Sadly its that time of the year for us who live in New England, time to get the car ready for winter storage. The past two years I been storing my 89 I-Roc in a old barn for the winter months. Last year how ever the I-Roc became the lovely home to a few mice. Just wondering if anyone had rodent issues when storing their cars and how they delt with it. I also included some photos of when she was put away last fall for the hell of it XD

 

I live in south Texas where the winters are very mild so I drive mine year round-no storage but I have an RV that I store in my warehouse for months at a time. I would vacuum and clean the car well removing any trace of food from the car to avoid baiting them in. I place bounce dryer sheets and cottonballs soaked in oil of peppermint throughout. Oil of peppermint can be found at most natural vitamin stores. The advantage is that mice and other rodents really hate and avoid them. Seal off all openings with steelwool including air intake, exhaust, etc, remove these prior to start up in the spring. Try to seal off your barn, I know it's tough as they can squeeze through the smallest openings. Setting some traps or bait stations are some other options. Good luck.

 

^^^^^^^^^^

 

Thanks Gaspeedler, I'll defiantly try out the cotton ***** soaked in pepermint oil along with the dryer sheets and i have set up some traps around the barn it got a few of them but i bet theres plenty more XD.

 

I parked a truck at our deer lease for a couple of weeks some years ago and the mice made a mess of it. They chewed up a lot of wiring under the hood and built a nest in the ac vents. We did our best to clean it up and repaired the wiring under the hood (we thought) but the dang wiring still caused a fire in the engine bay while we were driving around the ranch. The only thing we had with us to put out the fire was beer...damn waste of good beer....damn mice!

 

Wow sounds like they sure made a mess in there and I thought I had a bad experience. When I took the I-Roc out there was sh** everywhere and apparently at some point my girlfriend broke my rule about having food in the car since in passenger floor there was a half eating chocolate bar with nibble marks on it from the mice. Ever since I pulled it out of storage last spring the damn gas gauge doesn't work I'm guessing that's the mice's fault but I'm fixing the whole cluster next spring so no biggie.

 

mouse traps baited with p-nut butter, mothballs and a hungry cat.............

 

I like glue pads. Big ones. They catch all kinds of bad stuff.

 

Btw I use dry dog food with a couple of drops of this rodent attractant on my snap traps. I've had

better luck with this combo than peanut butter alone. Even the most finicky rats love it!

 

That seams like a good idea, I had no idea they had mouse attractant, thats pretty funny.

 

I also use dryer sheets and it has always worked well in my car, boat, and even my garage!

 

I took the I-Roc out on a drive today to get the dryer sheets and the peppermint oil. When I got home to opened the hood and it was acorn city in there. The car was at the shop for two months getting worked on, I guess some chipmunks made the lovey warm engine their home for the time it was there. I cleaned it all out so hopefully at my house they won't return haha.

 

I use mothballs like crazy in the area the car is being parked. I've done this while storing sleds in enclosed trailers (snowmobiles I mean) over the off season and I've never had an issue with mice... Before I started doing that, I had a mouse back the expansion chamber (exhaust) and the air box FULL of dog food... Like it literally was so air tight it wouldn't start.