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Sadly, a lesson not learned!

I shall have to write lines.  I shall have to write 100 times:  I must not leave things in the car!    I must not leave things in the car!   ( Not even if if is bucketing down with rain and I have already done three trips to the house with bags of groceries.)   I bought two cyclamen in November, left them overnight in the car - and the mouse demolished all the flowers!   I left my carefully 'samoosa'd' plastic carry bags in the car - and the mouse made pretty patterns in them!  

You would think I had learned a lesson, but yesterday I left my seedling compost in the car, and the mouse went investigating!   And look at the mess in my car now.

I am saying 'mouse' because I would much rather it were a mouse than a rat.   But what do I do now?   How do I get rid of it?   And horrors of horrors, how do I make sure it doesn't suddenly appear while I am driving?

Even if I do find/catch/remove it, how do I prevent it climbing in again?   I like mice, so poison is not an option.

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  • Did you say that  there was a mouse/rat in your car? OMG!image

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    I got called out once to remove a grass snake from a car. A few years back I couldn't move my land rover for several weeks, we had robins nesting in the space under the alternator. image

    The only thing I can think of Oneofseven is to  buy a humane trap, place it in the boot or wherever you think the mouse is most often, trap the mouse alive and release him.

  • You have to get rid of that rodent!  Mice have been known to eat through electrical wires - it could do serious damage to your car - expensive damage!  Have you any idea how much it costs to have the electrical loom replaced - even part of it !!!


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Yes, Dove, that is worrying me.   I can now see where it has been gnawing on the plastic levers to move the seats.  

    Gemma, how did you know the robins were there?   That's delightful, if a bit of a nuisance.   I am now thinking of a humane trap, because it's not the only place we need one.   My husband has a sweet little mouse in his shed, in one of the drawers of his desk.   The mouse has built a snug nest from plastic, paper, string and cottonwool, and just pops his head out to say hello when disturbed.   But he is wrecking any paperwork which is there.   And he has now gnawed a hole in the floor of the shed, so all his relatives can enjoy his perks of a warm house and free food!

  • Yes it won't take long for all his relatives to move in and soon they will be having little ones of their own isn't nature fine.

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    My stowaway made a nest under the back seat. Bits of foam everywhereimage



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    Hi Oneofseven, I saw the adults flying up into the wheel well one morning. When they were not there, I carefully lifted the bonnet to see a nest with gaping mouths. So left well alone until they fledged. At the time we had several vehicles and this one hadn't moved for a couple of weeks, long enough for the robins to nest undisturbed.image

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    Go to the garden centre and get some poison.  Do not leave anything else edible in the car and it will do the job.   They sell a brand here called Toxa Overdose which dessicates the corpse so no smells.   Rotting rodent stinks.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114
    Sorry to be harsh, but you have a choice. Dead mouse or live mouse. Poison is not an option is not really an option, its a cop-out.



    At least if you put poison in the car no pet can access it; that's good news.
  • Obelixx, yes, you don't have to tell me that rotting rodent stinks!   Our wooden cabin is built up off the sloping ground, but when we have a dead rat under there we cannot remove it, so have to endure the stench!   Quite puts me off using poison bait.   But my husband needs to use it around his chicken runs, he puts it inside lengths of pipe, well hidden from everything except the rats.  

    I use a lot of air fresheners!

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