Squeaky Stowaway Startles Steve on Morning Commute

I think I have a mouse that has taken up residence inside my Jeep.

I was driving to the Q1057 studio on Wednesday morning and just cruising along, drinking some coffee and listening to Free Beer and Hot Wings on I-90. I glanced at my radio and saw something sticking out of the air vent just above the radio. At first, I thought it was a stick. It wouldn't have been the first time that has happened. I use my Jeep a lot off-road and I'm always finding leaves and sticks throughout my Jeep.

So I reached up to grab the stick and pull it out of the air vent...and that's when it moved!  I was really startled, it wasn't a stick at all, it was a mouse tail! Suddenly, it was gone and I could hear something inside the dash moving. So, here I am trying to keep my eyes on the road while looking for this mouse that I just knew was going to run up my pant leg while I'm driving. That would have probably caused me to wreck and that's not a good way to start your day.

So how did this road trip rodent get into my Jeep? My Jeep has been sitting in my garage for the past few months while I was putting a new engine in it and I'm sure that's when Mister Mouse decided that it was nice and cozy inside the heating vent of my dashboard. So, now I have to figure out how to get him to leave his new home,

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A friend of mine told me I should just put a cat or a snake in my Jeep to catch the critter. Ah, no, that's not a good idea...I don't want either of those animals in my Jeep either! So I did what everyone does when you have a question...I went to Google and looked up mouse prevention and elimination.

Now, my Jeep smells like a laundromat because I read that fabric softener sheets will keep mice away. So far I'm not sure it has worked, but my Jeep interior smells like the Snuggle teddybear. Not that that's a terrible thing.  I did some additional research and found that mice hate mint, so I'm going to put some of that in my Jeep as well, in addition to a few traps. In the meantime, I'll pull my dash apart this weekend and clean out the vents really well. The droppings and nest that they build can give you the hantaviruses and I don't what anything to do with that.

If you've ever had a mouse in your car let me know what you've done to get rid of them. As of this morning, I think he is still a stowaway in my Jeep.