The mice are eating my cars. I was looking under the hood of my C 30 today. I found more mice poop and some gnawing marks on some of the foam and rubber pieces. I was horrified. I’m sure they are peeing everywhere as well. I had heard of this happening to others but never to me even though we have lived here for close to 40 years. I read that some mice like to chew on insulation material some of which is made from some plant based materials. I also heard of this ruining car electrical and ignition systems which ended up costing the owners a lot of money to repair.

I live in an older home without a garage so one car is outside in the carport and the other is in the driveway. During the cold Canadian winter the mice are looking for food and shelter. I don’t blame them, but they are eating my car. One day I found a tea bag on top of the motor. This was going too far. Not only were they eating at my car but the mice were having tea parties in the engine compartment. Sipping from the tea bag and having cute mice conversations.

“How was your day, dear?”
“Fine, except I had to drag that darn tea bag up here! Nearly broke my back!”
“Just take a sip and you will feel better.”

I had to do something. I did not want to hurt the mice. I Googled “mice problems” and found out that I was not alone and there were many solutions listed online. I bought a sound emitting device that was supposed to make noise at a frequency that mice do not like. It did not work too well. I found more even more mouse poop in the engine compartment. Perhaps, it was music to their ears and now they were dancing on the motor. The mice were probably laughing and singing mouse songs like “Three Blind Men” as they were sipping on fermented teas then peeing on the starter motor.

I bought some live mouse traps. There was bait in a little plastic container with a short maze in that would trap the mice and then I was to drive the captured mice at least 2 kilometres away. Relocation they called it. I liked that idea. I put some delicious barbecue chicken in the device and waited for morning. I tried this for a week. I never caught any mice and more plastic was being chewed away. They probably thought the trap was some kind of party game. The last one out of the maze had to chug on the tea bag.

At this point I was ready for some kind of truce or negotiation. If I could, I would meet with the mouse leader and discuss the situation with her. I think of mouse communities as being matriarchal societies. I could imagine a high pitched mouse voice telling her clan what to do.

“I need that tea bag up here! No here not there. No over more.”

I would find out how I could help her and her family survive the cold winter. It must be a hard existence I would say to her. But, I could never catch or even see the mice. I could not find away to communicate this with the mouse mum. I thought of making a mouse home for them to use but I knew my neighbours would be horrified. And, the pooping and peeing and chewing continued.

Finally, in desperation I used mouse bait. These contained mouse poison which the mice would eat and then go home get sick and die. I hated the thought of this. I couldn’t use the snap traps that would kill the mice or maim them. At least with the bait they could go back to their burrow or nest to die.

Unfortunately, this worked. Each night for 2 weeks I would place the mouse bait containers under the hood. After a couple of days I did not find anymore mouse poop in the engine compartment.

But, in this latest cold snap the mice are back. I will have to use mouse bait again. Maybe it just makes them sick and they think they have mouse hang overs and are holding their heads, lying down in their nest saying things like; “Never again…”

I consider the mice to be pests but I know I am the real pest in this world. I’d rather live in harmony with mice and spiders and the many animals that live around me. But, there are enough of them and only one of me and I can’t let them eat my car. Skypilot123