I've had mice getting into my car recently, none have died yet that I'm aware of but now this pic has me concerned. Supposedly mice hate the smell of peppermint oil so I've started using that to dissuade them from trying to build new nests. There's nothing edible in the car so I think they are just looking for a cozy place.

[–] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

All wires are edible.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

rodents ate my wife's car's fuel line because they can smell the fish oils used in the construction

[–] MrsDoyle@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the tip! I'm dealing with mice in an old stone shed at the moment - it would be nice not to be killing them, and I do like the smell of peppermint.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

My neighbor recently found one in the engine bay of his brand new car, which had been brained by the radiator fan. No wires chewed... yet.

He swears that the peppermint oil strategy is working since then.

Rodents will chew wires just for the sake of chewing on something. Ask anyone who stores project vehicles for any length of time. I also had a rat or a squirrel or something chew up and spit out all my spark plug wires several years ago. It's a good idea to keep the little blighters out of your stuff.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I hope you have better luck with peppermint oil than we did when we had mice in our house. It didn't seem to do a thing, unfortunately.

Thankfully, a few live trappings and releases took care of the problem.

[–] ultranaut@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

We also set up some live traps with food in them in the garage and house, and had a pro clean out our crawlspace and seal it up better, and theres now some murder traps down there for anything that does get in. I also set up a few ultrasonic pest repellers around the house but I'm skeptical about how well they work.