this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2026
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Dull Men's Club

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There's a mouse living in my leafblower (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 18 hours ago by dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/dull_mens_club@lemmy.world
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Haven’t used the gas blower yet this year, been using the electric one. This one had been left in the shed and I brought it into the garage to see if it would start up but wasn’t planning on getting to it for a day or two. Someone (not me!) left gas in it.

Well. I’m minding my own business putting up some shelves in the garage and I start hearing a noise. I’ve had issues with wildlife getting trapped in the garage when I close it for the night a couple times recently, so I start moving and tapping on things and muttering to myself about no nature being allowed in the garage without prior permission. Finally I figure out the sound is coming from the leaf blower, and also that it smells a little like mammal excrement.

Set it in the driveway for a little while and lo and behold a lil field mouse popped out of it. Wasn’t fast enough to get a pic of the perpetrator. It has subsequently gone back in when I wasn’t looking!

I’m taking a poll. Do I:

  • put it straight back in the shed and ignore it for another year
  • post it for free on Craigslist without backstory
  • tear it down, clean it up, put it back into service
  • just fire it up and let ‘er rip (I wouldn’t)
  • leave it in the driveway for a few days and see if the problem conveniently solves itself

My fellow dull dudes, what do?

top 33 comments
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[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

Odds are its been chewing on the wiring.

[–] Killercat103@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Maybe use a string to hang it in the roof or perhaps attach a non-lethal mouse trap? The mouse has to eat and drink eventually so I assume after some time it will temporarily leave.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 28 points 14 hours ago

What you've got tharre is a bona fide mouse launcher I tell you hwat.

[–] jaemo@sh.itjust.works 21 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Aerosolized hantavirus. Just what the doctors, in fact, did not order.

[–] dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, good call. Shit.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 10 points 12 hours ago

Literally.

[–] indomara@lemmy.world 38 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I vote you forget about it for another year since you have another leaf blower.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 28 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

100% That's certainly the dullest thing to do.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

A less dull but still pretty dull would be to get a no kill trap and put it squarely at the end of the blower in the garage on the floor.

Something like: https://a.co/d/01IjNrTD

I have one in the garage for the same reason. Of course my wife makes me drive down the road to a cow pasture to let him go. She figures he’d just get right back in the garage again. She’s likely right.

[–] charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I let one of the little shitting fuckers go from a no kill about a block down the street. It was back in about a half an hour. Not a fan of the diseased little fuckers.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They're mice, not rats.

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago

Fleas carried the plague and I don't think they discriminate between the two

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 15 hours ago

She is. You're probably not taking them far enough.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago

The correct course is to design and 3D print a complex one-way door, driven by an Arduino. Include a video camera for confirmation that the poor bugger is locked out.

[–] charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 hours ago

I recommend making a little mouse cannon so you can shoot them into the yards of the neighbors you don't like. Or find a field where owls or other animals that love to eat them hang out.

[–] SparroHawc@lemmy.zip 3 points 12 hours ago

Don't actually fire it up until you drain and replace the gas. It'll have turned into varnish by now and you don't want to have to completely disassemble the thing so you can clean out the injector.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 13 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Soak some cotton balls with mint essential oil and put them in, then leave it a couple days (you don’t need a ton, they just don’t like it)

Your little vagabond will move along and you can sanitize after.

[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I'm.sure a bit of vinegar would have a similar effect

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 5 points 15 hours ago

Mothballs actually are specifically recommended as a rodent deterrent. Much more effective than vinegar. Don't use them if you have a pet that might eat them.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 10 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It's a blower not a sucker, fire it up

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

I would never do this but I can totally hear the sound.

… THWUMP!

[–] dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I live in a city and I’m leaving it in the driveway tonight. If it disappears, I will have a laugh at what’s to come for whoever snags it. I haven’t had issues with porch or driveway piracy but I have had my car rifled through when I forgot to lock it.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

This is not a solution I would have thought of.

I left my garage door open by mistake one night, and someone stole a drill press and a miter saw. They weren't very good ones, but they worked, and I used them. They missed my 20-year-old badass worm drive Skilsaw, though.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

It was happening so often that I had to mount a hook to the wall so the blower was suspended and the mice couldn't get in.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

BATS

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Bats don't roost so low. They like being extremely high off the ground. I know because I also have a bat problem and installed a bat house so they'd stop using my porch (the roof of the porch is 30' off the ground) .

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I took my pressure washer apart recently to fix a leak, and discovered a mouse had been living in it. it smells like mouse in there now. it's not pleasant.

[–] dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 16 hours ago

😬

That’s rough buddy

I was getting flashbacks to the VW Fox we had when I was a kid that had a wiring harness that must’ve been made out of mouse crack or something; it had a whole frickin’ multigenerational extended family living in it by the end. We just could not keep them out of it. Gross.

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

Use the pressure washer to pressure wash the pressure washer

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Ok, I'm going to do the opposite of your username.

Put the leafblower in your living room. Now you have mice in the house, and you know what that means!!!!

BURN THE WHOLE HOUSE DOWN!!!

[–] dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 16 hours ago

Hahaha, I do kinda hate this house anyway. I don’t think arson would qualify as a dull reaction, however.

[–] kibblebits@quokk.au -1 points 18 hours ago

Just fire it up and if it works, consider cleaning it or giving it away. If it doesn’t work, put it by the garbage.