What a revolting development!

[tech71]

I was running survivor up today to do some checks ect. Got it up to temp and opened the heater valve to to check for leaks at the valve, heater hoses.

This is newly refurbished heater box installed maybe 6 months ago.

I let it run for quite awhile just to be sure, looks good leak wise so shut the engine down and turned on the heater fan(also new) to check flow out the registers.

Fan running, all vents closed, I open the lower vents... foomp....out blows a ball of fiberglass insulation and I catch a whiff of... I freeze,  OH GOD NO... Foomp, Foomp!

More insulation and then a freshly dead baby mouse pops out of the register onto my pristine Esty carpet. Needless to say I freaked.

Spent the next hour running the fan, blowing and fishing out more insulation and 2 additional mice, a baby and adult. All dead, heat stroke probably.

Man I really dont want to pull and disassemble the heater box again! No no no! thats not the plan but I have to be sure the heater box is cleaned out.

Sigh, time to spend some money I guess.

https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-SKYBASIC-Waterproof-Inspection-Semi-Rigid/dp/B07ZH9P8QH/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3SZ2ZN5QPEWYB&dchild=1&keywords=borescope+inspection+camera&qid=1593739277&sprefix=borescope%2Caps%2C333&sr=8-4

Think I can feed it in through the fan opening a get a visual inside the box.

God I'm a dumb ass for letting this happen.?

 

['76mintgrün'02]

Aw... poor little guys.  Good that you found it so early, before the smell clued you in.  Hopefully this does not turn into another "favorite way to kill a mouse" thread.  Plenty of those in the archives already.

Tom

[Mike Self]

Use a shop vac to suck (unmentionable) things out the floor heater outlets.  Once you get all the mouse parts and mouse nests out of the heater box, Fabreeze is your friend.  That stuff really does work...

 

I had a pristine early rear seat back--the flat one only used on the 68 and 69 02s--pristine except mice had nested back there--and peed.  A lot. In the Gummihaar.  I used all sorts of pet odor destroyer concoctions, left it Gummihaar-up in the sun for several days...still smelled like mouse pee.  Then I gave it a generous spraying with Fabreeze.  Within a day the smell was gone.  I put the seat in the car--that was nearly 15 years ago and it's still smell-free.  

 

So spray Fabreeze into the heater core from the intake side, and up into the housing from all four vents (upper and lower).  Do this several times until the smell is gone.  But if you've left remains in the box, it won't work as well so be thorough.

 

Mice can get through incredibly small holes, including the slots in your hood and up the "duck lips" so if you have a mouse-prone storage area, plug the duck lips and use some Vexar gutter guard to block off the hood louvers.  But they still may sneak in around the rubber side seals on the plenum chamber.  

[tech71]

1 hour ago, '76mintgrün'02 said:

  Hopefully this does not turn into another "favorite way to kill a mouse" thread.  Plenty of those in the archives already.
Tom

Hope not too, I already know how to kill them. I live pretty much in the middle of farmland, several acres of nut trees adjacent to my property provide an abundant source of food for larger rodents. Wood rats, ground squirrels, chipmunks, dont know what the mice eat and dont care. They will destroy your home, your garden and your cars. Rodents devour up to 25% of everything mankind grows. They are the enemy, death to all rodents!

I'm done now.

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by tech71

[jerry]

i had a beautiful set of tobacco colored vinyl from the rear seat bench in perfect condition that i was storing to use to recover some front seats i had.  rats chewed into them for nesting material and destroyed the vinyl.  and no, they did not chew along the periphery; they went straight to the center panels making it worthless for anything.  i share your hatred for rats and began an 8 month hunt for them with rat traps.  i got around 25 large rats over that time span.  i fed the carcasses to the crows and seagulls.

[TobyB]

Yeah, they get into everything around here.

Blew a whole family through the defrost vents

of the F150 last winter.  Along with half a tree and 2 blue towels...

 

I was thinking maybe you'd replaced your alternator.  Re volting.

 

t

 

[conkitchen]

Oh rats!

[man_mark_7]

When I first got Gerty, I pulled all the interior out to do a thorough cleaning. Popped up the rear seat to find a little mousie staring back at me.

 

 

[tech71]

I've heard that Bounce dryer sheets repel them, no idea if thats true but I'm distributing  some about my car any way.

Smells nice if nothing else.

[Vicleonardo1]

14 hours ago, tech71 said:

I've heard that Bounce dryer sheets repel them, no idea if thats true but I'm distributing  some about my car any way.

Smells nice if nothing else.

 

My experience, Bounce dryer sheets work as great nesting material for rodents. They love it...

If you live in farmland. Nothing better than a few feral cats to help hunt the little bastards down.

[TobyB]

Of course, cats love to pee everywhere, too.

 

Oddly, our 'puppy' (125 lbs) has really cut back on the mouse nesting problem.

 

I'd have thought he'd have chased the little bastards INTO the cars, but so far, our 

infestation rate has gone down a lot.

 

3/16" hardware cloth on EVERYTHING has helped, too.

 

Yes, they ate through the plastic vent grilles on the E36, both inlet and outlet.

 

t

 

[Vicleonardo1]

Now wondering what a 125 lb rat terrier would look like. 

 

Dogs not pee free either...

Love my dog, but has no interest in hunting. Growing up on a farm, cats were great because I do not have much affection for them, (the feeling was mutual) but they kept their distance and did their job. 

 

I guess you have to pick your pee... Mouse, Cat or Dog. 

But one would not find a Cat or Dog in their heater box...I think....

[JerryC]

On 7/2/2020 at 8:54 PM, jerry said:

i had a beautiful set of tobacco colored vinyl from the rear seat bench in perfect condition that i was storing to use to recover some front seats i had.  rats chewed into them for nesting material and destroyed the vinyl.  and no, they did not chew along the periphery; they went straight to the center panels making it worthless for anything.  i share your hatred for rats and began an 8 month hunt for them with rat traps.  i got around 25 large rats over that time span.  i fed the carcasses to the crows and seagulls.

Several years ago there was a rat population boom in our neighborhood. My next door neighbor and I started keeping score, we each did in about 35 rats that year. He just used poison after tiring of messing with traps. I used traps, pellet gun (got 8 of 'em that way), and a bengal cat named Tomba. Tomba was exceptionally good at catching them, but he didn't always dispose of them in the nicest manner - he usually left about half of the rat on the front door mat.

[tech71]

On 7/2/2020 at 6:54 PM, mike said:

Use a shop vac to suck (unmentionable) things out the floor heater outlets.  Once you get all the mouse parts and mouse nests out of the heater box, Fabreeze is your friend.  That stuff really does work...

 

I had a pristine early rear seat back--the flat one only used on the 68 and 69 02s--pristine except mice had nested back there--and peed.  A lot. In the Gummihaar.  I used all sorts of pet odor destroyer concoctions, left it Gummihaar-up in the sun for several days...still smelled like mouse pee.  Then I gave it a generous spraying with Fabreeze.  Within a day the smell was gone.  I put the seat in the car--that was nearly 15 years ago and it's still smell-free.  

 

So spray Fabreeze into the heater core from the intake side, and up into the housing from all four vents (upper and lower).  Do this several times until the smell is gone.  But if you've left remains in the box, it won't work as well so be thorough.

 

Mice can get through incredibly small holes, including the slots in your hood and up the "duck lips" so if you have a mouse-prone storage area, plug the duck lips and use some Vexar gutter guard to block off the hood louvers.  But they still may sneak in around the rubber side seals on the plenum chamber.  

 

I was never going to get the box clean enough by shop vac, so I removed the heater box,  again.

Took it apart, removed all the nastiness including another victim wedged in there.

Washed and brushed it all out, rinse, repeat. Then sprayed it with Bac Out, let sit and hosed out with fresh water.

After it all dried out I spritzed it with Fabreeze and reassembled.

I just cant allow this to happen ever again. I have worked really hard to get Suvivors interior looking good and a heater that blows the stench of warm death is unacceptable.

I spent the day today  sealing up my garage, found an entry point and closed it but thats not enough.

Fitted the fan intake with screening, still have lots of airflow.

Will do what I can on the hood as well.

This is war, on several fronts?

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by tech71

[Son of Marty]

Yeah, take that Pixie and Dixie f off and die.................elsewhere.