Peppermint oil -- where do I put it in car?

Girl, you trollin'! Maybe a few drops in the gas tank to give your Prius a little more "pep"?

 

I saw a product with the peppermint oil contained in a small packet. I think this might be ok on the air cleaner housing, but I don’t know what happens when the car warms up during driving. Are you going to place them overnight and retrieve them in the morning, or just try to leave them in place all the time?

I went with one of those ultrasonic mouse things after discovering that a rat likes to munch birdseed while sitting on the inverter. He’s getting the seed from my wife who likes to feed the neighborhood birds.

 

It would not hurt.

However unless you've actually seen a problem below the air filter, I don't know it would help.

In order to get to the air filter, a critter would have to enter the air intake, crawl down through a duct into the translucent plastic resonator located in the passenger-side fender well, then crawl back up through the ducting into the air filter housing below the air filter. There is a very long path from the air intake duct to the air filter, requiring a lot of effort.

I also have not seen anyone report an infestation problem in this particular area.

 

I take it you've never seen the "Lemmiwinks" South Park episode have you?

 

Read a comment someone left about putting a few drops of peppermint oil on some charcoal. Perhaps you can break a briquette into a few smaller pieces and use that instead of light cotton balls?

Then again, charcoal is a curious choice because in it's activated form, it is a good absorber of odors. Perhaps some pumice stone would be better? It would absorb the peppermint oil readily and hold it without absorbing the odors like charcoal might.

SCH-I535

 

OK, I now understand you have a very serious infestation problem, within the top 1% of Prius owners...

My suggestion is that you use a mechanical means to discourage the mice. In other words, place wire mesh screening at the air intake. The air intake is in front of the windshield washer fluid reservoir and the opening faces backwards, pointing towards the reservoir.

Since you probably need another Prius project now that you have a fresh 12V battery installed, I suggest that you may want to raise up the front right corner of the car, remove the tire, and partially remove the passenger-side front fender liner at the front, to inspect the air resonator. If you see debris within, the resonator should be removed and cleaned out, then reinstalled.

Also, remove the air duct that feeds the engine air cleaner housing, take a look within, and clean if needed.

 

Actually it is not very hard to remove the plastic covers over the cowl tray at the rear of the engine compartment:
1) Remove the front wiper arms by unbolting the nuts that attach them (one on the driver's side, two on the passenger side) and then pulling up on the arms
2) Remove the rubber seal that runs along the rear cowl by disengaging 8 clips
3) Remove two plastic fasteners at both ends of the two black plastic covers
4) Pull up the black plastic covers (each held on with 8 claws) and then you will be able to see into the cowl tray. The windshield wiper motor sits there, by the way.

This also allows you to clean the metal cowl tray, which by now probably has a nasty accumulation of leaves and who knows what.

All of the above is not relevant to the engine air intake issue, since that is located in front of the windshield washer reservoir.

BTW, my definition of "front" refers to the front of the car, i.e., the headlights are near the front bumper. "Back" refers to the rear of the car, i.e., the hatch.

 

My unwanted visitor (rat) seems to really like the area near the front of the inverter. I had a bunch of bird seed shells fall from the underside of the hood on two different occasions. I considered the peppermint/spearmint oil as a solution, but wasn’t sure if it will survive underhood temps without evaporating off. I have been placing one of those ultrasonic pest devices underneath the transaxle when it is in the carport overnight. A coworker told me the ultrasonic thing worked well to keep varmints out of his RV.

 

Hi Kris,

I'd like to propose a labor-saving alternative to my earlier suggestion of accessing the air resonator chamber located in the front passenger wheel well. Instead, disconnect the air duct that leads to the engine air filter housing, and attach that to a shop vacuum hose, using packaging tape for a good seal. Turn on the vacuum and see what is sucked up.

Then, attach the vacuum hose to the shop vacuum exhaust, and blow air back into the air duct. See what comes out of the air inlet which faces towards the windshield washer reservoir. Make sure you have an unimpeded flow of air before you declare victory.

 

I battled mice getting in my camper. I've heard tales of drier sheets and other "smelly" things that would keep the mice away. For everyone who claims it solved their mice problem, there are others for whom it did nothing. I tried something I bought on Amazon that had great ratings and still got mice. From what I've read, only two things really work.

1. Block all openings to the area you want them out of. That's a tall order since they can get through anything bigger than 1/2".
2. Get a cat. Seriously. An outside cat or two will keep the mice away. We moved our camper storage from my sisters house (no cat - many mice) to a friends (several cats - no mice) and our problems disappeared.

 

I had a large mouse nest crammed in over my cabin air filter. Cleaned it out and hung a couple of perforated pill containers with mothballs in them in the engine compartment, no more evidence of mice in the last 4-5 months.

Mothballs are lots cheaper and easier to find than peppermint oil, but they have the unfortunate side effect of making your car smell like a maiden aunt's closet. Keeping the mothballs in the engine compartment means that I only smell them on very rare occasions.

I also (somewhat involuntarily) added the cat solution via a cat we are "temporarily" boarding for a relative a month or two after doing the mothballs.

 

My money is on the cat, not the mothballs.