Best mice deterrent for winter car storage?

[526 HRSE]

My dog found this deterrent the other day. Made for a cool picture.

Sponsored

 

[526 HRSE]

Here kitty kitty kitty

 

[mtrout]

Very funny. Of course, then I'd have to kill the cat for walking around on my car.

By the way, I've had the best luck (over many years), with a bowl of open mothballs under the engine, along with a small mothball packet under the seat and in the trunk. I began this after discovering leftovers under the seat of my Porsche. I was naively amazed at how it/they got in there, but a small amount of research taught me that they can get anywhere they damned well please. Many years ago a rodent chewed through a water hose on my Nissan Sentra. The next driver was my son, to whom I loaned the car. He wasn't watching the gauges; it overheated and blew up. $5,000. I've never had a bit of trouble since beginning the mothball regimen a decade ago. Works for garage and carport, tho' better in the contained space of the garage.

 

[Alain]

Very funny. Of course, then I'd have to kill the cat for walking around on my car.

By the way, I've had the best luck (over many years), with a bowl of open mothballs under the engine, along with a small mothball packet under the seat and in the trunk. I began this after discovering leftovers under the seat of my Porsche. I was naively amazed at how it/they got in there, but a small amount of research taught me that they can get anywhere they damned well please. Many years ago a rodent chewed through a water hose on my Nissan Sentra. The next driver was my son, to whom I loaned the car. He wasn't watching the gauges; it overheated and blew up. $5,000. I've never had a bit of trouble since beginning the mothball regimen a decade ago. Works for garage and carport, tho' better in the contained space of the garage.

Do you replace the packets of mothballs periodically ?

 

[mtrout]

Do you replace the packets of mothballs periodically ?

I always clear them out in the spring, and put in a fresh batch in the fall. Seems the threat is much greater in the colder months.

 

[mindo389]

I have a couple of outside cats. When they decided that they liked my cover along with some raccoons who figured that my car was there to assist themselves into my garbage can, I got some diluted household ammonia in a spray bottle and made a good deterrent. I sprayed a line about 6" around my car and on my garbage can. I did this 3 times a week for about 2 weeks and relocated the garbage can. Now and then, I'll spray the mixture, just as a reminder for these varmints.

 

[Strokerswild]

Up here in Wisconsin we use bounce fabric softener sheets for our cars and our boats when storing for the winter. Works great.

This.

The original scent ones do the trick, and the Bounce brand ones specifically. Decades ago I stored a project car I had bought in a dirt floor second garage at the folks' lake place in northern MN as I had nowhere else to put it. I expected a disaster the next spring but gave the Bounce a try after hearing about it, stuffing the entire box in every nook and cranny in the interior and under the hood. Not one sign of mice months later. And, as stated, everything smells like fresh laundry after. I've done it a time or two since, never a mouse problem.

Mothballs work too, but they stink and it takes forever for the smell to go away.

 

[Alain]

I think I’m going to try the mothball treatment instead of the used cat litter.

 

[Alain]

I have moth balls under the car now. under the engine compartment and under the rear of the car (under the rear differential).
car is sitting under a cover in the driveway. How often do you guys recommend putting new mothballs under it ?

Sponsored