How Do I Protect An Interior From Rodents?

[Supralative]

Use that foam insulation shit, fill any holes or gaps lil critters can run into.

Ditto on filling holes.

I keep mothballs in my car too.

Put rat poison in and around the car. I use two kinds, one that is an anti-coagulant and another that is a neurotoxin.
They both look like this below, and are available at Walmart/Lowes, etc.


Definitely do it well, rodents will tear up anything soft and piss/defecate everwhere. And chew on wiring.

Rodents are no bueno for cars :-(

[SilverMk2]

I don't think foam or rubber is going to stop most rodents considering they chew thru sheet rock, wood, wires, etc.

[Suprabee]

I have had issues with wood/forest rats and mice nesting and sleeping overnight in my engine bays on both my SDR and my MKIII. I have found a method that, works, but takes persistent attention.

Use 10% ammonia poured into small soup cans, drinking bottles, empty sour cream containers, etc.. just make sure that the hole is large enough for a good amount of evaporation to occur. Meaning I would not use a drinking water bottle, that hole is a little too small. I use 2-3 in my engine bay, one on either side of the engine and another somewhere near the front. Fill each with an inch or two of ammonia. Get the 10% ammonia from any hardware or home supply store. Place the ammonia containers around the engine bay and close the hood. I assume you could do the same for the interior passenger area. The fumes will collect and keep rodents away. It works. You will need to replace the ammonia at least every other day maybe more depending on how high the humidity is and if it is windy. I searched online a while back and found this idea/suggestion. Every night I have to place the ammonia in my engine bay or the next morning I WILL have evidence that a rats were staying there overnight sleeping and eating all toasty warm.

The ammonia is not strong enough to cause any damage to anything, but over time I do see that there is some interaction with the battery fumes on top of the battery but it is minor compared to what they will do if left unchecked.

Here is what happens if I don't use the ammonia, This is my daily MKIII after two days when I did not drive it and I did not use ammonia.


...and Looked what greeted me on Christmas morning when I forgot to put the ammonia under the hood over night.



At first I thought, FUCK!!! the little bastard ate my hood blanket, but then realized my hood blanket was fine and the yellow insulation came from the house attic insulation. So, I pulled out my vacuum to clean up the mess and I saw something move inside the pile of insulation. I looked close into that ball of yellow and saw a little head sticking out...you can see this head/eye next to the TURBO word on the coil cover





He ...(at least I thought it was a "he") ran out from the nest and to the back of the engine, stopped, turned around and looked at me, as if to say...YA FUCK YOU TOO!!



I snapped one last picture as "He" turned around to jump down onto the tranny and escape. You can see that "he" was actually a "She" and had 3 babies attaches to her. You can see two of them in the photo, but there were 3.



Use this method and it will work, you just need to make sure to add more ammonia every other day. Just pour out the water that is left and add more.


Also to add that I tried other methods as well with little success including moth balls, and peppermint/spearmint packs that are available at the hardware store and are for deterring mice, but I found that wood rats were actually eating and carrying away the packets of peppermint/spearmint scented granules.

Ammonia works,
good luck
Rick

[Gib]

I had a problem with mid size animals (skunk, racoon, etc) moving into the interior of a golf cart. Chewed up wires and make a mess. I place a box of moth balls in the engine bay and that has kept the critters out. Just the fumes eminating from the box does the trick. All animals keep away. Good luck.

[1SupraMk2]

Thanks for all the tips. Maybe I could get a bobcat to live in each of my parts cars. :-)

[Greg G]

Use that foam insulation shit, fill any holes or gaps lil critters can run into.

that insulation foam shit (aka Great Stuff, aka expanding foam) is a terrible idea for a car that you care to keep.

it retains moisture and will cause greater holes in short order.

but I guess its ok for the parts car.

[Greg G]

Rick that "mouse in the valley" is classic!

[SuperSubs]

I would be very weary of using poison to take care of rodents. The good thing about poison is that it kills the pests, but the bad part is that they die in your car. Not only that, but most pests tend to burry themselves in hidden parts of your car, and that's where they will eventually die and start to decompose.

My brother just had to deal with a few dead mice in his Mustang that must have ingested poison that is kept on the floors in the shop. Nearly a year later and after removing the dead mice carcasses and related bedding, the smell is still present.


-Mike

[Suprabee]

Rick that "mouse in the valley" is classic!

Yeah I know!...and I'm just so amazed that I was able to take all those pics right at the exact moments and catch all the action....I mean, she was not waiting around for me to,...focus...say cheese!..etc...

From when I saw movement in that insulation pile until she disappear behind the motor was only about 5 to 10 seconds total at most..

I think I will post my mouse story up on its own new thread in the general section. It deserves a thread of its own for sure..

rick

[Supralative]

I would be very weary of using poison to take care of rodents. The good thing about poison is that it kills the pests, but the bad part is that they die in your car. Not only that, but most pests tend to burry themselves in hidden parts of your car, and that's where they will eventually die and start to decompose.

My brother just had to deal with a few dead mice in his Mustang that must have ingested poison that is kept on the floors in the shop. Nearly a year later and after removing the dead mice carcasses and related bedding, the smell is still present.

-Mike

Yeah, it's a trade off.

Potentially having dead mice in the car vs potentially having chewed wiring and urinated/defacted interior.

I had some rodents in my car when I got it. I discovered that they had torn up the insulation under the spare tire cover.
Later, they found the poison I had out in the shop building where the car is and I found these outside the car on the ground under a piece of cardboard.

http://i42.tinypic.com/34erkua.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/91cqcl.jpg

It's definitely gross for them to die in the car, but I'd take cleaning them out of a wall over tracking down chewed up shorted wiring.
Either way is kind of a mess. I think I have chewed wiring anyhow because the wipers turn on about half the time when I turn the key to ON. :-(