I replaced it once because rats or mice or squirrels or something chewed holes in it, now the replacement one has holes too. I put poisoned bait in my garage, and set three traps in my garage, none of which has caught anything and it doesn’t look like they are stealing the bait (peanut butter).
I’ve heard dryer sheets repel mice/rats, but I cannot put one on the reservoir because it gets very hot and might catch fire.
Any ideas?
There are some ideas in the links.
https://axleaddict.com/auto-repair/Mice-in-Your-Motor
How about gluing red pepper flakes (or another deterrent) to aluminum foil and wrapping the reservoir with it? Sounds nutty, but I'd probably give it a try.I’d also worry thy’re doing damage not so obvious right now, like eating wires. Some of the other ideas in the links may help with that.
Honda offers a pepper-impregnated tape for use on wiring harnesses, you might try wrapping the reservoir in it: Amazon.com Reviews are mixed, though.
Cat. Or cats. Encourage them to hang out in the garage. They’ll do that anyway if they have access and smell prey.
They may smell the coolant inside, which is sweet. And deadly poisonous. See where this is leading? Put a small container of antifreeze next to the reservoir. Or soak a paper towel in some and place it there. Wait a few days. No more rodent.
Dennis
That’s a painful way for an animal to go.
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I once had a squirrel try to eat his way through the weather stripping on my truck. It was hilarious, but also extremely annoying as it left me in a whistling maelstrom.
I’m afraid that once they’ve found a source they will never stop trying for more. The best way to rid yourself of them is to put a stronger poison into a bowl pf antifreeze and let them down it.
I’m so sorry. I wish there was a way to just communicate and live in peace with these critters, but there is a reason that the category “vermin” exists. They are incredibly destructive, stunningly fertile, and I’m afraid the only way is to dispatch them as humanely as possible.
Yes, I have heard of squirrels eating into wiring harnesses and any rubber or latex lines in a motor. They are destructive as hell. I like the cat idea, in the garage. If you park in drive-way or a carport, you are at their mercy. Maybe there’s a repellent spray that you could use around motor. I have seen repellents in garden centers.
Re-read your OP, get a cat for the garage.
That may be. I use a combination of traps and poison in my buildings. The poison labels state it will kill the beasties in a week, but it doesn’t say they will fall asleep and just never wake up.
Dennis
If it’s at all possible, start by getting the mice out of your garage. My ex had her car wiring eaten by mice. The first thing we did was get ALL the food out of the garage. Thing is, there really wasn’t any. It was just little things. Crumbs from her brushing out her car or dumping out a baby stroller full of cheerios. Between that and making sure the door closed all the way it was, more or less, the last time there was ever a mouse in the garage.
IOW, I’d be surprised if they were coming in there to eat your coolant reservoir. I’m guessing they’re coming into your garage for some other reason and then seeking the warmth of the engine bay and going from there.
If you can’t feasibly seal up your garage (and many people can’t), at least make sure there’s no food in there at all and maybe toss some of those green or red bait blocks in the corners and hope they go for them instead*.
Also, IME, mice can lick the peanut butter off a trap without tripping it. Use something sticky, like a piece of a Snickers/Milky Way (advice that I’ve used, right from my Orkin guy). Push it on to the trap/into the bait cup and they’ll have to work to get it off. Also, I really like the bigger rat traps from Tomcat. Very easy to set with your foot. Easy to load. Easy to empty and reuse. They also do a much better [quicker] job than the smaller mouse traps.
*If you do get bait blocks, you should probably get those black boxes that they go in to make sure any other critters that get in there don’t eat them too.
My FIL used to tie bacon rind on those big traps for his shop. I copied that for our barn (biggest rat trap I ever saw, for BIG rats). We actually caught a baby possum in one, it didn’t kill it, though. We (not me, nope) had to shoot it, trap attached to his butt. Eeek!
While I agree that there are faster more humane poisons, I don’t agree that letting the rodents chew through his car parts to kill themselves with antifreeze is magically less humane than letting them drink it out of a bowl.
Once a rodent develops a taste for antifreeze they are not going to stop going after it. It’s like trying to get bees away from your coke; once they’ve found it just drop it before you get stung.
But yes, put out something stronger that will do the job quickly.
You don’t agree with whom? Not only did I not imply that, I made suggestions to stop whatever it is from chewing through the reservoir.
I took my car into the dealership to get an oil change. The guy comes and sits down next to me and says “there’s something that I have to let you know”. I felt like he was a doctor giving me some horrible news! He told me that something had made a nest under my hood. He said the best thing to do is put Bounce sheets (and it has to be Bounce original scent) all over in the car - under the hood, in the glove compartment, under the seats - just tuck them everywhere. So I did, and haven’t had any problems since - it’s been 3 years. I replace the Bounce sheets with fresh ones every few weeks. And my car smells marvelous, much better than the dog smell it usually has!
I also read online that peppermint oil is another natural deterrent, so we soaked a bunch of cotton balls with peppermint oil and put them all over the garage. That seems to have worked. Our garage smells like a magical candy cane factory all winter!
We have dogs so anything toxic is out.
This is only a winter issue here.
This thread brings to mind the never-ending battle with marmots at a trailhead in Sequoia NP. Hikers have tried many methods to keep the little buggers out of their engine compartments with only marginal success. Do an image search for Mineral King marmots to see what I mean.
