Good afternoon folks! Brand new member. Last year I bought a 2008 fjr with the auto clutch. The previous owner had it sitting in his garage for several years. Today I changed the air filter (it was a bear for me I’m fairly new to this stuff) and I found the air filter filled with... sunflower seeds! I couldn’t figure it out. Who would do that? Why would they do that? Then it dawned on me. What a great, snug little home for a mouse. Crazy!
If I were a mouse, that's where I'd want to live... I should check my air box, I don't want to be giving no mouse a free ride! Dang mouseses. 🤨
I’ve found they really like certain places, the fjr air box or any air box for that matter, They also like the tail piece on my 81 cbx, this year they had a really nice snack on the wiring there, I had to Rewire a bunch of stuff there, they also absolutely love the airbox there.
Now I’ll add that a K&N air filter seems to work as a deterrent, I cleaned & re-oiled the k+n in the cbx last year after I found the airbox completely full (I hadn’t cleaned/re-oiledit for many years) and this year when I found the tail section full of mouse house the airbox was clean,
So certainly not a scientific study but it seems to work, I still need to check the fjr after installing a k+n late last year after finding it full for the third time. We’ll see, it seems to work. Just my opinion.
Last month I found a Marmot sitting on top of the Kia engine when I opened the hood(scared the heck out of me) after finding some insulation on the ground. I know he went for a ten mile ride or so. Chewed on a few things and crapped all over the place. Glade it didn't get caught in the belts.
Darn Animals.
Mice can also make a home inside your mufflers. Many years ago I was starting up my Kawi after it sat all winter long. After about 30 seconds of engine cranking the bike gave out a loud POP and a huge stream of sunflower seeds (empty shells) shot out the muffler and out the shed door. Since then I've added plastic SOLO cups over the ends of my exhaust pipes as part of putting it away for the winter.. ****'ing vermin.
First ride on my CBR after winter, and I let the bike warm up while I ran inside to get my gear. I look out the front window and see a TON of smoke. I go running outside and it's coming from one of the tailpipes, so I shut it off.
I look in the tailpipe and there's a whole huge mouse nest in there.
I decided to move the bike away from the house, start it back up, and rev the piss out of it. 😁
Flaming chunks of nest came flying out with a whole bunch of roasted corn. Lol
It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
I plugged the pipes, but then the following year they made a smaller nest in the middle of the engine and chewed through my neutral wire. I think it was a revenge move.
Shop I worked at would take a pic of under seat area on ATV's every time one came in for service. Amazing the sh** that the tech would find & of course the owner would have no clue. Cost the owner usually an hour extra of labor.
The air filter on the FJR I just bought, was full of insulation from the walls of the building it was stored in since 2010. Also had to do a repair on the taillight wiring under the rear seat. Hopefully, that was the extent of the damage, it's all I can find anyway.
When I saw the damage on my bike I wondered if mixing some kind of hot sauce with water and spraying all the harnesses might help or get a ball bearing mousetrap. That's what a fellow I used to work with, called a tomcat.
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