Awww Rats…

There’s big dilemma that occurs when you get the point of having more cars than garage space… That’s when you have to determine which vehicles go outside and what gets to live in the nice, warm garage. I’ve currently got four old cars and two-car garage, so you can see where this is heading. Unfortunately my ’39 Mercury is one of the outdoor vehicles at the moment, and in these cold and wet winter months, the rodents decided to take up residence in my poor car. There’s nothing worse than finding hundreds of tiny turds in the trunk, on the floor… Everywhere! I finally lifted up the back seat cushion to find a big, disgusting rat’s nest (literally), made of some interior material and tree scraps. Even though my car already needs a complete interior replacement anyway, that was the tipping point!

I tried to buy the D-Con bait bit trays, but apparently the EPA made them stopped selling the pellets last year from concern over “people, pets, and wildlife such as mountain lions, eagles and foxes” accidentally chowing down on them. Uhhhh… So now what? Glues, traps and poison all leave dead critters somewhere in the crevices of the vehicle, so that was out. When my wife mentioned cedar wood chips and peppermint oil, it sounds like some natural hippie remedy to me, but by golly, she was right. The old Merc smells pretty good and the turds are gone… Now I gotta get some more garage space!