Mice in the car....gettin the smell out?

[daveswoodhauler]

Ok folks...similar to the skunk car story but with a twist.

Have a 2005 Honda Odyssey and the inside of the van is a constant mess as we have three kids and someone loves to keep open containers of food in the car for snacks....crackers, granola bars etc..

So, The Mrs's calls me at work the other day, and says there are "droppings" in the car....I guess I wasn't really surprised as the van is pretty much a delicatessin for mice. Anyhow, cleaned out the entire car and started putting traps in the van. First night caught 2, second night caught 2 more.....third morning went out as the trap was sprung, but no mice in it....little bastadge....so I added more bait to give weight on the trap, and bingo the next day we had mouse #5 caught.

So, have had three days or so without any traps getting tripped, and no droppings...so I hopefully am thinking we caught them all....which leads to my next problem, of getting the damn stick out. (Doesn't smell like death, but more like mice pee)

So, I shampoo'd all the carpets, used a micture of water and vinegar, but the van still stinks....I think the issue is that the mice were hiding underneath the carpets at a few holes where some wires run down for the power seats, so other than ripping out the seats and ripping out the carpets I am at a loss on how to tackle this.

I was thinking perhaps some charcoal type filters and can place under the seats, but will the smell ever go away?

Edit, looking for some options other than Danno's million mile air fresher trick and Jack Straws "bucket o dead worms" lol

 

[Danno77]

have you tried this?

 

[Jack Straw]

Leave a pail of dead worms in the car on a hot day and you will forget all about the mouse piss.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

FeBreeze or a scented oil may work.
If the smell is really strong, load the family up, have everyone chow down on some onion rings and orange juice, and drive 'em around for the next 6 hours.
You will never smell mouse pee again (or anything else for that matter)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Put an open glass or jar of white vinegar in the car overnight. It might take a couple nights depending upon temperature and how bad the smell is.

 

[PapaDave]

Sell it.

 

[onion]

Natures miracle? Works for dog and cat pee.

 

[Monosperma]

Natures miracle? Works for dog and cat pee.

Nature's Miracle is pretty good stuff, but you do need to know where to spray it to the point of saturation. How to pinpoint the source? Obtain a UV (ultraviolet) flashlight, not the smallest one you can find, either. Park the vehicle in a dark place, and shine the UV light around. Pee and blood will stand out; mark the "glowing" spots with little bits of tape, and back in daylight you will know where to saturate with Nature's Miracle (or whatever odor removing treatment you choose). Then be patient, it won't smell all that great for a few days. And you may need to treat more than once. But eventually, it gets better.

P.S. I'd try to get this done while the weather is warm, so that you can roll down the windows and give the upholstry in your vehicle a chance to dry. If you wait until full-on winter, I'm afraid you'll have foggy, foggy, windows for a long time.

 

[maverick06]

not sure, but a thought:
i once left my window in the rain. i shop vac-ed out the car then put my basement dehumidifier in the backseat, ran the cord outside, and carefully closed the door. i let it run for 2 days, emptying occasionally. worked great. drying out the car might help the smell

 

[homebrewz]

Its probably in the vents. I seem to recall some interesting solutions on cartalk.com for that very problem.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Nature's Miracle is pretty good stuff, but you do need to know where to spray it to the point of saturation. How to pinpoint the source? Obtain a UV (ultraviolet) flashlight, not the smallest one you can find, either. Park the vehicle in a dark place, and shine the UV light around. Pee and blood will stand out; mark the "glowing" spots with little bits of tape, and back in daylight you will know where to saturate with Nature's Miracle (or whatever odor removing treatment you choose). Then be patient, it won't smell all that great for a few days. And you may need to treat more than once. But eventually, it gets better.

P.S. I'd try to get this done while the weather is warm, so that you can roll down the windows and give the upholstry in your vehicle a chance to dry. If you wait until full-on winter, I'm afraid you'll have foggy, foggy, windows for a long time.

Good Idea, and for those who also mentioned the Nature's Miracle.
So, today I picked up a black light from home depot and put it in my work light. Actually, worked like a charm. The good news, the stains showed up pretty well. The bad news, well, the size of the stains. Actually, two of the large ones are in the mid section of the bottom of the seats in the third row, and lucklily I can remove the seats from the car and attack the areas while I have the seat upside down. Still have to remove the front seats to see what damage is done under the rugs, but I have to say the black light was a great idea and it really showed clearly where the little bastages were hanging out.
Thanks Again.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

When my father died I inherited his truck. It was low miles so I decided to keep it. The problem was he was a heavy smoker and I never have. I got 90% of the smell out by vacuuming, washing, the pet smell remover and then doing a bunch of wipedowns of the dashboard and such. There was a lot of smell on the hard plastic parts that you wouldn't think was there. I did multiple pet odor treatments.

Matt

 

[DAKSY]

I ended up with a company car when I used to work for Ryder Truck Rental back in the 70s & the Dealer Sales Manager before me was a cigar smoker. Ugh. We ended up dumping a couple of cups of Maxwell House coffee grounds - DRY & right out of the coffee can - in there & left them for about a week. Vacuumed them up & that cigar smell was gone & never came back...