The snake car

[Rodney_Hamon]

The mice have been invading my place so traps are baited with peanut butter.  Just now I went to check on the Plymouth and the trap was set off...licked clean in the car.   Open the engine hood where I caught a mouse yesterday and a huge bull snake is slithering around on the engine.  Almost died did I.  WTH is with this car.  A handful of years ago I had it elsewhere on the property on a concrete pad..up on blocks doing the brakes etc.  I roll under to do something and a huge bull snake is camped on the frame.  Almost died did I.  When I bought this car 9 years ago the interior was in better shape but the mice immediately attacked.  I pulled everything out of it in anger and what do I find under the rear seat in the springs??  A snake skeleton stretched out.  WTH ??!!  Why is this car a snake magnet?  The absolutely strange thing about it is I can leave it sit for weeks..months..pop the hood and put an ounce of gas in the carb and it fires right up.  Amazing actually. But I’m paranoid to sit on the front seat frame and start it..wondering if I’ll get a visitation of sorts.  I guess I should be thankful they’re only bull snakes as they are actually “chill” around here. But seriously they sure do look like rattlers.  Sigh 

[Plymouthy Adams]

you got mice...only natural you get snakes......get rid of the mice, the snakes will find other places to hunt.....right now....sounds like they found a baited field to prey over.................THEORY TWO...the car is possessed as was Christine but to a lesser degree and harvesting its own SNAKE OIL  

Edited June 19 by Plymouthy Adams

[P15-D24]

Where I live it's constant battle with rats and mice getting into our cars and ATVs.  (And don't get me started on gophers in the lawn!)  I set traps all around, mix up the baits and knock them back for a while, then they start back. We have plenty of predators: owls, snakes (including diamond backs) cats and dogs which all do their share, but they still show up. I think you just have to be proactive all the time. The YouTube traps using baking soda and like a corn bread mix actually seem to work but like all traps you have to keep the bait fresh. And as Plymouthy said you have rats/mice, you will have snakes.  

[9 foot box]

   When I built my home/shop 26 years ago, I had mice. I bought a couple Pest Raider III ultrasonic units and put one on each end of the shop. They are powered by an AC adapter to 12 volts to the units. I have no indication of mice in the building or my cars. I had a unit fail and had a hole in a dog food bag. I replaced the unit and the problem went away. Maybe something like that, solar powered, would keep the mice away from your sedan. 

[Rodney_Hamon]

I had a horrendous hail storm 2 days ago with golf ball mixed with marble of all sizes hail. Needless to say I had damage. Sigh.  More work.  Caught another mouse in the Plymouth and another mouse dragged the trap away. I I’ll just let the junkyard guard snake to its job until I can get more traps and set up that 5 gal bucket of water with the spinning bottle and ramp stick. Yeah 

[Veemoney]

Some other options would be moth balls or plants around that smell like bee balm or lemon balm. I read where snakes and mice don't like the smell. I made one of those 5-gallon bucket traps using a cardboard cut to fit the opening at the top and a hanger to spin on. Caught a few out on the porch but I don't have a pest problem for the most part.   

[Plymouthy Adams]

wait till you pulling a car out of the woods, speeding along and see a loose rope that is flapping around behind the car you are towing, pull over....its a huge snake....sorry but he can untie himself

Edited June 22 by Plymouthy Adams

[Dan Hiebert]

We have a plethora of wee vermin to deal with in these parts.  The snakes here don't cut it, I grew up in the southwest - these aren't snakes, they're worms with scales.  As noted earlier, just another thing you have to keep after.  There's no "fire and forget it" way to keep the mice at bay, I tend to the mouse traps regularly, and use a variety, 'cause them little squeakers are more intelligent than some people I know.  Poison bait, camp traps (the bucket/water/roller/ramp thing), snap traps, sticky traps, and a big fluffy cat.  We have a lot of owls, but that only means we have a lot of mice.  Odors don't keep mice out, they just keep them from setting up residence.     

[JBNeal]

Shedded snake skins make me freeze for a second before I realize that my security force is on the job 🐍 

 

[Rodney_Hamon]

Yikes!  That’s what I’m talking about.  When the snakes spend the weekend at their motel 6 which is our vehicles. Ha.  When P. Adams describes a snake dragging out the back I’m thinking of images from Africa or the Amazon.  Yowzer.  I caught another mouse this morning in the car.  Had to repair the roof today so couldn’t get to my bucket trap.  I’ll keep plugging away at it..

[Dan Hiebert]

I discovered unintentionally that if you use anti-freeze in those bucket traps, you don't have to worry about checking them quite as often.  It'll still tally up the critters, but the anti-freeze keeps them from decomposing and stinking the place up if you can't clean them out every day.

[Rodney_Hamon]

Got 2 more this am.  It’s like IHOP for mice.  Hmmm..a touch of anti freeze in that bucket of water, eh.  Well that’ll take out some flies as well.  Fly bags can’t do it all. I have a wire enclosure for it so the dog can’t take a drink   🤔 

[RNR1957NYer]

I read that the odor from drier sheets and Irish Spring bar soap would keep mice out of cars, so I carpeted every horizontal surface with Bounce and filled potpourri bags with shredded Irish Spring.   Mice would sit and poop on the drier sheets as they ate all the soap….

[greg g]

Wife read about peppermint oil.  Cotten balls soaked in and distributed about the premises spoked to be effective vs assorted rodentia.

[Dan Hiebert]

I'm unsure of how much anti-freeze would be effective in "preserving" the little victims of a camp trap.  I had a pan of 50/50 (the green stuff - glycerin?) under the Terraplane for several months a few years ago, when I finally got around to pulling it out it had well preserved dead mice in it.  No way to tell how long they'd been there, but it was about three months past the annual autumn invasion, and I hadn't seen or otherwise eliminated any mice by other means for quite a while.  I've heard and read as a precaution to protect pets, that the green anti-freeze attracts animals, which would of course include rodents.  That pan wasn't set up as a trap, I had emptied the anti-freeze for whatever reason, it wasn't in my way, so I didn't bother to empty it for a while.

[Rodney_Hamon]

Between the plymie and the door entrance to my studio I have caught 20 mice in the traps with peanut butter.  I leave for Portland and Bend tonight for 1.5 weeks so that bucket of water ramp trap has to wait until I get back. Been busy last 3 weeks cleaning and fixing damage from a hailstorm with golf ball size hail.  It shredded many things. No antifreeze will be added as I have a super nosy lab watching my every move.   Life in the way again.  

[Rodney_Hamon]

I’m up to 29 mice caught in traps.  Also have a teenager bull snake hanging out by the car.  Kinda like a patrol officer on the premises.  

[ggdad1951]

On 9/1/2024 at 8:16 PM, Rodney_Hamon said:

I’m up to 29 mice caught in traps.  Also have a teenager bull snake hanging out by the car.  Kinda like a patrol officer on the premises.  

 

So about 10 mice left for each you caught...LOL