How do I hate you, let me count the ways....$550.00 to be exact. I have a nice TroyBuilt riding mower, it's a Bronko with a 17 horse Kohler engine. I bought it used several years ago, but in great condition, I've kept up with the maintenance. So last week it doesn't want to start. It turns over, but won't catch. Some popping, and smoke. Checked the usual, spark, fuel, air ect, no go. Take it to a local repair shop owned by a fireman where I worked as a policeman. Turns out some wiring was chewed up by mice. He found a nest under the engine where a nest was made also, caused the engine to run hot also. Turns out many wiring harnesses for cars and tractors from China use a soy or rice ingredient in their insulation. The mice love this. Had the harness repaired, a full service and new battery. Runs great now. The shed now has every mouse killer know to man. Traps, poison traps, and sticky traps. Claimed my first giant mouse the first night. Snap!!! He never knew what hit him, he died with his eyes open staring at a clump of peanut butter.

I live a couple hundred feet from the city limits and thousands of acres of open prairie. Lots of critters! Deer, antelope, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, wild turkeys, badgers, an occasional wandering bear or mountain lion.

Not very many mice. The rattlesnakes seem to do a good job of keeping them under control. We always visually check the patio, porch, or garage before walking out. Two or three times every year I have to use the rake and shovel to deal with rattlers.

At least the rattlers don't build nests in my toys.

I have an electric trap that electrocutes them.

Spray the mower with peppermint spray every 30 days and anything else you don’t want critters getting into.

Hopefully you don't drive a Toyota Yaris.

Mice seem to think the harness on those are delicious.

My 2015 Chevy truck is in the shop right now getting wiring replaced due to squirrels. This is gonna cost me around $1000. I've tried live traps with peanuts and corn. I've tried rat traps with peanut butter. Damn things steer clear of everything but wiring. I think I'm gonna bait the traps with scrap wiring from my truck

quote:

Originally posted by phil in indy:
My 2015 Chevy truck is in the shop right now getting wiring replaced due to squirrels. This is gonna cost me around $1000. I've tried live traps with peanuts and corn. I've tried rat traps with peanut butter. Damn things steer clear of everything but wiring. I think I'm gonna bait the traps with scrap wiring from my truck

I have a 69 Lincoln Mark III in the garage that they haven't discovered yet. I've also heard that if you place dryer sheets around the interior and under the vehicles, they stay away. I'm going to try the peppermint spray too.

quote:

Originally posted by MMSIG229:

I have a 69 Lincoln Mark III in the garage that they haven't discovered yet. I've also heard that if you place dryer sheets around the interior and under the vehicles, they stay away.

I read someplace, maybe right here on SIGforum the last time that this was discussed, that mothballs work.

Yeah, our old µBarn was full of gaps, so mice got in, would get into the engine for our mower, and build nests in there.

Before I realized that was happening I went to start it up, one day, and no go.

What had happened was the timing belt had caught the nest, it got between the belt and one of the gears, caused the belt to slip, and knocked it out-of-timing.

The new µBarn is mouse-proof and the mower motor has since been replaced with a motor that doesn't have a way for them to get in there even if it wasn't.

Now, if I could only figure out how the little bastiges are still getting in the house

That's why God invented cats - best mousetraps ever.

Mowers,cars,trucks,tractors in barn.Leave the hood up when in storage and mice will no longer have a safe and snug place to live and destroy wiring.

Ramik mini bars. I put one or two around my batteries. No problems. Yet.

Several years back, mice chewed the wiring on my 3 year old 43 HP John Deere 4600 tractor.

My thanks for putting out bird feeders is they seem to spill on the ground
as much as they eat. I trapped about 20 mice. Sorry birds, no more feeders.

I"ve got mice and voles and moles all over my property. I can't get rid of them fast enough. They haven't gotten in the house. But they did nest in my stepson's car's engine compartment.

I need more snakes.

The service writer at the chevy dealer told me a guy he knows has been wrapping moth balls in panty hose and tying them up under his truck. I didn't ask if they were avoiding the moth balls or the smell of the previous owner of said panty hose!

Mice chewed up the wiring on our Hustler a few years ago. Had to replace the entire harness, think that was around $300 or $350. Put mothballs out, not sure if that deterred them. Now we store the mower in a mouse proof storage container over the winter. They don’t like peppermint scent, so we have bought peppermint spray and go out and spray around the vehicles, and mower during the summer. That has seemed to help from what we can tell.

It's hard to mouse proof a shed.
I've finally mouse proofed the garage but no luck on the mower shed.

Many car engines have decorative/soundproofing plastic covers over them. Remove them every so often and check for mouse houses. Stop me if you've heard this before.