There is no way to keep mice out of a Westy just sitting ..
especially in any woodsy or 'sheds' type area.
Totally asking for them to move in.

I get those yellow triangular boxes of mouse poison at the grocery store.
Ever shed I have has one .. ..under and behind something.
cars that don't get driven ...
have one ..
either on a front floor, or near a rear taillight ( vanagons )
on my chevy truck I keep one on the intake manifold.

this works really well.
if you see the blue pellets scattered ....you know.

I have never had a mouse or rat crawl off somewhere and rot and stink or
anything like that.
They just seem to dissappear.
If you smell a urin-ey smell ..that's usually a nest.

don't sweep or vaccum the teuds.
spray 'em down with chlorox ....so it's a mud with no airborne particles
possible.
People have died in a few cases - hanta-virus.
wash hands thoroughly.
etc.

ALL undisturbed spaces need to be aired out ..
mouse poison left in them etc.
works for me anyway !

On 1/22/2013 8:42 PM, neil n wrote:
> Well, two things I did that REALLY didn't help
>
> 1. left the engine lid off for a while
> 2. never buttoned up the fresh air ram intake project I started at
> time of engine swap. i.e. that grill never got put back on.
>
> image: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pPZ4oE30zCw/UPw5UpPgZZI/AAAAAAAAGpY/zvDhbX-iUTw/s720/air%2520intake.jpg
>
> I just left a half baked flap installed in there that I'd fully
> intended to wire to a lever at the dash.
>
> Looking at things today, I bet it's even possible the lil bugger got
> in the rectangular hole at the front pillar (shown in image) but
> that's unlikely.
>
> I would choose to play loud Maynard Ferguson.   ;)
>
> Really though.
>
> Mouse traps. (thought; tie the trap down!) One of those things that
> emits a high pitched sound. A solid mouser cat. Female and hungry.
>
> I'm not want to kill things, but right now, I'd be hard pressed to not
> drop a brick or 5 on any rodent in or around my bus. And that includes
> those "cute" squirrels. (aka tree rats) Ok. Rant off now.
>
> ;^)
>
> Neil.
>
> On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Tom Carchrae <tom@carchrae.net> wrote:
>>> Needless to say, try not to let this happen to you!
>>
>> begs the question; what do you do to stop it?
>>
>> - van cat
>> - mouse traps
>> - poisonous washer fluid
>> - sonic terrors
>> - drive the van and play loud rock and rolll
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Neil n
>
> 65 kb image Myford Ready For Assembly  http://tinyurl.com/64sx4rp
>
> '88 Slate Blue Westy to be named.
>
> '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"  http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> Vanagon VAG Gas I4/VR Swap Google Group:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
>