Any experience/success with blocking and preventing mice

If you can YouTube check out Nutzaboutbolts spark plugs tutorial. In it you'll see instructions on how to remove the windshield wiper assembly and cowl. Their tutorials are stickied in our Maintenance forum. The square opening for the HVAC intake is on the passenger side you can't miss it. I used four sheet metal screws, four washers and some aluminum window screen. It's easy if you have a cordless drill and bits.

Good luck! You may want to do some maintenance at the same time like spark plugs/EGR cooler cleaning etc.



Pixel XL ?

 

Mothballs: In the garage, leave a few scattered around in the corners and along the mousie-runs (junction of floor and walls); put a few mothballs in an old sock and leave laying around on shelves, in drawers etc. hope this helps - Wil

 

Buy a cat. Yell at it to stay out of the garage. Swear to god and all that is holy that you don't want it near your car and that you would literally die if it killed a mouse. Leave your favorite pair of shoes in the garage. Empty out all the dead mice that vindictive little bastard stuff in there every morning. NEVER let on to your cat that you are pleased with it's actions or this will not work. Problem solved.

 

I recently caught a mouse by setting traps in my 2012 Prius. I found one nest under the hood on the passengers side where the hood latch is. another one was found above my cabin filter where the mouse had found a box of tissue in the car and stuffed about a dozen tissues there. Looking at where the cabin filter goes, there's a 4" by 1" hole (above where you insert the new filter) I'm not sure if it's supposed to be there or not or maybe the mouse chewed it. This would basically bypass the filter. I don't see any reason the manufacturer would have a hole like that. If the mouse chewed this hole, he cut it pretty straight. I removed one of the wipers and lifted the rain guard but do you have to remove the drivers side wiper to access the outside air vent? I'm going to install some screen as others have mentioned. I've never had a mouse problem before on any of my vehicles. Any one have any ideas for me. I'm not trying to hijack this post, just trying to get some help myself. Thanks

 

Might be Cargo Cult, but here's one I've done, on the engine air intake snorkel:

 

See post #2.......

 

I had mice leaving residual traces in my prius daily and my Ram pickup, one in the car port one in the garage, I bought three electronic gizmos that plug into 110 and emit a noise, ultrasonic, it's been three years, the Ram had a hugh nest on the battery the prius fresh droppings every day, anyway, three years and no mice, anywhere in the garage, or house, OK, downstairs in the service sink I keep a bar of FELS-NAPTHA out and they eat it, but it shows no wear either, block-em, poison em, (moth balls, bad for everyone involved) whatever, but for 3$ these electronic gizmos seem to work.
One died, now two

 

Time to bump this thread topic! I have long put up with mice and their leavings in my 2013 PIP. I live in the country, and park in a pole barn that is not heated. Keeping them out of the pole barn ain't going to happen, besides I leave the door open all time anyway, unless a blizzard is coming. I screened off my air filter snorkel a couple years ago, they kept coming. I found chewed item in the glove boxes, droppings all over the intake air filter (which explained the odor on a hot summer day) I trapped dozens over the last 3 years, finally just last week I bought a ultra sonic noise repeller. This, Neatmaster Ultrasonic Pest Repeller Electronic Plug in Indoor Pest Repellent, Pest Control for Home, Office, Warehouse, Hotel (White) It's on the floor, far enough inside to be out of the weather, and plugged in 24/7. When I park, it's right under the engine bay.

So, that's the easy thing to do, I guess those repellers work, we will see, can't hurt anyway and draw very little power. Since I am in the process of installing a lift kit from OffRoadPrius, I had to take the wiper assembly off and the metal shroud below it. I had known that those items covered up most of the mice entry's, but was too lazy to take the job on previously. Once everything was stripped out, I found at least a half 5 gallon bucket nest, made from I'm not sure what, but some kind of insulation that was part of the car. That's cleaned out, and I can hardly wait for my local Ace Hardware to open tomorrow morning, as I am fresh out of galvanized metal screen in the shop, but every damn opening I can see on the firewall will get blocked. I'll use self tapping sheet metal screws, JB Weld, whatever it takes to mechanically secure the screening, all items I have on hand already.

I came very close to buying a used Prime a couple weeks ago, but backed out of the deal and decided to gin up the PIP instead. The lift kit is part of the deal, as is a block heater, as are new Michelin IceX's, then the mice thing (hopefully), and then when I got rear ended last week, resulting in soon to be installed by the body shop new bumpers front and rear, the car will look like new, so the mice had to go!. There are some great YouTube videos showing how to remove everything, take your time and it's pretty easy (at least to come out, nothings back in yet). Pictures in a day or so.

 

Was that the engine air intake? How about cabin air intake?

 

Yes, the easy to get at engine air intake, passenger side.

 

I'm interested in seeing the Prius with a lift kit.

 

I'll start a separate thread for that in a couple days.

Meanwhile, here's a shot of the nest found under the plastic shield, removed once the wipers were removed. Once you do it, it could be done again for a semi annual inspection in about 5 minutes, or maybe at every oil change! But the main culprit for cabin infestation in my 2013, is this firewall opening big enough to fit a loaf of bread through! I was stunned, stunned I tell you, to reach in that hole just to see what was there....and found that my hand was in the upper glove box. This pretty much clears up why napkins and other paper stored there got chewed up. It is hard to believe, that the same brilliant minds that designed the rest of the car and it's innovative drive system, overlooked this. They may as well have embossed a placard above the opening, "WELCOME RODENTS". Ace Hardware no longer stocks roll mesh, BUT they do sell gutter guard mesh, same deal, just not on a 36" wide roll and by the foot, so for less then 10 bucks I bought a piece and it was more then enough. I will wait and see if this mod, plus the ultrasonic noise maker thingie, does the trick, before I block off the rear entry points I have read about, this will at least make the little buggers work hard, removing the welcome mat so to speak.

 

Hopefully they don't scoot under the bottom edge.

 

If it's anything like the gutter guard mesh I used to back our radiator grill against stone damage to the radiator and inverter coolant loop, it's not metal mesh. It's some kind of fiber reinforced plastic that won't stop razor sharp rodent teeth.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The galvanized steel rodent mesh is still readily available at hardware stores.

 

The bottom edge is tight against the firewall, and reinforced by the lip bent into it, and the mesh is metal not the plastic gutter guard, which I also saw at the hardware store.
For decades, any and every decent hardware store sold galvanized 1/4" mesh on a roll, by the foot. I know because I bought a lot of it to screen parts of my small hydro electric system, and short of driving clear across town and trying Lowes and Home Depot, I concluded that if the very well equipped Ace Hardware didn't carry it, other then driving 30 miles to a farm related hard supplier, (in my relatively gas hog of a Rav4, as my PIP is at the body shop for a couple days) the metal gutter guard would be more then adequate. Like trying to find a lumber store that sells nails by the pound out of bulk bins anymore, now you can only buy them pre packaged, in little or big boxes, nails. Tough stuff, my high quality aviation tin snips struggled to cut it, I ended up using a cut off wheel in my grinder. Easily as tough as the galvanized stuff I tried to get, this was powder coated.

 

I've got to do this on our three Toyotas, we've found rodent droppings on our cabin air filters in the past. I never imagined that the opening to the cabin was so large.

 

My car will be at the body shop for a week, then at the dealership, maybe the now displaced mice will abandon ship for greener pastures (other Prius's). I have a new cabin filter just waiting to go in, not mouse urine and feces soaked, should be a breath of fresh air. When one realizes the entry path for the critters, and then notes their leavings on the cabin filter, why your car stinks on a warm day with the windows up becomes abundantly clear.

 

My dad has been using petroleum based rustproofing like this for over 50 years,

Even with my 8 year old Prius v with bio-based wire insulation, when coated with this stuff, the wires don't get chewed. I have found acorn residue but that's all. With the feel of this coating underfoot, they don't go into the air intake vents.