Not long ago, I wrote about my friend Linwood Barclay's losing battle with mice repeatedly eating the wiring of his Porsches (three so far, but who's counting?)
As it turns out, the soy-based, eco-friendly wiring that manufacturers now use is irresistible to rats, mice and squirrels (green may be good, but most drivers draw the line at getting their car gnawed.) My column included some rodent-repellent tips (among them: cats, spring-loaded traps, and a special tape impregnated with high-intensity spice compounds guaranteed to give rats some serious heartburn.)
Well, it appears that great minds think alike. While perusing a recent issue of Car and Driver magazine, I noticed that readers had seen fit to send in some rodent remedies of their own.
Chris Power of Colorado, who had recently used an air compressor and a snake-style camera to exorcise a mouse horde from his own machine, offered the following tips:
1. Before turning the car off, hit the recirculation button to close off access to the cabin filter from the engine.
2. Hang at least four of those pine-tree air fresheners throughout the engine compartment and on top of the cabin air filter. Mice supposedly hate the smell.
3. Install at least two of those ultrasonic noisemakers near the vehicle. Pick ones with lots of good reviews on Amazon.
4. Feed the cat less, so it's more likely to go hunting.
Chris could offer no effectiveness guarantees: "If this doesn't work, at least you will have a nice-smelling vehicle, inside and out," he wrote. "Just be sure you don't give the highway patrol a reason to pull you over. They will smell you a mile away and think you're transporting contraband. Good luck explaining your way out of that."
William Johnson, of Wisconsin, wrote in to warn that rodent deterrent strategies can easily backfire:
"A bit of caution using the assortment of baits and poisonous snacks: the offenders will carry these things off to the most inaccessible places in a vehicle and stash them there for future dining. This often results in even more problems, like jammed blower fans and internal duct direction doors. I've always found that just the traps are the best practice. Besides, there is no sound as gratifying coming from the garage as a trap snapping in the middle of the night."
Amen to that.
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