What animal did this?

Outside The Beltway
1

Help me out here.
So my husband drives a Honda CR-V. Yesterday he was out and about and bought a bag of beef jerky, about 12 pieces, ate one piece, closed the zip lock, and left it on the passenger seat in the closed vehicle, overnight in our closed garage.

This morning he goes out, opens the driver door there is a piece of chewed up beef jerky laying on the driver’s seat, the bag on the passenger seat has been chewed up into pieces to gain access, there’s a piece of jerky chewed on, still in the bag. Another piece of jerky, chewed on, on the floor. And about 8 pieces completely gone.

This is a nice vehicle, it isn’t a beat up junker.

There’s no other signs left behind, ie poop or anything. I scoped the garage, there’s no stash of jerky anywhere. No signs of animals at all in the garage.

What did this? :rofl:

I can’t think a mouse. The only mice I’ve seen around here are tiny, I don’t believe they would even be able to carry the pieces, they were that big.

So did something sit in there and eat it all, or go in and out carrying 8 pieces of jerky.

We just have no idea what happened. There was some animal having a party in our closed vehicle in our closed garage last night, I guess.

Any insight on what it might have been?

2

LOL mice are amazing little critters.

3

But no mouse poop left behind. Anywhere. Including garage.

4

Did you get down on your hands and knees with light?

My advice is set traps. And one in the vehicle. Saltine crackers works wonders.

Don’t poison em.

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5

Sounds like a mouse to me… or man bear pig. Mice can fit through super tiny spaces. Not sure where in the car they could climb in and out if though

6

I just don’t feel like a mouse could “disappear” 8 pieces of jerky. These were big pieces, not bite size things.

7

A mouse can fit through a hole that is smaller then a dime. If you have fresh air vents in the vehicle open, they can come through there, or wiring holes though the dash board etc.

Check under the seat. :wink:

8

Famous last words in horror films :smiley: :smiley:

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9

Odd question but do you guys live somewhere there may be street people? Some of who may watch comings & goings and be desperately hungry?

We live in a rural area & not too far from the other town’s side of the line. Northbridge is something of a depressed area—boarded up homes & small businesses that either failed or relocated.

I’ve seen one street person on the main road, all of his belongings in a knapsack. Do you guys live in a rural area & might there be some who are that down on their luck there?

10

In seeing the thread title, I panicked and did my best to scour my alcohol compromised memories of last night and tried to work out if I was in Lucy’s neck of the woods last night. I thought her OP might absolve me, but alas, beef jerky is pretty good bender food.

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11

Thanks for closing up everything when you left, and not stealing my good polesaw.

Oh and @Janet_Miller, no stray people around here. And the bag was chewed into a pile of plastic bits to gain access to the goodies.

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12

Put lavender oil on makeup remover pads or cotton balls and put them around the vehicle. We always had to do that at our last house.

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13

I thought the same. Did I time-travel to her neck of the woods?

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14

And peanut butter. They also love chocolate, holding hands, and log walks on the beach.

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15

I’m going with mice too. If there were a few of them, they could put a pretty good dent in the jerky. May have even took some to go. Get rid of them, your electrical wiring in your vehicle is next.

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16

This is effective. They drown, so not sure how you feel about that, but I hate mice, so I’m good with it. Don’t put too much water in the bucket.

image

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17

These were big pieces of jerky, where is a mouse going in and out with that?

And my husband is generally pristine, it was a one time thing where I called him before he came home and asked him to pick up a quart of oil for another of our vehicles, he also grabbed that jerky and for some reason kept it in his vehicle. Normally, he keeps nothing there and it’s clean as a whistle.

One night and some little mouse disappears 8 large pieces of jerky with no poop left behind?

It’s weird.

18

I mean, we could be talking rat…

And whatever it is could be getting through the electrical grommets in the firewall.

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19

We live on the edge of suburbia with farm fields a block away. I’ve never seen a rat or heard a neighbor mention seeing one.

Anyway. It won’t happen again.

I still can’t figure out what animal would get into closed garage/closed car and lay waste to a damn bag of teriyaki beef jerky on the one night in 20 years there was food left in a vehicle out there.

And our garage is clean, there’s no mice or animals living in there. My husband pulls everything out of there like once a month and blows out all the leaves/debris that accumulates, which isn’t much, but he likes it clean.

20

Having been in and out of engines all my life, I can tell you of at least a half dozen spots on any make or model that a mouse could set up a permanent nest that won’t even be disturbed while you operate the vehicle.

If there is no obvious signs of poop in the vehicle, they are most likely living in your garage. One of them probably died of renal failure while desperately searching for some water. lol

I personally set mouse traps with peanut butter and a piece of cat food (usually the donut shaped pieces) pressed into it. The peanut butter is easily licked away without setting off the trap, but that piece of solid food always gets 'em.

I haven’t had a mouse in years, because I maintain outdoor cats. They each get fed 1/3 cup of cat food every night. It’s enough to live on, but not enough to quell their instincts to hunt.

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