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Thursday, October 6, 2011

What?! You don't have one?

You can't really say you're a country dweller until you are sporting a baited mousetrap on the passenger side floor of your car.  INSIDE the car, doncha know.  I was going to take a picture of it but, thanks to the guts being pulled out of my fan assembly, there was no heat.  It was below 30 degrees this morning.  My fingers would not function. 

Yes, in the ongoing battle of Susan v. Mice, it's Mice 2 and Susan 1.  I seriously think they have enhanced night vision and, as soon as I've parked my car in the driveway and gone into the house, plans are pulled out, building material gathered, and a small unit of mice invades my car.  There, they build frantically, until every nook, cranny and filter is occupied.

Last Monday, I took the car in for an oil change and mouse-cleaning-out.  I had just had work done under the dashboard from a prior mouse attack less than a week before.  This time, my long-suffering mechanic opened the hood and did a thorough scan of all the places they could get in.  He finally found a plastic barrier that they had chewed through.  So, he reinforced it with wire mesh and told me to put baited mousetraps in the car, just in case there were still mice in residence.  That instilled me with confidence.  I could read the headlines now, "12 Car Pile-Up Caused by Erratic Driving by Hysterical Woman".  It would continue, "local nut-job claims that six mice ran across her feet while she was driving, causing her to channel a medley of 'Smoky and the Bandit' reruns in rapid succession."

So, the mousetrap will stay until Friday.  Then I hope to have the inside of my dashboard, with all it's mysterious "filters", nuts and bolts reassembled so I can get heat without the fear of rodent flambe.

14 comments:

judy said...

now its my turn to have my tea re-routed and almost fell off my chair laughing.And here I thought I would cause a pile up when my son was driving me to the store ,all the huge bugs came out of hibernation for the duration of the nice weather we are having,but I have to say that my sister and hubby live in spring valley ,WI and they park there car in the shed where host of mice put up there same hotel as you have in your car.my sister has 3 cats ,they are to lazy. she even build them a cat door-her husband installed it backwards so the raccoons got in the back porch and one day my sister said she was literally tugging with the critter the raccoon was pulling the coffee can of cat food in it though the little door and Mary was tugging it backwards ,back into the little door I laughter my butt off hearing that story.everyone will have to get there thinking hats on to see if there is a solution.I will ask my son-he is a manager at NAPA AUTO PARTS he can ask around to some of the country folk see what the word is

Susan said...

Judy - I got a good laugh over that back-and-forth with the raccoon! I've tried pepperment oil, rosemary oil, dryer sheets, special herbal car blends, you name it.

Erin said...

LOL! Wasn't it you that had found the big nest in the engine this past spring? You need to drive worse cars so they'll want to go somewhere else to find a "sweet ride"! I'm specifically thinking now of that Kia commercial with the hamsters tooling around town, that's next, you know! :)

Mama Pea said...

What? You act like it's unusual to have mousetraps on the floor of your car. We always have one set in each of our vehicles from early fall through spring. It's just standard practice around here.

Thinking of you driving down the highway and having a mouse (or meese) run across your feet . . . have you ever heard the Garrison Keillor monologue about the farmer who got on his tractor in the fall and headed out to do some field work? Seems a mouse had built her nest in the underside of the tractor's padded seat. Once the farmer got going and bouncing along, the mouse was rousted out of her nest and decided that up the leg of the farmer's loose coveralls would be the place to go. Mousie shot up the farmers leg heading for a place that seemed like it would be warm and safe. Garrison goes on to tell of the farmer loosing control of the tractor because of having more pressing issues at hand, the tractor going down into the ditch at the edge of the field, up the other side, across the country road, into Old Mrs. Crankypot's yard, through her flower bed of mums, etc., etc. all the while tugging and pulling and slapping at the crotch of his coveralls.

Judy T said...

HAHAHA!! I feel your pain! We had the car de-fluffified last month- after I kept telling my DH that there was something in the fan because we had really low air flow (he of course disagreed). I felt vindicated after the mechanic pulled a pound of fluff out of the vent. sigh. And V just cleaned out the vents of the van last week. Mousetraps here we come!
Judy

Jenyfer Matthews said...

OMG - I can so relate!!!

Picture it: I was leaving my dad's MN country place after a nearly two month stay this summer and opened my hood at a gas station to check the oil. Behold - a live mouse behind a grill in my car, between the engine and the dash board!!! I could not get it and I think I would have grabbed it just to be sure it was good and evicted! I banged on the grill a bunch of times to scare it and then hoped that it would be uncomfortable enough to leave on its own before too long.

Two months later...

Took my car in for servicing this week and the mechanic pulled a big mouse nest out of the engine, near the AC vents, constructed of the insulation from my firewall!!! No evidence of current residence or any corpses either so I am hoping that I don't have to put a mouse trap on my floor!!

Just glad it did no damage to my wires and my AC vents have been sprayed and sanitized...

Unknown said...

I shall be very alert when I am driving as I will think of mice invasion in every vehicle. I do hope your car will be cleared of mice or else call the priest. I loved the comments and now I have to give my belly ah rest from laughing....;-)

Michelle said...

You break their little necks quickly and mercifully, and give me a good belly laugh besides! When I had a mousy car, I put One Bite poison in the trunk. One did expire in the garage after its toxic feast....

Sue said...

I had mice chew through the electrical on my car on winter. The mechanic told me to put Bounce sheets around in the trunk, under the seats, etc. Apparantly the chemicals in the sheets are too much for the mice. It worked like a charm for me. And doesn't say much for putting fabric softener on clothing. Another case of rodents being smarter than people..........
:)

Susan said...

I think that all the comments above should be compiled in a book, a script written and a new Chevy Chase movie produced. What do you say??

Jenyfer Matthews said...

I might just try the dryer sheet trick - can't hurt and it might improve the smell of the interior of my (kid)car :)

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha! I haven't read the rest of the comments, but I'll bet I'm not the ONLY one to reply with "yup, that's what's on the passenger's floor of MY car"!!!

- Chicken Mama

Candy C. said...

Hope you get the little bugger! I had one die behind the dash a couple of years ago! EWWW! The garage charged extra to clean it out because it was so stinky!

Susan said...

Jenyfer - I might try Bounce. I've tried the generic sheets and all they do is make me sneeze.

CM - Hey, if you're anonymous, how come you're signing?! I knew I was in good company ;o)

Candy - My mechanic was afraid of that, which is why I'm driving around without heat and with a mousetrap on the floor.