Stinky situation

[oldodge41]

I opened the door on my '41 Dodge coupe to the unmistakable stench of a dead rodent. There he was, laying right by the fire extinguisher in the center of the front floor. As the song says he was "Stinking to High Heaven"! First mouse I have found in the old girl in a lot of years. None stunk like this one. Fall is coming and they are looking for winter homes I guess. For such a little guy he sure did stink! Neighbors cats are letting me down here.

I tossed the mouse and parked the car outside to air out for a couple days. The scent is much better now. Just another battle we face with these old cars.

A couple weeks ago I opened the garage door to find shelves dumped, insulation torn up and the unmistakable sound of something fairly heavy running behind the freezer. Got my flashlight and found a groundhog hiding behind the freezer. Not in a good place to dispatch with a gun so I herded it out the door with a broom. Must have came in the day before while the doors were open and then spent the night trying to dig its way out of a metal garage with a concrete floor. He wasn't successful, but he did make a mess.

[Plymouthy Adams]

so, that is where Puxatony Phil retired...glad you just shoo'ed him away...they annoying little critters but they are fun to watch....I am sure you also know him as a whistle pig.

[oldodge41]

Here I am some years ago at the home of Pennsylvania's most famous groundhog, or whistle pig if you prefer. Punxsutawney, or Punxy as we call it, is a little over an hour from home. I had darker hair and my '69 Dart then.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I knew I had his name spelled wrong......lol    Your car looks good in the photo, sadly while the vinyl tops looked sharp they hid a multitude of sins and allowed rust to form and when actually would be visible, you in for some serious repairs, then add the flipper and the cure-all bondo...you get a bigger surprise a short time later.  I think most of us sported slightly darker hair at that age.

[plymouthcranbrook]

To my continuing amazement I have never found any evidence of animal infestation in either of my old cars or for that matter the modern ones either. And my modern SUV sits without moving for days at a time especially in Summer  I really don’t go out of my way to do any preventative measures. Just keep the windows and vents closed when the cars are in the garage. I don’t live in Hamelin either.  The cats and snakes around here must eat well.  That said my 52 must have had issues before I owned it (20 years ago) because parts of the lower frame were soft and I did pull out nesting materials shortly after I bought it.

Edited September 3, 2022 by plymouthcranbrook

[Veemoney]

I walked away from a few projects when mice had taken hold and stunk it up not to mention the rust damage from piss. Sounds like you got it early but set some traps, if you find 1 there may be more around. 

 

Before I tore down my old 1-1/2 car garage I came home after a few weeks assignment to a bad stench in the garage. It was an old wood sided building, and the concrete was cracked and beat up. I had a few 5 gal buckets in there with tools and motorcycles.  Buckets had bird seed in them at one time but the one had water for washing the cars. A chipmunk must have jumped into the one with water thinking he was going to get seed and I can imagine he swam in circles for some time before he went belly up. It was hot, he was swollen like a balloon that I was sure would pop open as soon as I picked up the bucket. I was inspired. I tore the garage down that fall and put up the new one with the help of a few buddies by Xmas. 

[Art Bailey]

Oldodge41, sure you weren't just looking for an excuse to post a pic of that fine automobile? ?

 

Hate those little buggers. I've got my car on stands right now, and I was poking around at the rockers. Found a soft spot, which was paper thin and gave out quickly, and let down a shower of half munched acorns. They had a rager in there at some point, now I'm going to have to do some bodywork. I found their skeletons when I did the initial clean-out of the car, frozen in heroic poses. Serves 'em right. 

[Bryan]

In SC mice can be a problem. I keep a bag of mothballs in the trunk and driver floor of the car. Keeps moths and mice away.   You have to change them about once a year, and if you are working in/around the car make sure to air it out first with a fan. Will give you a headache, feels like a hangover next day. 

[Tom Skinner]

Bryan,

Avoid all headaches and set traps. I have caught as many as 4 at a time in my garage near my Chrysler with Traps.

No mess no smell that I can tell all those little buggers have gone to H_ _ _. LOL.

Windows up in the Fall at all times - Moths will atend to your Wool Interiors if not.

Do as you please, Fact: no vermin can attack an antique car that is adequetly surrouned by loaded traps. 

Tom

 

[andyd]

Now if you were to send that nice 41 Dodge to me here in Oz I will make sure that no vermin get into it............we only have 6' high grey Kangaroos and Emus and neither are able to get into the various nooks & crannies that the smaller varmits can.........tho' I must admit that our larger varmits do have a tendency to cross the road at night as we are driving by........still a cheap way to obtain fresh roadkill..............lol..........andyd 

[Dan Hiebert]

Yes, good rule to follow, if there is/was one, plan for more.  Rodents are abundant up here, I always plan for a battle every fall when they're looking for a pace to winter, and through winter since I keep my shop heated.  Little buggers got into my VW Beetle a couple years ago, destroyed the glove box to make their nest, I still get puffs of carboard shavings once in a while when I open vents, but I got them out in time to avoid more serious damage or even any odor.  It was only a few days between parking it and finding that they had infiltrated it.

 

All the service shops up here do a nest removal routine in the spring for folks who park their cars outside.  Mothballs, dryer sheets, and such don't really keep rodents out of cars, but they do keep them from nesting in them.  I've never tried those sonic repellent devices, don't know anyone who has.   

[DonaldSmith]

Looking at the blue coupe at the start of this thread, I wondered what was that black quadrant at the back of the roof.  Some attempt at a '50's wraparound rear window?  Nope. A reflection of the fascia of the adjacent building.  What I call an "optional delusion".  

[Art Bailey]

28 minutes ago, DonaldSmith said:

Looking at the blue coupe at the start of this thread, I wondered what was that black quadrant at the back of the roof.  Some attempt at a '50's wraparound rear window?  Nope. A reflection of the fascia of the adjacent building.  What I call an "optional delusion".  

Ha! I saw the same thing...I thought it was a '52 Fud rear window grafted onto it.

[oldodge41]

Every fall is a battle with mice around here. The Dart in the picture above was terrible for attracting mice into the headliner. The '41 has had a few over the years but none that died and stunk like this one. Best trap I found is a five gallon bucket trap. I use peanut butter as bait and used motor oil as liquid in the bucket. Thanks for the compliments on the car too.

[rallyace]

To keep the critters out of his car over the winter, a friend of mine will throw about a half a pound of unsalted peanuts in the shell into the car parked a couple of cars down from his. I don't want to call that car a junker, but let's just say the storage fees every year are far more than the car will ever be worth. He never has figured out how the rodents like his car so much and where the nuts come from.

[Loren]

I am told that the best bait for snap traps is Toosie Roll.

If you warm them up they can be molded to the trigger and made hard to steal.

Apparently mice like chocolate.

I've always used peanut butter but this year it will be Snap Traps and Toosie Roll with a Decon chaser.

[Art Bailey]

1 hour ago, Loren said:

I am told that the best bait for snap traps is Toosie Roll.

If you warm them up they can be molded to the trigger and made hard to steal.

Apparently mice like chocolate.

I've always used peanut butter but this year it will be Snap Traps and Toosie Roll with a Decon chaser.

They're suckers for candy corn, too. Mice seem to have regional food preferences...my first apt. in Dorchester Ma., I decimated a family of mice in under an hour with peanut butter, snap, snap, snap. In NYC, peanut butter was a no-go. 

[sidevalvepete]

Just adding a dead rodent tale here...

Some years ago I had a neighboring farmer who had just rented out a spare house on his property to some city folks who wanted to live the good life in the country. A couple of weeks later they told him how good the water was - much better than the treated tap water that they had in town. This prompted my neighbor to take his landlord responsibilities seriously and keep his tenants happy with said supply. The water source was from a well fed by an underground stream near his cowshed, covered by a concrete lid. On lifting the lid to have a visual check he was mortified to see a dead rat floating in the well. Of course he fished out the carcass but then anguished over what to do next. He was hesitant to tell his tenants, not wanting to see them leave and did his best to avoid them for awhile. A couple of weeks later his wife answered the phone and shortly after told Maurice, my neighbor, that his tenant was coming over to talk to him about the water. Farmer Maurice was sweating. On arrival his tenant told him that over the last week the water had developed a funny taste and would it be possible for him to check it out. On doing so, he found all was well. No more rats in the water. But of course he then wondered whether he should put the dead rat back in the well...obviously his tenants preferred the rodent flavor.

[SteveR]

On 9/3/2022 at 4:05 PM, Plymouthy Adams said:

I think most of us sported slightly darker hair at that age.

Not me. I'm 69 years and still have blond hair. Yes there is some gray but most of what I have is blond. My granny had a lovely head of white hair with a large strip of blond in it.

[desoto1939]

I have my 39 Desoto in my two car attached garage.  I do you a sonic rodent plug in repeller. I also make sure that there is no food left in the car, glovebox etc during hte fall and winter moths.  I also us dryer sheets, moth balls shavings of Irish Spring soap in socks so that the scent is present in the car.  Also pull the sun visor  down and away from the headliner so that they do not build a nest.  Also put steel wool in the end of the tail pipe and some people also put steel wool inthe opening for their air cleaner

 

You can also lift off the bottom of the front and rear seats so you can easily check in these areas while the car is not being driven.  And if all fial then get a cat to live in your garage.

 

Rich Hartung

[oldodge41]

I had a cat, Sassy, that used to come to the patio door each night and I would put her in the garage. She would exit every morning when I opened the door to leave for work. I always fed her in the garage, kept a bed and litterbox in there for her. Not an affectionate cat, but a good mouser. Never had any mice. Then one day she didn't come home anymore. I tried several other cats but none would stay off the vehicles and they loved to scratch at the vinyl top on the Dart and the tonneau cover on the pickup truck. They never seemed to appreciate the stay in at night and prowl thru the day that Sassy did. Neighbor has four or five cats that roam around and leave me a porch present of a dead mouse now and then but they are not garage cats and run when spotted. I hate mice, but my guess is they don't like me much either!

[Plymouthy Adams]

cats only purpose in life is to host ringworms....?

Edited September 6, 2022 by Plymouthy Adams

[Dan Hiebert]

Along the lines of olddoge41's favored trap, up here the camp owners use "camp traps".  Most camps out in the willywags are vacant for months at a time, so resetting one-mouse-at-a-time traps is not feasible or effective.  Below is a photo of a camp trap set up in the Maine Warden Service cabin at Daaquam.  Pop can coated with peanut butter in this case.  Critter scurries (that's what mice do - scurry) up the plank, hops onto the can, can spins, critter plunges into the depths of the bucket into usually just water.  Drowns.  Repeat.  This particular trap was quite gross, had about a year's worth of mouse soup in it.  I've discovered quite by accident (left a bucket of anti-freeze that I had drained from the Terraplane out and uncovered for a couple weeks) that putting anti-freeze in the bucket will kill the mice pretty quick and preserves them to a degree that they don't stink.  (I know folks in the southwest that tan snake hides with anti-freeze.)

[Loren]

I had to laugh at the line ("I know folks in the southwest that tan snake hides with anti-freeze")

(speaking of snakes) Vladimir Lenin is mummified in what we use for anti-freeze today.

His body has been on display since the 1920s in Red Square. They give him a dunk in the stuff for a week once a year and touch up his makeup.

The moisture in his remains has long since left being replaced by the anti-freeze thus achieving the goal that was called "The immortality Project".

A little too creepy for my tastes I am afraid.

If it has kept Lenin's corpse from stinking for nearly a century, (nothing could help his ideology however) I am sure a few mice won't stink either.