Mouse in Boot

[Fletch29]

A couple of days ago I opened the rear boot to find a chewed scarf and a ripped and empty packet of chocky biscuits. further investigation showed mouse poo and a torn fleece jacket. I stripped out all my bits and pieces but no sign of the varmint or any sign of a nest. I left a trap for a couple of days and caught it.
The question is, how do they get in, the car is parked in my drive with nothing near it. It seems to be confined just to the boot and not the inside of the car. Has anybody else had the same problem.

[stux99]

Not quite the same, but definately rodent

[Keith Williams]

I have had mice in the front bonnet and some nesting on one of the cross beams actually in the engine bay but not sure how they got into your rear boot. Mine even used the straw from my rabbit to build their nest with. I was surprised how much of it they had managed to move to make their new home. The daft thing is the car is used each day so it was not that they had a steady or stationary place to live. Five mice were eventually caught and moved out of the garage area and now I have one of those ultrasonic units to keep them away. No sign of mice for a while now

[Glenn Neilson]

Had the odd rat or two in my car but never a mouse

A wee moose will squeeze through a tiny opening and they do a LOT of damage so try and get rid of it asap before damage is caused to your interior, hose pipes etc.

[jonbaker]

Yep, had them in our garage,chewed through the luggage net and made a nice nest in the body below the lock. Its was full of the rat poison we had put down. BIt of Mars bar on a trap got them hat to get a new luggage net from Rimmer Bros.

[talkingcars]

When I worked for the local VW/Audi dealer we had Nick Mason (Pink Floyd drummer and motorsport) Golf VR6 in with starting problems, turned out that mice had taken great sections of insulation out of the wiring loom while it was parked in the garage of his country home and ended up with over £1500 of replacment loom!

[vain]

When I worked for the local VW/Audi dealer we had Nick Mason (Pink Floyd drummer and motorsport) Golf VR6 in with starting problems, turned out that mice had taken great sections of insulation out of the wiring loom while it was parked in the garage of his country home and ended up with over £1500 of replacment loom!

Must be something about wiring looms, my mate had his loom from his GSXR600 eaten over the winter months

[adrianclifford]

Yep, exactly the same thing last year, I found a large empty peanut shell in the boot that I never put there. I never found the mouse but our cat did and left it by the kitchen door for us (maybe it was a different mouse of course, but it's never happened since ). Herbie, who knows these things explained that as they have no "shoulder bone" they can squeeze in anywhere.

[Herbie]

Yep indeed Adrian, they only need a hole with the diameter of a finger / ballpen to get into.

[stux99]

That makes perfect sense!!!

[Alan D.]

I parked my MGB GT in my garage prior to going on holiday to France in the TF a few years ago. When I opened the garage on my return, I could see something was wrong straight away. The whole interior of the car had been trashed with ripped leather, shredded foam and chewed panels/carpets and wiring throughout. I was gutted but the insurance were great and made no quibble about the £3k+ repair bill on a 34 year old car! (It had been specially trimmed with Connolly Leather and Wilton carpets when it was restored by the previous owner). It was picked up that day and sent to a repairer of my choice. He set traps and over a period of 5 weeks caught 8 mice before he felt it safe to re-trim it! To this day, I keep mouse poison sachets under the seats just in case. I had never heard of such a thing before.

[adrianclifford]

Wow Alan, well done the Insurance company