Mice

After all these forum post with mice problems, I will no longer be using a wireless mouse in my Prius....its touch pads only from now on!

On a more serious note, if you search Prius Chat you will find some great post on this subject.
I would lean towards the solution that coat the wire harness with a insulation/wire safe coating that mice dislike.

 

Your going to adopt some stray cats and feed them near your car. The deal with mice is that they don't have collar bones so they can SQUEEEEZE into tight opening the size of their skull...thats their advantage. As for WHERE they enter. You have installed the mesh screen but that didn't do it so the recirculate door may be the entry point as another poster suggested.
Someone going to have to chip in and say if they enter thru the screen (you installed) and then to the recirculate door?
Or is the recirculate door seperate from the screens you had put in.

 

I have to believe there are some ways to stop the mice before they reach your car, and for far less than $10K. Look online, contact a professional exterminator, etc.

 

if you don't have kids and pets, poison the heck out of the area with bait blocks.

 

Where is the entry point? Mice getting to the cabin air filter can't be good. From there, they could chew through the air return cloth/filter and end up inside the car.

 

Get a cat. Problem solved.
Don't want to get a cat? Put an ad offering to house-sit for a cat. Keep the car near your car for a week or two. It will scent the area and the mice will stay away. There are organic methods like this which you can spray or scatter near your car which will frighten mice away.

 

So I just have to tie a cat to the engine compartment so it will stay in there? No one knows the path mice take to get into the cabin air intake, then?

 

aren't there some good threads here on closing up the entry points with mesh cloth?

 

remind me not to move to san anselmo.

 

No. The mere presence and scent of a cat in the area where the vehicle is parked should deter the mice.

If mice are bedding inside your car, they may also be bedding inside your house's walls. Cats get rid of mice. It really does work.

 

The ones I saw dealt with 2nd Gen mouse infiltration, not 3rd Gen.

 

guess that's specific to cats/
I have four dogs, every time I open a door on one of the cars they think they'll go for a ride & come & look inside the car (& probably leave some dog smell), every morning they pee on my tires - nevertheless I catch just under the prius on average like four mice a week....

 

I am another Prius owner with rodents getting in to cabin air filter area. I have searched the engine area to find the entry point but have not located that. Does anyone know exactly where that entry point is?

 

You have a rodent problem. Fix that first, then the car problem is fixed.

 

To block mice, remove the wipers and cowl and the metal tray with the dozen 10mm bolts. Then, on the passenger side you may see a large rectangular opening leading towards the glove box. That is where they get in and wreck your filter, or worse. Drill holes and screw down a sheet of fine metal screening. Also screen the opening of your air intake snorkel.

 

I had a mouse problem over the winter. The damn things ate through my Clazzio car sear cover!

Had my first Wth moment - Varmit ate thru seat cover! | PriusChat

Entry was thru the cabin air intake and then into the glove box ( mouse poop evidence ) and then they ate into the seat cover. The theory is that the seat covers are 'organic vinyl' that the mice seem to like.

Needless to say..this was my solution :

No more mice. I still need to do the intake blocking as mentioned above.

 

How about the outlet openings in the rear?

 

There's the one next to the 12v battery in the rear that I know of. It does not look easy to screen, so I've ignored it. My screenings under the hood have been in response to damage caused--so far there hasn't been any evidence of activity in the back.

 

Picture speaks for itself