Normally I'm fond of small animals, but they are after my car!

Some weird little critter has been leaving teeny little poops in my strollers and the Roundabout in my garage (I complained about him before, he took some of the fluff off my Aloha cover )... and now he's after my rear driver's side seatbelt. At first I thought it was the belt rubbing really bad in the Recaro Start belt guide, but when a second 'bite' appeared in my seatbelt and some of the plastic is missing from the shell where the belt goes into the wall... and now that I think of it, there's been weird beeps in my doors (electric sliders that should NOT be beeping when the car's in motion ). So it seems this mystery critter (really, poops too small for a mouse... more like a massive cockroach.. but mammalian... a shrew? I don't really want to google for pictures of scat...) used to have many crumbs to feast on, but when I cleaned the car, is when it started chowing on the car (or nesting? we've had a slight chill at night...nothing more cozy than seatbelts and papertowels!). How is it living in my van in the sunshine? My car sits there for days in the heat! It's cousin is in the garage eating my other various crumbs and it broke into a bag of grass seed...
So we took out all my beloved carseats (which I *just* set up to my satisfaction last week...grrr... 2 Starts and a Radian, they aren't light!) and dh suggested putting them in the house for protection and we put a cute little plastic mousetrap gadget filled with peanut butter and a kix in it... fingers crossed that little beastie finds his way in there... DH also wants to bug bomb in there... um... well, I guess that would knock it lifeless...peeeeeyoooooo, though! And then I'll have to get the seatbelt replaced...it's 90% wide still, it'll hold a 55 pound kid who's in it once a week, but I'm not really happy (ok flaming myself... I'll move her to another seat, I promise...)

if it's a mouse, they have very little body weight, so if it dies inside your car, it will only smell for a couple of days before it dessicates.

are you sure the poops are too small for a mouse? could it be a mole?

it is probably a rat if its not a mouse... though it could be a chipmonk or small squirrel...

DH thought chipmunk. Definitely not rat (I've had rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters as pets...hmm...maybe an escaped neighbor's hamster?....hmmmm), I'm a poop expert (For instance, I know we have big lizards in our garage, and bunnies in our lawn...though I've never seen them, rofl!)

Oh, I hope you catch that bugger quick! We had about $1000 worth of damage done under the hood of our car by a rabbit who got a kick out of chewing through wires and cables!

Everyone told me to blame my cat for not running him off, but this happened while dh had the car at work.

so if I posted a photo of droppings... could you tell me what they came from? lol!

joolsplus3 said:

I'm a poop expert

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Now I've heard it all . Ratik green is wonderful stuff. When you find green droppings you know you got the mouse. I run the stuff around my beehives because mice love bee equipment, and it works. Good luck getting rid of it (most likely a mouse or a shrew)

Oh, I can recognize the more common poops...

Beeman, I'll look for that stuff

And the update? It gnawed on the plastic trap last night DH was out there first thing this morning dismantling my car looking for it...plastic panels and tether anchors and screw caps all over the place in the cargo space... (and no sign of the critter...I think we should send in the dachshund to sniff it out... that is what they were raised to do... kill pesty things, lol)

Dh said, he thinks they were bred for digging too, so watch out! He loves those dogs though. Also, says how can you get smaller than a mouse poop? We have had some very small mice in our house lately, and very tiny poop. Most the time I never even find the poop til afterwards the things are so tiny.

Sorry I wish I could tell you how to get him out. One of ours loved chocolate. We didn't have a "safe" non killing trap at the time so we put choc. on a glue trap. The mouse escaped several times from that super strong glue! Once he got on and Dh heard him and immediately got him off and we transported the critter far away (over 2 miles). He loved chewing on my plastic container too! So maybe your mouse will like Choc. I did try choc and pb in our trap with no success but I think the we scared him so much he stayed in the basement, where I found him dead.

My neighbor suggested glue traps, too...I think we'll go that direction . (ooooh yeah, Dottie's the queen of digging, she's trying to get through to China through our sunroom carpet, lol)
Here she was trying out a new carseat a couple years ago... http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/joolstag/?action=view&current=DSC00144.jpg

Defrost said:

Oh, I hope you catch that bugger quick! We had about $1000 worth of damage done under the hood of our car by a rabbit who got a kick out of chewing through wires and cables!

Everyone told me to blame my cat for not running him off, but this happened while dh had the car at work.

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I just want to ditto this, except that it was a rat, and our brand new 1994 Altima, and about $3000 worth of damage. EVERY wire under the hood - chewed through, hoses, airbag, you name it, it ate it.

We had to get a poison bar from the farm supply place to take care of it.

Oh, and it was cold weather - so he was trying to make a nice comfy home under the hood of the car.

We had some thing chew through the insallation(sp?It's still early) of my Focus.. Right after we bought it. I have no idea what it was. I'm guessing that it came home w/me from my parents house though.. Thankfully it didn't chew through cables or antyhing important.

Hope you find that bugger soon.

We had good luck catching mice with the live traps. Maybe you have a stupid mouse. Since he tried to chew thru the trap rather than go thru the door. We had a string of them in the house. They never made it any further than hanging out under the stove with Mr. Kitty on patrol. My dh works at Wal-Mart and he drove them 15 miles away to release them in the store parking lot. :ROTFLMAO:

I had a chitmunk chew through my Mazda (first car) while I was away for the summer. My dad was even driving it once a week so nothing would happen.

Maybe you can rent a cat from a neighbor? Let it snooze in your van for a night or two?

joolsplus3 said:

Dottie's the queen of digging

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Hey, Dottie is my cat's name, too! Dottie Jo, to be exact.

I don't have any good critter advice... I had hamsters as a kid, but I wanted them to live. Unfortunately, the cat found the only escapee I ever had... so I don't know how to catch one. I hope you find him, though!

keri1292 said:

My dh works at Wal-Mart and he drove them 15 miles away to release them in the store parking lot. :ROTFLMAO:

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So THAT'S where they're all coming from!! LOL!! No offense... you know I'm totally kidding... right?