosing. I spent a good 30 – 45 minutes last night with a flashlight checking as much as I could. There is no evidence of any chewed up anything. I will definitely keep a close eye on it.

RhinoSlug thanks for the suggestion about tennis ***** and rags. I will do that as well for winter.

 

Then you have to wonder why the OEMs do not put some sort of screen over the airbox opening.

 

LOL! Took mine in a while back to have the right side head gasket
replaced. With only 5200 miles on it, squirrels had packed acorns under the intake!! I mean it was packed from front to back. The techs had a good laugh anyways...acorns all over the shop floor!LOL!

 

Leave the air filter out of the box one night, then crank her up real quick in the morning. See if furr flies out of your exhaust. Just kidding. I don't think it could be too much of a problem, other than dirtying up your filter box. The filter should keep the foor and mouse from entering the motor....lol.

 

Well so far nothing, no dead mice in the traps and no mice crap in the box. If the traps don’t work on the floor I think I can fit 4 of then inside the air box, guaranteed kill…

 

I use to have a problem with rats eating my citrus on the tree's. They would bore a hole in the side of the orange/grapefruit, leaving nothing but the skin. The answer to trap them.........peanut butter

Still think your dog is a ******* to let a mouse/rat take it's food
Bet a cat wouldn't

 

LMAO...

NO FREAKING CAT'S, I could see the scratches all over the hood now from some stupid cat...

 

But.........you would have a clean airbox

 

Can you imagine the ride that mouse would get if you jumped in and took off! .I bet that bastard would never try that again.Better yet could you imagine the stench of a roasting rat in youre intake!

 

Speaking of clean I took one look in the air box after is was cleaned out and thought to myself ”Zaino”…

You never know, it could be worth 1/100th hp…