Car storage and mice

I store my 84 Capri RS 5.0 in the garage, and only drive
it on nice summer days. In the winter, I leave the hood open
so I can check on any critter activity (nests, etc.).
When I pull the car out of the garage in the spring, the first
thing I do is turn on the heater/defroster fan. One year I was
showered with bird seed coming out of the defroster vents. This
year the heater fan didn't work. Probably just a fuse,
and I'll replace it one of these days. Yesterday, I noticed
some pink fiberglass insulation on the floor under the heater.
I have a roll of fiberglass insulation in the rafters of the
garage, and I figured the mice had built a nest in the blower
motor causing the fuse to blow. I agonized over this ultimate
PITA and wondered how much I would have to take apart to clean
out the heater/fan. Today, just for fun, I turned on the heater fan
and it worked! The gods have smiled on me!

My message for the day:
If you live anywhere where there are mice, chipmunks, or other
critters, and you leave a car inside or outside for more than
a few days, always lift the hood and check for nests before
driving.

FWIW
Dick

"Dick R." > wrote in message
. ..
>I store my 84 Capri RS 5.0 in the garage, and only drive
> it on nice summer days. In the winter, I leave the hood open
> so I can check on any critter activity (nests, etc.).
> When I pull the car out of the garage in the spring, the first
> thing I do is turn on the heater/defroster fan. One year I was
> showered with bird seed coming out of the defroster vents. This
> year the heater fan didn't work. Probably just a fuse,
> and I'll replace it one of these days. Yesterday, I noticed
> some pink fiberglass insulation on the floor under the heater.
> I have a roll of fiberglass insulation in the rafters of the
> garage, and I figured the mice had built a nest in the blower
> motor causing the fuse to blow. I agonized over this ultimate
> PITA and wondered how much I would have to take apart to clean
> out the heater/fan. Today, just for fun, I turned on the heater fan
> and it worked! The gods have smiled on me!
>
> My message for the day:
> If you live anywhere where there are mice, chipmunks, or other
> critters, and you leave a car inside or outside for more than
> a few days, always lift the hood and check for nests before
> driving.
>
> FWIW
> Dick

sons car, daily driver had it parked over the weekend, was going to go to
store with friend, got in car turned on AC and fire ants were being blown
out of the AC vents onto his friend and him, they had built a nest in the
car in two days.

"Dick R." > wrote in
:

> If you live anywhere where there are mice, chipmunks, or other
> critters, and you leave a car inside or outside for more than
> a few days, always lift the hood and check for nests before
> driving.

Here's a funny one. Back in the 70s, I jumped in my '62 Ford Galaxie to go
somewhere. I kept hearing a strange little squeaking noise behind the
speedometer. Thinking I would get a can of silicone spray and douse the
area, I paid no attention.

When I pulled in my driveway, Mama Cat was going out of her mind. She
jumped in my open window before the car had even stopped moving, went up
behind the dash and retrieved her newborn kitten. True story.

Mumra wrote:
> "Dick R." > wrote in message
> . ..
>> I store my 84 Capri RS 5.0 in the garage, and only drive
>> it on nice summer days. In the winter, I leave the hood open
>> so I can check on any critter activity (nests, etc.).
>> When I pull the car out of the garage in the spring, the first
>> thing I do is turn on the heater/defroster fan. One year I was
>> showered with bird seed coming out of the defroster vents. This
>> year the heater fan didn't work. Probably just a fuse,
>> and I'll replace it one of these days. Yesterday, I noticed
>> some pink fiberglass insulation on the floor under the heater.
>> I have a roll of fiberglass insulation in the rafters of the
>> garage, and I figured the mice had built a nest in the blower
>> motor causing the fuse to blow. I agonized over this ultimate
>> PITA and wondered how much I would have to take apart to clean
>> out the heater/fan. Today, just for fun, I turned on the heater fan
>> and it worked! The gods have smiled on me!
>>
>> My message for the day:
>> If you live anywhere where there are mice, chipmunks, or other
>> critters, and you leave a car inside or outside for more than
>> a few days, always lift the hood and check for nests before
>> driving.
>>
>> FWIW
>> Dick
>
> sons car, daily driver had it parked over the weekend, was going to go to
> store with friend, got in car turned on AC and fire ants were being blown
> out of the AC vents onto his friend and him, they had built a nest in the
> car in two days.
>
>

What a special beginning to the day, a shower of fire being blown
at you at wind tunnel speeds....

--




"You may have noticed that I continue to use the term
'open-carry' rather than "OC" This is avoid confusion
with Oleoresin Capsicum, a Latin term meaning 'Give me
some water, bitch. This sh*t is melting my eyeballs.'" - dawg23

Some years ago, I had a red squirrel in the garage. Very irritating,
but I checked and blocked every place where the squirrel could get
in with the garage door closed. Problem solved? not quite.
The squirrel chewed its way through the cedar siding, sheathing,
insulation and pegboard to get into the garage. I made some
repairs and the squirrel was finally gone.
When I drove the Capri out of the garage in the spring and lifted
the hood, I discovered a nest, and it was nasty - dead baby squirrels.

That's why I always say:
Check under the hood before driving - buckle up and don't text message
while driving.

JMHO
Dick

I drove up to Tarrytown, NY to retrieve my son's Escort, which had sat
abandoned in a parking lot for a time. Problem was that yellowjackets had
built a large nest just inside the edge of the driver's door. So we hopped
over to the store to get some bug spray and took care of that problem. Since
the car had been idle for so long, I drove it myself to a nearby gas station
for a fillup and tire check. Popped open the fuel filler door and found a
HUGE nest. And the bug juice was in the other car with my wife and son who
had gone on to a restaurant for lunch. Gas would have to wait.

I keep my John Deere in an outdoor shed, but that shed is home to mice and
some very large spiders. Saw a barn spider the size of a tarantula one day,
so I figured that I'd make room in the garage for the Deere and keep it safe
in there. Spent a weekend cleaning out the garage, washed and - yes - put a
little carnuba on the Deere's hood, then squeezed it into a space just large
enough that I could pull TFrog into the garage with room to close the door.

Next time I wanted to cut the grass, I found the flaw in that plan. TFrog
wouldn't start. (I'm thinking fuel pump, since there's no sound of it when I
turn the key to ON.) I had to push TFrog out of the way, to get the tractor
out. The Deere is now back in the shed.

dwight
www.tfrog.com

My 1967 MG B/GT, bought new and in the family ever since, sits behind
the house awaiting restoration or lightning strike. It's been there
since 1992, when it decomissioned itself with what I diagnosed as
bearingless transmission disease, the result of my father's declining
ability to squeeze under the dash to measure and refill fluid to
requirements.

It has a history (did a solo II at Riverside Raceway [California] when
it had less than 400 miles on it, raced in the Playas de Tijuana
event[s], 1967-68) and sentimental value (sister used it to follow the
SCCA national road-racing tour all over the West for a year or so),
but I'm about to admit I don't have the interest or skills to put it
back together, even though most of the required parts are in the
black-widow infested garage.

There's that, and the generations of skunks who have been born and
raised under it and, maybe, in the engine compartment. The interior
seems secure and unpopulated.

One evening I went out to take the air, and one of the little ones
mistook my warm, moving presence as "mama", and came trotting up to
me. So cute, just like in the cartoons. Major scrambling and flight
when it realized a mistake had been made.

--
Frank ess

dwight wrote:
> I drove up to Tarrytown, NY to retrieve my son's Escort, which had sat
> abandoned in a parking lot for a time. Problem was that yellowjackets
> had built a large nest just inside the edge of the driver's door. So we
> hopped over to the store to get some bug spray and took care of that
> problem. Since the car had been idle for so long, I drove it myself to a
> nearby gas station for a fillup and tire check. Popped open the fuel
> filler door and found a HUGE nest. And the bug juice was in the other
> car with my wife and son who had gone on to a restaurant for lunch. Gas
> would have to wait.
>


Imagine the Youtube video you could have gotten for the few extra
cents per gallon at a full serve. LOL

--




"You may have noticed that I continue to use the term
'open-carry' rather than "OC" This is avoid confusion
with Oleoresin Capsicum, a Latin term meaning 'Give me
some water, bitch. This sh*t is melting my eyeballs.'" - dawg23

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:37:27 -0500, "Dick R." > wrote:

>I store my 84 Capri RS 5.0 in the garage, and only drive
>it on nice summer days. In the winter, I leave the hood open
>so I can check on any critter activity (nests, etc.).
>When I pull the car out of the garage in the spring, the first
>thing I do is turn on the heater/defroster fan. One year I was
>showered with bird seed coming out of the defroster vents. This
>year the heater fan didn't work. Probably just a fuse,
>and I'll replace it one of these days. Yesterday, I noticed
>some pink fiberglass insulation on the floor under the heater.
>I have a roll of fiberglass insulation in the rafters of the
>garage, and I figured the mice had built a nest in the blower
>motor causing the fuse to blow. I agonized over this ultimate
>PITA and wondered how much I would have to take apart to clean
>out the heater/fan. Today, just for fun, I turned on the heater fan
>and it worked! The gods have smiled on me!
>
>My message for the day:
>If you live anywhere where there are mice, chipmunks, or other
>critters, and you leave a car inside or outside for more than
>a few days, always lift the hood and check for nests before
>driving.
>
>FWIW
>Dick

Then there are the proctical joke masters.... in Portugal's Azores
Islands somebody caught a cute little hedgehog and released it inside
of a truck we had. Aftera time the truck began to develope a foul
odor. The odor was tracked under the rear seat into a small tunnel
opening on the driver side, which appeared to follow the frame rail.
The hedgehog had crawled in, died ad began to decompose. And in a
location not reachable.... and even a firehose appeared not to get it
all out.

In another case, in the California desert, an unknown prankster had
released a rather large gopher snake in the cab of a patrol vehicle.
Later the same day, the patrolman was cruising along when the snake
popped up through the dash defroster vent right in front of him. The
surprise led to panic (gopher snakes look VERY much like rattlesnakes
to those not familiar with reptiles), and panic led to a flashflood
condrol culvert. Fortunately, no injuries, although there was a lot of
serious paint damage to the passenger side the vehicle landed on.

Most people do not realize that tarantulas migrate. That's when you
find out how many there are that you never knew were there if you live
in the desert. Gets so thick at times that cars loose traction and
spinouts are not unusual when drivers hit a black patch of roadway
that suddenly turns slippery.

By the way, think crushed mothballs for those pesky rodents, and for
black widows, a tarantula is great. When black widows would show up in
my garage, I'd go catch a tarantula and turn it loose in the garage
(and forewarn my then wife!). Tarantulas like the dark cool garage,
and the like to snack on black widows.

Living on a farm, we get mice in almost every vehicle, even one parked in
the garage this year. Particularly bad is in our old '74 GMC horse van that
sits idle for weeks at a time in the winter. The Spring start up ritual
usually involves a cloud of debris flying out of the heater and defrost
vents, clearing away bits of chewed paper from the glove box, and sometimes
chasing mice out from under your feet. Last year I tried an old farmer's
suggestion and soaked a couple of cotton balls in peppermint oil and stuck
them in the defroster and heater openings. They were totally effective! Not
a single shred of mouse evidence showed up after that, and the truck smelled
like "Christmas" according to the kids.

=Vic=
Bear Gap, PA

"Dick R." > wrote in message
. ..
>I store my 84 Capri RS 5.0 in the garage, and only drive
> it on nice summer days. In the winter, I leave the hood open
> so I can check on any critter activity (nests, etc.).
> When I pull the car out of the garage in the spring, the first
> thing I do is turn on the heater/defroster fan. One year I was
> showered with bird seed coming out of the defroster vents. This
> year the heater fan didn't work. Probably just a fuse,
> and I'll replace it one of these days. Yesterday, I noticed
> some pink fiberglass insulation on the floor under the heater.
> I have a roll of fiberglass insulation in the rafters of the
> garage, and I figured the mice had built a nest in the blower
> motor causing the fuse to blow. I agonized over this ultimate
> PITA and wondered how much I would have to take apart to clean
> out the heater/fan. Today, just for fun, I turned on the heater fan
> and it worked! The gods have smiled on me!
>
> My message for the day:
> If you live anywhere where there are mice, chipmunks, or other
> critters, and you leave a car inside or outside for more than
> a few days, always lift the hood and check for nests before
> driving.
>
> FWIW
> Dick