Mice in air intake

Hi team - I was swapping out air filters the other day and found the beginnings of a mouse nest under one of the air filters. Anyone have any tricks on keeping these suckers out of the air intake?

my initial thought is to rig up a barrier with some 1/4 inch hardware cloth that would essentially sit within the air filters housing but wasn’t sure if a) that will cause issues in that particular location or b) would actually work.

appreciate any thoughts and feedback!

 

I've seen people used hardware cloth and worked for them.

 

Did mine last year and have no problems since. Just press the wire to conform to the area, then form a line of silicone around the area and press into place.

 

I've found that the little suckers, and squirrels, and birds, will find their way up and do all sorts of dastardly things, from chewing up wiring to leaving behind little, messy, "gifts." Hanging some soap shavings (Irish Spring) in a mesh bag seems to do the trick as they don't care for it evidently. Initially used moth balls but the smell that comes into the cabin is not pleasant.

 

Those little punks got into my engine bay after a week away and had a feast on the fuel intake wiring. Currently in the shop, we'll see how bad this damage is!

I'm pretty sure it was a squirrel this time. Any good tips on keeping these guys out of the bay, besides a .22? I know there's the electric sound machines, soap, moth balls, pepper spray, etc.

Appreciate if anyone has some good examples to share.

 

Two successful things I have used have been sticky traps baited with whatever, as well as basic mouse poison. I prefer the sticky pads because you can get rid of the thing afterwards.

 

Didn't think to take a pic of what I found in my intake the other week. A double handful of "Mouse Poison Pellets!" The Cab Fresh Products work well for my boat, so I velcro-taped a bag on the bottom of the CAI box. I have Irish Spring slivers under the hood and inside the cab + a few shots of Peppermint Oil but they bypassed all of that! If it happens again, it may be time for drastic measures!...

 

On the Irish Spring soap idea, where would y'all suggest to put it in the engine compartment? Seems that it gets pretty hot in there and the soap would melt. Just wondering

 

luckily for me ND -xx temps fixes this issue since it sits outside all year round.

 

Put the green poison blocks. Break it into smaller pieces and spread them around the engine compartment. Make sure it’s a place where they won’t fall. I put in mine and the wife’s suv after a mouse ate through her wiper fluid hose. Thank goodness it was only the hose. Haven’t had a problem since.

 

My only concern with those green poison blocks as they are "food" to the mice and might attract them when under some conditions they would not go to the truck.

 

So far I have had luck with bars of pink Dove soap wedged in several places and rags that I soak with full strength Pine sol wedged in places that won't affect regular operation. Screened fresh hvac intakes with hardware cloth also. Just for kicks I keep a few chlorine pool tabs laying around the parking area too.

 

I use pink Dove and it does slightly melt but not to the point where it drips. Just use common sense for placement and maybe don't idle in place excessively.

 

I use mint oil, works great

 

Maybe a cat ?! Nothing like having some pussy running around your truck !!

 

Been using it for a few years, never any issues with it melting or staying put.

 

Good advice all - I'll go with option D) all of the above. Truck is gonna be smellin FRESH!

Turns out damage wasn't TOO bad...only 4 wires and <$500 in repairs later.

 

I tried a variety of measures, killed many mice...but there were always more of them. Until I got a couple of barn cats. I feed the cats each day. They live outdoors and I have a small structure I built for them to get out of the weather. The barn cats are happy, fed well and they hunt and kill mice for fun! The only mice I have seen since are dead ones the cats didn't eat.

 

One word: Cats

 

First, you gotta find ones that are not scared of mice/rats/anything bigger.

 

Make sure it's suppressed for in town work. LOL

Brad

 

If you search "mouse trap" on YouTube, you can spend the better part of a month learning about all the different varieties of traps.

That said, a barrier of steel mesh, as mentioned, would seem to be a good solution.

If they chew the wiring, they can literally ruin the truck.

 

I leave my hood open when I'm not driving it the next day. I also have bait traps and glue traps in the shop as well because the mice will get into our camper as well so I've gone full court press on keeping them out but I'm still gonna pop my air filter out n take a look as I don't always park it in the shop.

 

Last Spring, a rodent, made a nest and chewed through a fuel injection wire on 2019 F150. I drove it every day, so just a temp nest. Chewed up some foam insulation block that went over the spark plugs. I repaired the wire myself. (The check engine light came on, and got notification on app that cylinder one was misfiring, where I discovered the chewed wire)

Anyway, I sprayed pepper spray around some of the engine and wiring harness. And sprayed underbody oil corrosion protection around the supports for the front tires and anywhere a rodent might need to move across to access the engine. This worked. I din't like the idea of spraying oil but that's much better than major damage. Also be mindful that anyone working on the engine could touch pepper spay and rub their eyes. But worked and zero problems after that. To be on safe side do that every six months. Critters are pretty smart. If they get oil on them or pepper spray they won't test their luck for long time.

I read a bunch of reviews and articles and nothing else seems to work. I'm not saying this will either but worked for me.

ETA: A Youtube video cleaned the engine really well and use peppermint extract spray and said that worked. The guy had done a lot of these and removed rodent nest and said do that once or twice a year. I'll probably do this as a preventive thing and some of the underbody film around the wheel supports and such.

 

Here’s what I use, available on Amazon, I have three of them in all three of my vehicles, maybe other people haven’t had as good luck but with me but I’ve never had a mouse problem with them, the disadvantages are you have to replace the batteries about every three months but it seems to work fine