Yes, really.
Lots of animals hate the smell of mothballs. I’ve found it a really effective way of keeping dogs from peeing on my lawn (crushed up mothballs sprinkled on lawn. lasts about a month per application.) You can see the dog come up to the lawn, nose just curls up in disgust, and they go racing away. It’s great!
A relative of mine used mothballs to keep her cats out of her houseplants. Unfortunately, her whole house smelled like mothballs (duh!). But as long as it’s outside, I bet this idea would work well.
The mouse repellant is probably child-safe, but check the package to be sure. It specifically said it is NOT a poison…just very yukky to mice. We have 5 cats, so mouse poison is not an option for us. You could put it in a shoebox or something like that, I suppose. We sprinkled it on our dishwasher and then duct-taped over it so it would stay put. Seriously…those little bastids haven’t touched it since.
I immediately thought of mothballs too but then I wondered if the residual smell and chemicals might make cooking stuff in the spring a little offputting
(and maybe a bit hazardous to your health.)
Speaking of health, leaving the critters to enjoy their nice, dry winter home sounds really good but with things like the Hanta virus having a fondness for mouse poo and the human body, I’d kind of be wary of cleaning up a big old mousie nest. At least, not without gloves and the proper respiratory equipment.
Clogging the holes with steel wool is good but I’d go with balls of aluminum foil instead. Saves having to bother with possible rust stains.
As Uzi said further down post, I use my bbq all year long. Maybe it’s just a Canadian thing, but I can’t go six months without a properly grilled steak.
Leave it uncovered and let the snow pile up in it. No mess to clean up from mice or anti-mouse repelant.