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Nice weather prompted me to take my bike out of my yard shed this morning. I dug into a saddlebag and was greeted with an intense odor. It seems that a mouse or mice moved in over the winter (rent free). I never knew this before, but a chewed up and shredded helmet bag makes a great nest. Map, registration/insurance info, baseball cap, sunglass bag, tools, etc. all soaked with mouse urine and poop. Soaked.

After lots of time lost in cleanup... I did manage to pull the snorkle, drop in a K&N air filter, replaced fresh Mobil 1 Racing 4T, upgraded to Progressive fork springs. Yea!

Back to the bad. I rinsed (and rinsed) the inside of the saddlebag with water and dish soap. If I ruined it - I ruined it - as I wasn't in the best mood. After letting it air out for awhile, it still smells like a barn. Anybody been there? What did you use to clean it up? Thanks for any advice.

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How about a mouse trap?




No really, when they hit, they hit. I gad a rat in my garage a month or so ago. Traps usually work quick, and they are cheap.

I see it all the time at the shop. Customers come in with warning lights on, and/or abnormal symptoms, and we find "rodent damage" under the hood. What a pain.

I had a customer recently that brought in a GX470 for a warning light and said was smelling gas. In the meantime, found coolant under two more cars in their garage - one of those being my loaner car. Rats or mice had chewed through some heater hoses....and a fitting on top of the fuel tank of the GX470, too. Cost them a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$, but they had the problem solved within a day or two after setting a couple of traps.

I can't help much with the odor problem. That can be real fickle. Worse thing I have seen is finding a dead rat or mouse up in the ductwork in a car. Getting the carcass out is the easy part, but the smell can linger for a long, long time, and masking it with deodorizers only makes it worse.

Good luck!