How to keep out the squirrels.

[DREDIOCK]

Yea but then your car smells like fox urine.

Especially once the engine heats up. Nothing worse then heated urine.

Couple years ago one of our cats decided to pee in the toaster oven. I went to heat something up and was suddenly like WTF is that smell?? Then realized what it was.

We are now down to one cat

The offender was released at my buddies house who lives on an old farm. but nobody has seen hide nor hair of him since.

[Blackwulf]

If you don't have pets to worry about, etc. A box of D-Con left open on the ground under the engine compartment will make short work of them. 
The usual common sense rules apply.

[kamori]

Get a product called. Bar-Bait. Its a poison but you can attach it where they live. They will chew it and die.  We store a truck in the mountains and don't have thoses issues anymore been using it for 10 years now.

[FiLtH]

As long as there are no toddlers or pets around, the Orkin guy told me a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water will catch and drown them. Winter time add some non toxic anti-freeze ( you dont want to poison them I guess

[PFactorDave]

mothballs.

I'm not joking.

Had a family of them that gnawed into and set up house in my attic last year.  Tossed a few up there and they departed shortly thereafter. 

^This is the answer.  It works for squirrels and other rodents.

[Tigger29]

I run into this with customer's cars at least several times a year.  Usually they chew through wires causing various electrical problems (and no starts) but it's not uncommon for me to find a bunch of dead mice in people's car heater vents and blower motors, and rodent nests on the engine itself.  Usually they bring it in for a bad smell and when I remove the blower motor several dead rodent bodies will fall out.  Not fun to deal with that's for sure!

One guy had a late model Honda Civic with a Check engine light and no throttle response.  He brought it to me after the dealer wanted to replace about $3000 in parts including a new EGR Valve, a new Throttle motor and a new Engine Computer.  I was the one who found the rodent damage not the dealer.  I gave him the option of replacing the entire wiring harness at $1200 or having me fix the old harness (with no warranty) for $200.  He opted for the less expensive fix but didn't have any problems after that...  not until rodents got to his wife's car the next week.

[F22RaptorDude]

^This is the answer.  It works for squirrels and other rodents.

along with snakes and bears according to wiki, I always wondered what those packs of tiny balls were that I was always told not to touch

[eagl]

along with snakes and bears according to wiki, I always wondered what those packs of tiny balls were that I was always told not to touch

Those were not mothballs, your parents were wizards and had a thing for lizard testicles.

[morfiend]

mothballs.

I'm not joking.

Had a family of them that gnawed into and set up house in my attic last year.  Tossed a few up there and they departed shortly thereafter. 

  Yup and for good measure bait a large rat trap with some peanutbutter and place that under the hood.


   Mothballs also work to remove skunks,been there done that,with 2 dogs last thing I want is skunks hanging around.My dogs are dumb enough to get the skunk even if it sprays,they seem to think I need a present on the odd occassion.....



   

[smoe]

A while back I had the same problem. The little buggers ate the insulation off my fuel injector wires. Luckily no damage or electrical shorts. I thought it was squirrels, but figured they were probably chipmunks or mice instead. I have always found a few tree nuts sitting on top of the tranny and engine everytime I checked under the hood. I called the local animal exterminator to see what my options were. They were way too expensive. They told me putting mouse/rat poisen out for chipmunks was illegal. But if it was intended for mice/rat's and the chipmunks got into it then not a problem. I bought a couple rat poisen packs and added a little peanut butter. I placed the poisen packs in my engine compartment so anything large couldn't get to it like the local farm cats. The cats take care of most of the rodents (unfortunately birds as well), but I think those chipmunks may be too fast for the cats. I actually caught one of the cats stalking a chipmunk/mouse hiding under under my car. The chipmunk/mouse heard me open the car door and ran. The cat gave chase, but no luck. The rat poisen did seem to help though. I noticed a significant decrease in tree nuts in the engine compartment. None of the barn cats or neighbor's dogs died or went missing.

[F22RaptorDude]

Those were not mothballs, your parents were wizards and had a thing for lizard testicles.

[Hoffman]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I don't think I want to be using much poison. (Suburbia)  But it's nice to know this isn't as silly as it sounds.  Definately look into mothballs.

[kotrenin]

Just stop storing your nuts in there.

[PFactorDave]

My family has a vacation home in the North woods of Wisconsin.  We feed the chipmunks peanuts.  They're pretty tame, and they score so many nuts from us they don't chew on things that they shouldn't.

[DREDIOCK]

Those were not mothballs, your parents were wizards and had a thing for lizard testicles.