To "quote" Pete Seeger... I had horrible problems with mice in my Prius and posted several times, one of the most memorable being a picture of the engine air filter box stuffed with dog food...Another time it was Cheerios. My '08 Prius went away in 2022. Other than mice it was a great car -- But just found some mouse droppings in the engine compartment of my Subaru, out come the traps -- two around each tire and a few placed along nearby wall. But, really, our Subarus have been mostly rodent free. Wonder if there was truth to the bit I heard some of the Prius models had soy and/or peanut ingredients? kris
There's lots of ya'll who have moved on from your Prius but are still part of the community... Like @bisco @bwilson4web and others... I pulled a mummified rat carcass out of Gen2 cabin air filter area once. It was gross but glad it was years dead and not fresh!
LOL... Then all mice from your neck of woods must have migrated to our home this year. We have been battling against surge of mice (Easter deermouse, scientific name: Peromyscus maniculatus) in house, car, garage, sheds, and apiary. Also we are seeing increased activities of rats, mostly brown rats (scientifi name: Rattus norvegicus) around home. So far, I closed off the air intakes on our son's old Honda, but I have not done anything with our new Equinox EV. No sign of rodent invading our EQEV... not yet anyway. The house is different story. Even after closing the obvious point of entries, the exclusion has not worked. They are finding a way into our house. I have set large numbers of traps (~30 total now), and checking them on daily bases. I caught most of them now about 30 mice in less than two weeks. But still seeing 1-2 trapped occasionally, so I know they are still coming in. I just can't figure out where...
My three Prius were important steps to what I drive today: 2003 Prius - you can get 52 MPG all the time after the first 10-15 minutes 2010 Prius - now you can get 54 MPG all the time after the warm-up, 10-15 minutes 2017 Prius Prime - you can get 56 MPG but no more due to stupid control law screw-ups My post-Prius rides: 2014 BMW i3-REx - WOW! you can get 1/3d the cost per mile urban driving yet still get 39 MPG at 70 mph on gas. 2019 Tesla Model 3 - no gas yet fully cross country capable running 4.5 mi/kWh or further in urban driving 2017 BMW i3-REx - backup for Tesla and alternate charging from solar while driving the other EV. Burns ~2-3 gallons per year to keep the range extender operational. But the real attraction are the early adopters of Prius who remain. Yes, there are early adopters in the EV forums. But PriusChat collected an early group. Late throught, there are coarse symptoms suggesting initial EVs also have a thermal "warm-up." The first 10 miles, the indicated kWh/mi (Tesla style) suggests a high initial consumption. Initially, a maths problem of dividing by a small distance, the Tesla has a battery that needs to reach operating temperature. This may be a major part of the initial kWh consumption. Bob Wilson
Prius isn't the only car using biobased plastics. Ground clearance might be playing a part. Your Outback has about an extra half foot of vertical for a mouse to conquer. They might not need the wheels as ladders with the Prius.
Have to work that into the lyrics when singing with the kids tonight....might change it to kitties tho. LOL kris No, second thought, felines is better! Hmm, is better, or are better. My field is natural resources not English. I will stay with is, but think it should be are.
i've taken 7 of the little fellas out of the basement so far this season. they keep taking the poison, but don't seem to eat it.
The mice are moving the poison milliter by milliter into your various food stores until they reach lethal dosage.
Old studies, like 30 years plus, showed little problem IIRC. However, in the past decade studies out of California indicate significant non-target mortality, meaning other critters are being affected. Might have something to do with my giving up rodenticides in favor of live catch and snap traps -- no glue traps. But have to be careful with traps as they can injure/kill others, such as birds. My snap traps go out after dark and I collect them before dawn. I have no enclosed parking for cars. All traps accounted for and no non-target animals harmed in the past decade kris
Everyone is saying me too when the subject of rats and mice come up this year. I catch and release and get looks but that’s what I do. I know their chances of survival in a a hawk, owl, feline, fox, coyote, environment in the Calif coastal forest I let them out in means not much chance of survival. I found the opened steel mesh where they were getting in and sealed it so nothing is ever prying it away again. One night I went out and witnessed a racoon mightily trying with his arms to pull the screen off. Not going to happen anymore. They and skunks go after the rodents. One rat got in the house and there was nothing to find asI take care of that, and he started chewing on the bar of soap in the bathroom. One day the whole bar was gone. Finally got him in the trap and took him to the forest at 2 am. He looked at me like wth bro, and ran away. Brown rat, not very large. It’s that tail.
Are, if you're approving of fur-covered purring critters, is if you're approving of the word choice. Kinda the use–mention distinction. For the second case, might also put single-quotes around felines to clear it up. Hmm, there's no real way to say that either. Putting single-quotes around felines doesn't clear anything up, and probably perplexes the felines. But putting single-quotes around 'felines' also doesn't seem right 'cause they're already there. Can we just go back to the old homework question, add punctuation to complete the sentence John while James had had had had had had had had had had had the teacher's approval
Caught one deer mouse the first night and nothing since,so have cleaned traps and put them away. kris
Felines don't work. At least not in our house or outside. Rodents reproduction is faster than any predator catching them. We have 8 house cats freely running in our house. We have dozen feral cats roaming outside. We have fox, eagle, hawk, owl. Still rodents are thriving. This pair of bald eagles visits our back yard every day. I know they catch rats and mice. I watched them hunt. But not enough to reduce our rodents population.
Barred owls are moving into Pacific Northwest and out competing Northern spotted. This is a brewing controversy as N spotted are a protected species, and there are plans to bring hunters to remove Barred from their new territory. To remove about a million I'm not quick to latch on to such a plan. These owl spp. have mostly overlapping food sources, but Barred are larger and have more chicks. In this particular case I wonder if Barred owls have arrived and doing better rodent control. So, listen for them: Barred Owl Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Or get active and use portable electronic device to play that. If heard it will be answered. Owls be like that.
Barred owls have been in the Oregon Coast Range for a long while. The article below talks about lethal control of the Barred Owl population several years ago. A good friend was (and still is) deeply involved in barred owl control. Most of us around here are pretty good at imitating barred owls. Call sounds like "Who cooks for you?" Occassionally they will answer. Saving endangered spotted owls means killing some barred owls - OPB
