Can't find the trap...
 

... or the mouse.

Last week I decided to check the interior of the cab for dust since I hadn't opened the doors in a couple months. I noticed mouse droppings on the carpets. About 15 pieces at that time. Notices I had the rear engine cover off... vacummed up the mouse droppings... installed the engine cover.

Check it a few days later... a few more mouse droppings... and then vancuumed.

This morning there some more droppings so put some cheese in a small mouse trap... the snap one that comes down on the neck. A couple hours later went to the store and saw the glue traps. Picked up the four pack... small... about, what, 3-4 inches by 5-6 inches. Put one behind both passenger and drivers seats, so two traps there... and put the remaining two in the front driver passenger sides pushed up against the "wall" of the middle console. This was around noon today.

Went out a few hours later. Both rear traps intact. There. Passenger side front trap... there.

Drivers side... saw the snapping trap with the cheese. Nothing. I wasn't using my flashlight... looked to where I placed the glue trap (again, next to the middle console sitting in front of the gas pedal about an inch back... where the heel would rest). I didn't see the "shiny" of the adhesive/glue. Put a flashlight on it... gone.

Thinking that the mouse and trap were under the handle you pull to move the seat back/forward cautiously I grabbed the handle and pulled the seat back.

Nothing.

Looked under both seats. Nothing. Looked behind the top engine cover, in the very back of the convertible top... under the vinyl window... in the event it scurried itself and the trap up and over... nothing.

Pulled the "cover" that sits under the passanger airbag. Some droppings (so it/they had too been there). Some droppings... but no trap. No mouse.

Pulled off the two carpeted side pieces from in front of the middle console... nothing.

Opened the frunk... looked around the battery area and either side... no droppings. No mouse. No trap.

Started with four traps early this afternoon. And only three are there.

Fellas... what would you do? Where would you look? It's not like it's a huge cabin with lots of hiding spaces. Further... I can see how a mouse could drap that 3-4" by 5-6" trap. Sure... it's thin. But there aren't a lot of places a mouse in distress can pull that part through.

Thank you for your consideration. I'm dying to hear what thoughts about the matter you may have. :confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

A snake ate the mouse and trap?

Under the carpet padding?

Did you check up inside the bottom of the seat or up under the dash?

Oh... you'll find it eventually. The smell will lead you to it... :barf:

Son of a ********************.

Just went out to check on the remaining four traps.

Three adhesive traps and the small wooden snapper trap.

The wooden snapper trap is gone. how in the hell does a wooden mouse trap go missing in that cabin. I mean... if it snapped on a mouse neck...

Looked under the seats... looked in the area under the passenger airbag... nothing.

I look at the wiring under the dash... some wires I have running here and there... and the wiring behind the two middle console carpet pieces and there's no facking way a stuck mouse is pulling those traps through those minefields of wire.

I appreciate the comments thus far and welcome additional insight kinda leaning around responses associated with "Where are the traps".

It doesn't help that my carport neighbor didn't leave me much room to open the driver's side so I could position my body to better look under the dash. The mirror coupled with a flashlight hasn't revealed anything yet.

Are there any access areas outside the car that would allow a mouse to enter the cabin? The top and front engine covers securely are affixed.

Thanks guys. :cheers:

Those traps don't always get them by the neck. It all depends on their body position when the trap is triggered. It could get a limb, or the tail, etc. I've had a few of them dragged away.

He or she is messin' with you...

Gotcha. They must be tough ****************ing mice to have limbs caught in adhesive, or the snap-trap then pulling their bodies through a minefield of wires into the tight orifices of the cabin. I'm flumoxed.

Asked the wife to alert the neighbors to move their truck so fully I can open the driver door. Hopefully by the time I get home at 6P tonight so I can find those darn rodents. It's not so much the crap... I can vacuum that... but I don't want them chewing on more wires.

Cheers!

suggestions...

Lose the glue traps... have seen happen and a PITA when they do rip limbs and/or their skin off. So stick w good old snaps.

Now:

if possible in your carport, leave windows open overnight... and put traps around car on ground OUTSIDE. They will come out...

If not, put a trap in battery tray area, one in each footwell, and trunk. 4 will be plenty. Put the traps, especially in footwell either on your floormat upside down or better yet in a low profile box w at least 4" space on all asides around trap. Boxes like ones a case of barley tea comes in are perfect so you might have to do some "research" first ;-) Once you exterminate one, replace w different box - think they're decent smelling death... makes clean up/removal a snap as all is contained.

Now #1 piece to your success:

Bait w/ peanut butter. Those little you know what's love the stuff. I've got a 1000% track record when baiting w PB w/in 48hours anywhere - basement, attic, garage, crawl space, drop ceiling, etc. Just a pea sized smeared dab... stays in place and they have to crawl onto trap to get the cheese... err PB... and meet their maker.

Goo luck :)

If can't

It may be a rat, not a mouse, and those suckers are huge. (we live on a farm, the war against rodents has been waged for quite a while, we just use vitamin d traps now because I was so fed up with snapped traps and no ice/missing glue traps/etc). But I digress.

If I were a rodent I would live in your seat, in the center console, in the front dash, or in the battery compartment. I doubt that a trap made it through your firewall, but it could definitely be in a seat or in the front dash. Try using your phone to look if the undersides of the seat are torn up. If not, pull panels off the middle console and look there, especially at the front.

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My suggestion is to get a 12 gallon trash can and glue carpet on one side, light carpet so it doesn't tip over, and put in your carport. Put food in the bottom. They'll climb right up the carpet and jump in with no way out. Caught about 30 in our old house this way, though I just set the trash can next to some shelving in the garage.

Brilliant!

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I live in a rural area. Every fall this becomes an issue in the boats, campers,cars, house. I’ve had them inside the batwing fairing on the Harley. I once had one take a snap trap and somehow transported it into a closed drawer of my craftsman roll away tool box in the garage. The glue traps are really for the babies that don’t use enough force to set off the snap traps. I concur the scent will lead you to them. They can get into places you can not imagine best of luck

The glue traps are rather inhumane imo.
The snap traps dont always kill them but maims them instead.

Thanks to all of you with the great suggestions. I will be employing several of them.

The neighbor isn't messing with me. He's on his last legs and has no energy to **************** with me.

The cabin is sealed. I can't imagine how a mouse or rat could pull a trap, again, through a maze of wires. The neighbor did move their truck so I'll be able to open the driver's door and get right up under the dash for a look. Under the seats has revealed nothing.

I examined the battery tray and on either side. Nothing. No mnouse or rat droppings.

Under the car... zero. No droppings.

I agree the glue traps are inhumane. 100%. However, a $$$ repair bill for electric bull****************, too, is inhumane. ;)

Later today comprehensively I am going to examine every freaking inch of the interior... under... over... inside... etc. if that/those little buggers are in the cab I don't want to find out the hard way... that being the smell of death.

Thanks, again, everyone. I'll be sure to post the results.

Check the underside of the seats....they love to live between the sprins and the top seat covers. You might see pieces or shreds of material on the carpet below the seats. You might be wise to pull the seats out....if nothing else you'll have great access for vacuuming/clean that area of the carpet.....

KEEP US POSTED.......

The last few days I checked the remaining three traps. Nothing. There didn't appear to be any new mouse droppings.

This morning I resolved to inspecting every possible square inch of the car. There is the faintest smell of death. Faintest.

Under the seats, nothing.

Because exhaustively already I had examined under the driver side dash I then removed the flexible, dark colored, panel from under the passenger air bag. It is affixed from the underside with two black plastic screws with the back and side edges of the piece tucking up under everything. In any event, the removal of that panel revealed more mouse droppings and, knowing there's no way the two traps made it out of the cab, further I explored.

Employing a telescoping mirror and a couple of lights tucked up under the dash revealed a mouse face and one arm. Contorting my body and on my back I used a grab tool... about ~2 feet long... push on the red cap at the top of the tool and out pops four... five fingers. When you release the button the fingers grab and you remove the tool with the item caught within the grasp. That tool.

I've pulled and tugged. It's not easy being on your back... trying to keep the telescoping mirror and lights properly positioned while navigating the grab tool pointing it in the opposite direction of what your mind is telling you knowing you've got to keep your eye on the mirror.

I've had no luck pulling it out. I suspect that behind it is one of those facking traps that went missing. My wife is going to bring home some surgical gloves and knows that it may be her small hands that'll be reaching up under the dash to connect with the mouse. My hands won't fit past the white box under the dash. I believe her hands should slip past that box and start grabbing mouse, lol. She's going to hate it.

That's the current update, for anyone who has read or contributed to the thread. Continued updates will follow.

:cheers:

Oh, mice dont like moth balls. They also dont like those things they put in urinals.
Is your car parked outside? If so it will always be an attraction.
If its in the garage line it with those urinal things and mothballs and try to keep them out the garage. Make sure all cracks are sealed.
If its outside not much you can do. The car provides shelter.
Where Im at we have to keep our hoods open because in AZ they go under the hood to escape the sun so by opening the hood they dont have much cover so they move on.
The goal is stopping them from getting inside the cab at least. Their access hole is probably where you found him. Try to seal the hole with silicone or something.
Lifting the trunk/frunk probably wont help much on these cars....
Good luck

On a somewhat related note I too just felt the wrath of the rodent. My wife's escalade would barely turn over leaving the park with our kids and so we headed to my buddies garage around the corner to check codes, which showed a bad MAP sensor. I popped the hood and then engine cover and there it was - mother****************ers chewed right through the MAP wiring harness (like all 3 wires completely severed) and had started into two more wires on the main harness bundle! It's always nice to break down at a mechanics garage, but that's an hour of my life that I will never get back.

On that note, kill em all!

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Maybe I'm mistaken but is this the meaning for the adage "marry a woman with small hands"?

Good luck ;)

PS - peanut butter