Mouse nesting locations in the Prius Prime

Kris did not fail me. I set out traps three nights in a row and caught a mouse every night. would have Thunk I would have caught all three the first night....but....setting traps again tonight. Hate to ruin their Fourth of July, but....

 

this is still working great after a couple years:

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even solved a few squirrels that were digging up our potted plants and chewing on hummingbird feeders

 

LOL...never thought I would get to the end of this thread on your battle with rodents. Or is it the end? Never has been for me. For years when living in a house with crawl space I tried everything and always lost out eventually to the rodents. Trapping til they were all caught for the winter usually worked. Recent years for the car has required similar, and I found this reusable live trap to work best of all I have tried. They are turned loose in town when I go to park for a walk.

Was trapping your ultimate answer? If my neighbors wouldn't shoot all the rat snakes they could help out, but I have found a rat snake resting on the inverter before too...but not in many years. Also, did you ever figure out where the white fluff is coming from. I worried it was interior, but I actually do not think they penetrated inside now that I see the whole construction of the cabin air system. Plus, it never smelled in there. Washing away the scent under the hood with soapy water in the engine compartment could be helpful if you have had a problem as they will return to the smell. Not sure you could ever get it all though. I still use the mint on a sock in a few places in engine area. But like you say an IPM approach is needed and obviously the trapping and vigilance must continue...or chewed wires and mayhem will ruin the Prius...or lawnmower...or house..etc. Good hunting!

 

Yes, everyone should use human traps.

You could even build houses for them so that they won't reside in your Prius Prime.

 

This pic is looking up over the cabin air filter slot. Some have blocked this easy access for mice with metal screen to keep them from nesting on the cabin air filter, but that procedure on youtube required taking dash off and disassembling the duct where this visible opening is in the picture below. There is no good way to block it with wire from the outside because the opening is inside a barely accessible cavity between firewall and the engine compartment. I removed the wiper arm and cowl, but you can't really get anything in there that would work from outside. One could imagine the perfectly molded hardware cloth fabrication could be forced into the upper part of this duct, but it would be hard to be exact??? We need the fresh air for defrosting, but the idea of the mouse dropping and trash in the cabin air box is pretty nasty...blowing all throughout the car. If I had a template of the exact dimensions of the shown opening I would be tempted to try the hardware cloth.

 

Hmm. FWIW, With third gen, removing the wipers and cowl, it's relatively easy to install mesh over the cabin air intake.

 

Thanks Mendel! Perhaps on Gen 2 had I gone further and removed the wiper motors I could have angled a piece in there, but would have been hard to screw down the far side so didn't try. Besides, at that point I had not looked from the inside. From inside if one had just the right shape screen it could work to fill that hole.

Strangely, my visiting mice may have come down in the cabin air intake, but they never left signs. Three times they have built a nest on top of the engine right in front of that fuse box in the middle. Wish I knew where they got the white fluff?? So far, trapping and vigilance has been best way, and at the same time they invade my eRider mower too which is also a problem to seal up so may as well just trap. Of course, if car is left still too long while away visiting etc. then wires will be chewed. There was a video on youtube that highlighted the use of a trail cam to capture what was going on around the area and help locate the point of entry around the house. So far, my camera never caught anything but neighborhood cats, possums and coons passing by. Haha... But it will soon turn cold. Then come the mice!! Where is the Nutcracker when you need him?...off dancing around with the mice! The green live traps work GREAT! A few pieces of walnut do the job. No blood. No suffering so long as you don't keep them in there too long. Easy to release. Easy to wash.

I don't blame the mice for moving in. I like living in the Prius myself sometimes! Haha..

 

Uh-oh!

 

Interesting conversation, and great writeup Kris.

Here are a few observations on the subject, coming from a lifetime of battles with rodents of all sizes.

Background: this all started on family farms infested by mice and rats who were destroying grain rooms. I currently live out in the boonies in conditions not too dissimilar to the OP (Mr. Mouse King !) Our 150+ year farmhouse is surrounded by several outbuildings but for one reason or another our cars (2018 PP, 2010 Gen3.4, etc.) sleep outside. No rodent damage to our Toyotas yet (black snakes do climb into the engine but they ain't got no teeth... hehehe!) but I did find serious damage in another vehicle a few years back.)

Here we go:
1) So... mice will stay away from a trap or whatever if a human touched it? OH REALLY? Then why do they live inside our homes, crawl all over our pantries, countertops, drawers, etc. ALL OF WHICH "stink of human"? And this must be some real stinkerooney for them since they have such an extraordinary sense of smell.
Seriously, this is one the most absurd things I have ever heard... 200% with you here Kris!

2) The ONLY time a rodent crawls back inside a wall or in a basement, dies, rots and stinks up the place is if he was poisoned with bait, NOT if he was PROPERLY trapped.

3) I can see why Kris would prefer the fancy Victor trap but honestly the standard ones are way cheaper (if memory serves, we paid about 2 bucks for a box of 10 a few years back) and they are just as effective IF you make this simple mod', which I discovered by accident many years ago: insert the tip of a flat screwdriver, or a strong knife, at the very end of the "food holder" (where it curls back into the metal strip, and open that into a roughly 3/16" space. You now have enough room to one, really push your bait in there (I use smelly but softig cheese like young VT cheddar) into that hole, and two, mash a thin coat of some cheese on top of the food holder to "make it one" with the cheese inside. The mouse now thinks he's got no choice but to take a big bite and he gets slammed even if the trap has not been hair-triggered. .

4) There's nothing easier and cleaner than releasing a dead mouse from a trap. Here is how to do it: grab the trap, step out 50 feet into some shubbery (or in open terrain if you know you have plenty of birds of prey), grab the trap by the opposite end to the mouse, release the trap tension and the mouse falls right off. DONE! Mother Nature will take care of the rest.

5) Never "clean" a trap! The more mousey smell it has, the more mice you will catch (assuming above modification of course.) Think of that trap now having TWO baits...

6) BY FAR the most efficient rodent killers are foxes, members of the mink family, hawks, and best of the best, OWLS. Have a gander at this beautiful documentary for a very small sample of what they can do:

Here our "dear neighbors" the Mennonite farmers (aka the Monsanto Monsters) have absolutely devastated the owl populations over the last couple decades but hopefully, SK doesn't have to contend with this type of ravage. If that's the case, build as many potential nesting sites on and around your property as you can (local ornithologists would probably be happy to give you a hand!)

 

All six points, spot on with my experiences having lived in rural Ohio amid the soybean fields, @Chris HV.