Left a plastic pan 1/2 full of antifreeze under a car in the garage for months. When I pulled it out, it was full of dead mice. Couldn't be easier.
Put your used motor oil in the mouse buckets, won't evaporate or freeze. If ya wanna get tricky, a half quart of oil then water in warm weather, the oil floats to the top and keeps the water from evaporating off. I've used antifreeze before, but I have no pets and the shop stays closed up.
The death bucket with an inch or so of used antifreeze kills them. Oil of peppermint seems to repel them. I used both in an old dirt floor garage that had been home to lots of mice. I dumped about a dozen mice from the bucket twice in a week. After that I didn't have any more. Do a bit of research on the oil of peppermint as a mouse repellent. I don't remember where I found the suggestion but I think it works.
Since the building is 24 X 50, i'm wondering if you can get a storage container in there and park the car in the container. This should offer good protection against the elements and uninvited 4 -legged guests.
You gotta be careful with steel storage containers. If they're exposed to temperature swings they can cause a lot of condensation in the interior. Had a friend that lost a house load of furniture once that way.
Old farmers when I lived in WV used cornmeal mixed with cement. The rodents would eat the cornmeal then drink water and the cement would harden up. In theory. Please note that that as a veterinarian, I don't condone this method.!
Not cheap, but for something you really wanted to keep safe, you could try one of these bubbles: http://www.calcarcover.com/product/73/274/Car_Capsule_The_Original_Car_Storage_Bubble
we just use the ramp and pour beer in the bucket ( mice love the scent of hops ) , problem was we would find the neighbor drinking out of it ... actually around the storage units we use the Tomcat Poison cubes with great results , makes them thirsty and they go looking for water and basically die from dehydration , found several skeletons around the yard , as for storing the car heavy plastic under the car and put the car up in the air so air circulates under it . specailly if the buildings ever had animals in it ( worse with pigs or poultry ) as the soil will have urea in it from there urine and it converts to ammonia and that condenses on the bottom of the car and rots it out real quick . as for covering it unless it leaks above it leave it alone and let the air move around the car . and definately get paperwork saying the cars are yours and the rental agreement in case the lady passes , many legal problems have been caused by neighbors renting space on others property when relatives get involved after a death
We live in a wooded area which I know contains lots of mice. I have never had any rodent damage to any cars stored over the winter in my shop. I don't use dryer sheets or moth balls as nothing smells worse then moth balls. I place trays of Decon pellets around the shop augmented by the old conventional spring traps. I know the mice are there as they quite often show up in the traps and the pellets keep disappearing. Attached is a picture of my 64 Biscayne that was stored in a northern Indiana barn for over 46 years. The interior remained in show room condition with no rodent damage what so ever. How did mice and rats not touch this car?
must have had some good farm cats that were mousers , on our farm we never fed the cats so we never had a problems with rodents around the barns or grain storage buildings or any of the tractors , we had some in the combine when it wasn't cleaned out but it was in the mechanicals only ( shakers and rakers) as for the dryer sheets wife left food in the O/T and they went to town put dryer sheets in there and the mice made nice smelling homes . I put a load ( 5 ) air fresheners in my one O/T car I store outside and the mice never move in and all I have to do is open the windows in the spring and let it air out for a day and then its tolerable for the summer .
I have used kitty litter. had a car on jack stands, a friend saved me kitty litter and I poured it around the jack stands, I think maybe the cat smell may have scared them ,maybe they just didn't like my car?
Historical interest. I think it's an interesting concept using what you have available and, probably, no worse than slowly bleeding to death from the anticoagulants in D-con. For groundhogs, another old farmer I knew used to plug up all the holes except one then spoon in cyanide powder and cover the end. How do you feel about that one?
Rodents...Beware!!! (OF 'em!) A nice gent gave me a white '63 Tbird in '09. It had been sitting in his yard, a nephew was working on the engine. Nephew went back East for college, left the engine undone, neighbor told me: "This older guy with the white 'Bird? He says you are welcome to it, has the pink. But you have to get it before the weekend..." My bud hooked up his car trailer, we went over and snatched the Tbird...I gave the old gent 2 cases of Budweiser... We pulled up in front of the house, and I made it down the ramps, but when turning the wheel, I spotted 2 rats...Big ones (for CA.; in Denver, they get REAL big!) They were about 8" body, another 8-10 tail. Vermin... WE pushed the 'Bird into my spot in front of the garage, and I opened the hood. Crimany! No less than 6 of 'em were running in and out of open ports, (no intake) around the engine compartment, I coulda trained 'em! (fearless, they looked at me like, "Why'd you open the hood? Whatta you want?") The beautiful red interior was full of 'em, under dash...Pulled rear seat out, that must have been the 'annex'! After pulling seats, dash, headliner, and door & inner panels out, I killed everything moving...D-Con had been put in for 2 weeks...they all passed away. (sniff) But the worst was about to come... Next thing I did was check the urine-soaked shortblock. For some reason, the 'Bird had received a 352 in place of the 390, God knows when...but the heads were there, (C3 types) so I have them for my 406. A young guy wanted it in the worst way, so I showed him the car, (I had cleaned the seats, some of the foam underneath had been eaten) wiring was surprisingly not shredded... He was tickled, as he had an F150 with 390 that was going right in. Hated to see it go, but $$$ turned my head. My son had gifted me a pair of matching white skirts, so I let them go with it. The 352 was NOT the worst: That 'worst' was from getting inside without a mask...the urine fumes got to me, went to the doc and told him the symptoms: dizziness, shortness of breath, he had the truck come around with an oxygen bottle and the 1/8" tube under the nostrils! ME! Then the inhaler, then the trips to specialists... Never found shit. I talked with my smart young wife...reminded her of the Ratmobile... she conceded that must have done it. 18 months+ of respiratory indignance. Crap! I could have kept smoking..... Beware of the vermin. Serious.
I have had a camper destroyed by mice. There were dryer sheets everywhere, they made nest out of them. I also put them in my daughters mustang, same thing they made nest out of them. Dryer sheets have not worked for me. Tony
My brother told me to use Peppermint, Liquid stuff, soak cotton ball with the peppermint, and place them in the car, I told him a cat would work better, p-mint seamed to work.
Lucked out with one car for years in the plastic shed, tractor not so good as they would go in the blower housing and condo up in the air cleaner..Other parts and boxes weren't safe either...Put Dcon stuff out and helped but not as much as I liked..Now in the plastic sheds I leave some anti freeze laced with bird seed for them..Here is some products I was looking at..http://www.qcsupply.com/mouse-rat-control?gclid=CKqxl4re4coCFc5hfgod8WsHAA
Just pulled out the rear seat to replace the carpet and found this little nest egg!! Don't know where they got all that insulation!! Gotta take precautions next year.
The roller/bucket/peanut butter trick seems to be the answer. In the winter, put anti-freeze in the water to stop from making a mini ice skating rink for the little bastards.
I don't think anybody chimed in on this specifically, but if leaving it on the trailer is a real option, that would obviously get the car farther away from the moist ground. And it would keep the rain off the trailer. And it might keep you from dragging home anything else that you don't have room to store if your trailer is tied up.
LOL I picked up a parts car for an OT car I was restoring once. It had been stored in a horse barn and had the hard to get pieces I needed in good shape. I opened the hood and out from this nest jumps a rat as big as my forearm. he jumps up and pulls a switch blade and says, "Ehhhyyyyy waass up Ese, WAAASSS YOU DOIN WIT MY HOUSE MANG?" I pulled my shooter from my waist band and capped his ass, I got something against anyone who does not speak English or Spanish properly. ( I don't care if you can't type it right.) Note to all, never even enter a barn unarmed, those mice and rats just hang around and eat, the ones that are smart enough to outwit all of our methods of eradication get huge. Anyway back on track inside is not a sure cure.
I would roll the car onto a piece of plywood to absorb the moisture from the gravel. Plastic will repel the moisture coming up from the gravel but also the plastic will become wet when there is moisture in the air.
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