mice in my heater vents >:)

[project85]

i could smell mice crap/nestings when i turned my heater on. so i pulled the vent out and it was full of nesting stuff. my question is what is the best way to clean these so the smell doesn't come back? i power washed them and then rewashed them with dish soap. i was thinking of lysoling them tommorow after they dry. i just don't want any kind of smell after i put it all back together.  thanks

[Grim 82]

I had similar issues, and I used bleach on everything that I could remove from the truck, and lots of Febreaze. Remove your blower fan and get a flexible hose for a shop-vac and clean out the air plenum. I cleaned mine out the best I could last year and now this fall I need to clean it again. After running for a year the fan is pulling even more nesting stuff into itself through the little rubber hose from the motor, and it quit spinning the other day. Mice are almost as bad as rust. Good luck.

[low budget]

The best way to get rid of the smell is to bleach them, then rinse real good, and let air dry...

[JDaniel]

just put the plastic hoses and stuf in the dishwasher, works great.

[project85]

Not so sure my wife will go along with putting mouse poo covered stuff in the dishwasher. Ill try bleach today.   Thanks

[Irish_Alley]

after a while the smell will just go away lol. turn her on high and walk away or get a buddy to drive her for a couple days

[project85]

today i finished pulling all of the covers and the blower motor box off. i found a dead mouse in there. probably not gonna be able to put anything in the diswasher at home......

[benzesrule]

PLace Bounce sheets in the vents and interior of your truck. Mice do not like them. My wife places them all over the inside of our camper. The dealership we bought it at told us to do it. We have not had one mouse in it. We live in the counrty and store it in an old barn. I like the smell better than mothballs. We place them in all of our old vehicles.

[Skunksmash]

DON'T use lysol. I have had bad luck ever getting that smell to go away. Use a much more pleasant cleaner smell than lysol. You will come to hate that freaking smell, I promise you. It don't want to go away for some reason.

[84 chevy guy id]

I spent a week tearing my whole heater/ac system out of my 87 burb cleaning mouse nests out. I pulled the inner fender and took everything out and scrubbed it out real good with a strong dish soap solution and let everything sit for a week or so before reassembling it. I replaced the heater core but reused the evap core. While it was stripped, I scrounged up an old air filter out of a tractor and cut all the diamond screen off of it and put it over the air inlet for the blower motor in the inside of the cowl after I took out the right side kick panel. Then as I assembled the heater/ac system I used more of that screen on every opening just in case mice get back in that they cant get in the heater again. Mine sat one winter and while it was sitting them moved in and took it over. I hate mice!!

[rayfin interiors]

Spray white vinegar all over the place. Leave it.  It will kill the germs and the smell. I had the same problem. Next time borrow a cat.

[roger97338]

I know this is an old topic, but I was curious what you finally did to clean your vents.

Several years ago, mice packed my ducts full of dry cat food. I vacuumed it out as best I could, but whenever I drove it, cat food would fly out of the defroster vents. And the faster I drove, the more cat food was hurled into my face. My truck evidently decided that it would have to take steps to get me to disassemble and clean everything, so it sprang a leak in it's heater core. So, I had mouse poo; soggy, moldy cat food; and nasty sticky corrosive coolant in all the ducts. And under the carpet. And sprayed on the windshield. And just laying randomly behind the dashboard. So, all the ducts were removed, cleaned and sanitized. Including the blower motor, which was full of cat food, poo, and whatever they gathered up for their beds. I pulled back my carpet and cleaned under it, then shampooed it. Then, I found mouse poo under the seat. It came out so I could thoroughly clean under it, I shampooed the seat, and I removed all my emergency supplies from behind the seat and cleaned everything back there too, just in case. And of course, I replaced the heater core.

Luckily the ducting is minimal, since I don't have A/C. And I don't have a headliner or upholstered door panels either.

Mouse poison was used liberally from that time on.

My fat tom cat, Dum Dum, spent more time in the garage than in the house. He must have sat in there all winter watching those mice steal his food and haul it off to my truck.

[project85]

I had the same setup, no A/C, no headliner, door panels. I tore it all apart and just washed it with dish soap and soaked it a few times. Seems to have worked. Just a pain tearing everything apart and scrubbing it.

[PromiseKeeper]

Place Bounce sheets in the vents and interior of your truck. Mice do not like them. My wife places them all over the inside of our camper. The dealership we bought it at told us to do it. We have not had one mouse in it. We live in the country and store it in an old barn. I like the smell better than mothballs. We place them in all of our old vehicles.

I put fabric softener sheets all over my boat and in every compartment... the mice made a nest out of them        

[benzesrule]

We always put bounce sheets in our camper and our old cars. Haven't had one mouse turd in any of them since. It has to be bounce sheets. Our camper dealership told us only to use Bounce sheets nothing else. Boy do they work great!! I even put them in my 84 Silverado 4x4. I highly remommend them. My wive goes nuts and puts alot in the camper!!