pane056

Hello;

We live on an 80 acre parcel of typical Northern Michigan mixed hardwoods.

Storing vehicles and boats for the winter has always been a problem. Late fall the critters start looking for places to hibernate. Places such as inside the Sea Ray, the duct work and air cleaner chamber of an 02 Silverado, air cleaner on a prestine 85 Suburban. Under the top cowl of many outboards. And hundreds of other places that cause much of an issue.

The mice are snap trapped, the chipmunks live trapped and relocated and the red squirrels get a dose of .410. But still pleanty manage to cause damage.

I'm especially concerned about caring for this vette. Being so close to the ground and everything packed in so tight I'm sure it will be considered prime nesting.

Some years ago someone told us to use sheets of Fabric softner. They certainly helped but did not cure the problem.

A barn cat is out of the question.

I have found that by propping the hoods open about a foot or so helps considerably but there still remains the interior problems.

Suggestions please.

Thanks, nicholas

harley 1951

Put Vette in one of those plastic car bubbles. Seriously, it is sealed from all critters. My situation is similar. I keep some seriously dangerous rat poison in my Mancave and have not seen rodents or signs. Outside of Mancave are 10 nastyass hungry cats. Between the 2---no varments.

Cruisinfanatic

see my thread on this
I'll definitely use next year again
Mice

RetiredSFC 97

I live in the country as well and I've only had one problem with mice in over ten years, until this year. They got into my Dodge ram and made a home comparable to the Holiday Inn in my duct work. They found a box of Kleenex and used every bit of it. I dug Kleenex out of my vents for over a week and there's still some remnants left.

I'm going to get some of the stuff cruisinfanatic suggests and try it next year.

Cruisinfanatic

There is a smell to it. It's not bad though and takes about 2 months for it to disappear.

RetiredSFC 97

Anything's better than mice.

95VetteMan1

I heard Moth ***** work!

Railroadman

Cotton ***** with Oil of Peppermint!

Cruisinfanatic

tried that and not only is the smell bad to be in the car, they don't work all that great

poor boy

How do you get their little legs apart to harvest them? But seriously I have heard that they work too. Time to research. If I find any assurate info, will post it,

torchred89

When I lived in Manistee Mi. I had more trouble with the chipmonks then mice. I had to replace the rubber stripping on the bottom of my garage doors every year, because the chipmonks with chew holes in it to get in the garage.

Moon86

New Guy here, joined yesterday. After reading this thread I started thinking about how the mice get into the cars in the first place. It would have to be by crawling up the tires. Now for my idea. Put the car up on jackstands but have the jackstands sitting in large pans of used motor oil. It would kind of make a moat around the base of the stand that I don't think the varmints would want to cross. Would be a pain in the butt if driving the car once a week but should work good for winter storage. Might be a good idea to take the tires right off for winter storage.

Moon

corvetteronw

I have one of those electronic pest chasers from Home Depot. No problems for several years now. My lot backs up to a pasture and hundreds of acres of woods.

bac22

Makes sense, but you don't want to float the suspension of these cars for too long, best to keep the suspension in it's normal compress state.


I tried leaving Decon in my engine compartment...they ate it, but still had a damn mouse problem to the point I had to completely tear apart the interior of my car it stunk so bad. At least my interior now is cleaner then when it was first built. Think I'm going to give that FreshCab a try next fall!

azrocketman

Here in Tucson packrats are a big problem. I've had success putting LED Christmas lights around the engine compartment of my cars I store outdoors. Seems that the critters like dark areas and the lights cure that problem. The LED lights are great because they have almost no heat and pull very little power; I leave them on 24/7. Also, Leaving the hood up helps as they like protected areas; an open hood denies them the sense of protection.

Steve

pane056

Hello:
AZROCKETMAN. I've been away a very long time but you guys and gals have been in my thoughts. Yes AZR that is exactly what I have come to doing. I found a super buy on desk top goose neck lamps at WM. Bought a bunch, should have bought all. I set one in the engine compartment and one on the passenger floor. Left hood open. Seems to have worked pretty darn good.

thanks, nicholas

Klondike

A friend of mine lives way out in the country and the mice were getting into his deer-corn and 'storing' it EVERYWHERE! It was in the exhaust pipes and air ducting of all his garaged vehicles, inside tool bins and stored parts boxes! He tried everything, traps, poisons, cats (that were a problem of their own) and nothing was very effective.
He then got a couple of those ultrasonic pest speakers and put one in opposing corners of his garage. BINGO ! No more rodents!

pane056

Hello Mr. Klondike:
Exactly what kind of ultrasonic units? Brand & model if possible please. I tried some from "Victor", no good. I thought that their being in that line for so long they would know.
Thanks, nicholas

Klondike

He said he got them from Victor, the same people that make the snap mouse traps. I don't know the model number but you can look at Victorpest.com to see them.

crowz

I'm going with the 8500 volt trap that looks like a mail box. Reviews say and showed pictures where they even killed squirrels. Just bait and wait for the light to show the trap needs emptying then empty and rebait. Amazon has them.