Cat or No Cat

[joephish]

I posed the question "Cat or No Cat" the other day and found the answer myself. No Cat. I was having a problem with Junior choking at high RPMs. He would cough and smell awful. I checked the Forum for REASONS AND REMEDIES and still no better. Well the situation rectified itself. Saturday a huge wad of sooty fiberglass insulation flew out of the tail pipe. It seems that the field mice had taken up residence in the exhaust system this past winter and used Owens Corning R16 to make it cozy. I never thought to Search the Forum using key word Mice. My fault.
But I do want to thank all for your posts. I have eliminated several small issues with your help and hope that I can add to this great source for Fiat Spider lovers in some way.

Joe Pescatore

[rlux4]

Perhaps you should keep a cat after all:




Ron

[So Cal Mark]

that's a fairly graphic pic to view while I'm eating breakfast

[rlux4]

Hey, cat's are entitled to a little breakfast too!
Rodent on rye, mmm-mmm good.
Ron

[trent]

I bought my 81 last summer and drove it for a week or two before finally taking it apart to clean, lube, and generally mess with all of the appropriate things. Most everything worked, even the electrical stuff, save the very slow wipers. So off came the wipers and cowl- where it turned out the motor was just fine (and where banging and WD-40 didn't loosen the wiper-rack, eBay solved the problem for $10+shipping).

A day or so later I was playing with the heater and air controls when up popped that little lid that covers the airbox, what's this??? I discovered the remnants of a mighty lost civilization of mice that had evidently taken up residence for some time. It was so tight the it was like somebody had stuffed a quilt in there! SO, even though I'm allergic, the answer is cat.

[brunorahl]

There is a device that emits a sound we can't hear, but drives mice away. You can get them from your local pest control specialist. You plug it into a wall socket in the garage and never worry again.

[Tango]

I've used those ultrasonic gizmo's in my garage, basement and under the kitchen sink and I would say they definitely help. We live in the country and no evidence of mice in the house since we put them in, and only one episode in the garage. They are line-of-sight, though so you really need more than one to cover the garage. On the other hand, I can attest that racoons are immune to them.

[johnbuckley]

ONe very effective way to solve this problem is mothballs. I put a small container with 10-12 in the cockpit, trunk and engine bay when I winter the care and never see a sign of them. I use the same trick when I close up my cottage for the winter. Keeps down all manner of insects, flies and small creatures that might otherwise invade a car of cottage when left for a period of time.

[Tango]

Just a thought: people I know with cottages up north will plug a hole with steel wool during the winter to keep mice out. Mice won't try to chew through that according to them.

I intend to stuff a little coarse, loose steel wool in my car's exhaust pipe this coming winter (Man I hate to think of next winter already) as a precaution. Even if I forget it in a dozey moment and start the car, it will still provide lots of free flow area.

For everything else that I put away in the winter, mothballs do the trick, but the smell lingers. I scatter moth flakes over my lawn tractor and snow blower in the off season ever since a mouse ate the gas filler cap, top of gas tank and part of a lever handle on my snow blower one year. The replacement gas tank and cap was bout $85 with shipping. I hate mice. I really do.

Tim

[brunorahl]

Think if we all go in together, we can get wholesale on a few tons of rap poison, and sprinkle our neighborhoods?