The smell of a decomposing mouse somewhere forward of the firewall

Man, this aircraft ownership thing really does present its share of tests.

The latest issue I am dealing with is a decomposing mouse somewhere forward
of the firewall. My aircraft is a Bonanza V35 and I am flying at least
twice a week, but frequency (or lack thereof) of flight appears to be
unrelated to the probability of a mouse choosing the aircraft for its new
home.

This story began about a month ago as I was departing IFR out of Syracuse,
NY (Northeast US) in low ceilings and snow. During takeoff, small specks
that glistened in the light started blowing out of the windshield
defroster. I thought this may have been snow pulled in from the outside
and was struck by the beauty of the sight, but seconds later reality came
crashing back when large chunks of insulation joined the warm air blowing
out of the defroster and landing all over the glareshield, seats, and
pilot.

Very friggin' nice, I thought as I reached down and closed off all forced
air ducts while hand-flying the climb in IMC. Now I am sitting inside a
cloud of glass while flying through a cloud of snow, getting cold and
breathing these microscopic fragments of glass.

Earlier that previous week I had some avionics work done so when I landed
after this flight, I called the shop and asked if they could have
accidentally dropped any of the aircraft insulation into the ducts. The
avionics tech assured me that this didn't happen and suggested that a mouse
may have attempted to build a nest with insulation inside one of the ducts.
A mouse, you say? I felt another unique aircraft ownership experience
upon me.

When I returned home later that week, I immediately went shopping for some
D-CON mouse poison baits and placed them around the t-hangar. Oops, in
hindsight that was a poor idea. Mouse poison is not as fast acting as a
snap-trap and any mouse who eats the poison will most likely have time to
check into the aircraft hotel before expiring. A fitting Eff-You to the
human who placed the traps, no doubt.

Flash forward to last Thursday night. I returned from my weekly commute,
pushed the aircraft into the t-hangar, plugged in the Tanis heater and
covered the cowling with an insulated cover. I was about to slide on the
insulated prop covers when I suddenly caught a lung-full of rotting mouse
smell, emanating from somewhere inside the hot engine compartment. Whoa...
who would have guessed that such as little creature could produce such a
large odor?

The next day I contacted my mechanic and we both spent an hour or so poking
and prodding the engine compartment and various stack? hoses with beams of
light and mirrors-on-a-stick looking for the critter. No joy.

Given that the smell was not making its way into the cockpit and that the
dead carcass was obviously not anywhere that would interfere with engine
operation (or catch on fire) we agreed that he would do a more thorough
search and recovery during the annual that was coming up in a few weeks.

After landing today I noted that the smell was still just as putrid as it
was last Thursday night. How long does it take for a mouse body to
decompose past the point of the nasty odor?


--
Peter

In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:
After landing today I noted that the smell was still just as putrid as it
was last Thursday night. How long does it take for a mouse body to
decompose past the point of the nasty odor?


I believe the smell will subside in 2-3 weeks, though I could never wait
that long. The stench from a single dead mouse can fill an entire
T-hangar without a problem.

I know that there are transient mice in my T-hangar, but thankfully not
the aircraft. I don't like D-Con pellets, but I did buy the bait block
poison. I've used snap traps successfully in my home, but in the hangar
it seems that the mice have figured out how to either escape from them
or avoid setting them off. I've put traps around the bait blocks, and
the baits will get eaten but the traps will never be set off.

I would be interested in any creative practical solutions, but I suspect
that there are no easy answers. The bottom line is that mice are a huge
pain, and are almost impossible to eliminate, especially in a T-hangar.



JKG

"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:
After landing today I noted that the smell was still just as putrid as it
was last Thursday night. How long does it take for a mouse body to
decompose past the point of the nasty odor?


I believe the smell will subside in 2-3 weeks, though I could never wait
that long. The stench from a single dead mouse can fill an entire
T-hangar without a problem.

I know that there are transient mice in my T-hangar, but thankfully not
the aircraft. I don't like D-Con pellets, but I did buy the bait block
poison. I've used snap traps successfully in my home, but in the hangar
it seems that the mice have figured out how to either escape from them
or avoid setting them off. I've put traps around the bait blocks, and
the baits will get eaten but the traps will never be set off.

I would be interested in any creative practical solutions, but I suspect
that there are no easy answers. The bottom line is that mice are a huge
pain, and are almost impossible to eliminate, especially in a T-hangar.



JKG

I use sticky tent shaped traps and place them along the walls. Seems mice
like to travel along walls. Never had a mouse last long enough to cause a
problem.

In article ,
"Dave Stadt" wrote:
I use sticky tent shaped traps and place them along the walls. Seems mice
like to travel along walls. Never had a mouse last long enough to cause a
problem.

Mice will travel along walls. When you place snap traps, you are
supposed to place them with the activation pedal toward the wall.
However, the mice must move so fast along the walls in my hangar that
their rear legs, and not their body, most often get trapped. Sometimes
they are able to free themselves (the trap will be dragged across the
hangar, but empty) and sometimes they are able to set it off but not get
trapped (the trap will be set off but not moved). I have actually
watched a mouse, with its rear leg trapped, free itself after a couple
minutes worth of effort. I have never had a problem with the traps in
my house. I suspect that the glue traps would be more effective.

However, the bait blocks appear to be working. It took about a week for
obvious signs of feeding, but the "food source" must have been
discovered because the baits were chewed pretty well by the end of the
second week. Some of the blocks were actually missing from the hangar,
so the mice must have moved them (didn't know they could do that.) I
may set more snap traps, or glue traps, to see what happens. However,
mice are plentiful and I'm not sure that I could set enough traps to
ensure that the hangar stays mouse-free.



JKG

("Jonathan Goodish" wrote)
I would be interested in any creative practical solutions, but I suspect
that there are no easy answers. The bottom line is that mice are a huge
pain, and are almost impossible to eliminate, especially in a T-hangar.


I've heard dryer sheets of Bounce work. Mice don't like the smell.


Montblack

In article ,
"Montblack" wrote:

("Jonathan Goodish" wrote)
I would be interested in any creative practical solutions, but I suspect
that there are no easy answers. The bottom line is that mice are a huge
pain, and are almost impossible to eliminate, especially in a T-hangar.


I've heard dryer sheets of Bounce work. Mice don't like the smell.


Montblack

Moth balls are also an excellent mouse/rat repellant. Put a few inside
the wheelwells and cowling -- they won't want to come in.

I have had a few mouse problems in the past, but not recently. I did,
however have a roof rat try to take up residence in my Shop Vac one
time. It chewed its way past the exit grid and made a nest inside the
rotor. When I turned it on, all kinds of shop towel stuff blew out. I
found the newly-dead rat pushed against the remains of the exit grid and
had to extricate it with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

--
Remve "_" from email to reply to me personally.

"Orval Fairbairn" wrote in message
news Montblack

Moth balls are also an excellent mouse/rat repellant. Put a few inside
the wheelwells and cowling -- they won't want to come in.

But how do you get them from out between their little moth legs.

That dead mouse is, as someone else pointed out, probably
inside the heat muff against the muffler, along with his nest, and the
next time you go flying the nest materials could catch fire and make
life too interesting. At least it would finish off the dead-mouse odor.
I used to use mothballs, until successive generations of the
little beasts got used to the smell and made their home inside my
airplane anyway. Now I use the poisonous bar bait, which works well but
might also be killing the airport cat, who helps control the mouse
population and could catch and eat poisoned mice before they're dead.
Oh well, there's never any shortage of stray cats.
I once watched a cat chase a mouse, corner it, and the
terrified rodent jumped well over two feet into the air over the cat to
escape it. They don't have to climb when they can jump like that. They
jump into our garbage cans here in the shop, those big backyard cans
which are about two feet high, and if there's not a lot of loose stuff
in the can they jump out again after filling up on scraps.
Someone needs to invent an electrocution-type trap for hangars.
I had ideas for an air-powered cannon that might have a breech trap
that would close after the mouse entered it, and an
electronically-controlled valve would shoot compressed air from our
shop compressor and blast him through the barrel (which would be
permanently installed in the shop wall) out into orbit. The airport cat
would have his house inside the landing zone.

Dan

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

I believe the smell will subside in 2-3 weeks, though I could never wait
that long. The stench from a single dead mouse can fill an entire
T-hangar without a problem.

If you couldn't wait, what did you do? Pay the mechanic to look for it or
seek it out yourself?

--
Peter

In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

I believe the smell will subside in 2-3 weeks, though I could never wait
that long. The stench from a single dead mouse can fill an entire
T-hangar without a problem.

If you couldn't wait, what did you do? Pay the mechanic to look for it or
seek it out yourself?

I never had mice in my airplane (knock on wood). However, I have had
them in the walls of my house. After about a week, we couldn't stand it
any longer and I had to start cutting drywall. I must have done this a
half-dozen times before I was finally able to stop them (hopefully) from
entering the house, though I still catch them in the garage. Needless
to say, I am now fairly skilled at repairing and replacing drywall.

If you don't smell it in the cabin, I would probably de-cowl the
airplane and go searching with a flashlight and a mirror.



JKG