critters in your ducts

[Steinbru@VNET.IBM.COM]

A blatent cross-post.

To the attached advice I add: stuff a ball of crumpled aluminum
foil in the exhaust, and put some moth balls in a wad of loosly
rolled foil (let it breath) and set under the hood to discourage
the "air box bandits".  Before starting the vehicle after storage,
inspect for nuts and berries in the underhood linkages and in the
air-box (and remove the tailpipe blockage).

--ATTACHMENT---------------------------------------------------
Date:  Wed, 13 Jan 1999 21:26:45 -0500
From:  Philippe Verstraeten <Philippe.Verstraeten@Telepolis.Antwerpen.be>
Subject: Critters in your ducts

I've come across the "mice in car" problem a few times on this
list and now I've stumbled onto an interesting tip on the net, so
I thought I'd share it with you ...

Fall/Winter is the time that critters like to set up homes for
the winter--and your vehicle is a favorite target.  Soon, a host
of critters will try to set up house in cars, trucks, RV's and
boats.  Rather than resorting to noxious poisons or messy traps,
here is some down-home tricks and techniques to help keep the
little fellas out.  First, the best defense is to make the
vehicle as air tight as possible.  This means leaving the windows
rolled tightly up.  Rodents can easily enter a vehicle's
Heater/AC system through the fresh air duct.  Once they enter,
they can cause hundreds of dollars of damage to the heater and
air conditioner components by jamming them with nesting
materials, not to mention the bad odor if they choose to make
your heater their final resting place..  To prevent this from
happening, select the "recirculate" mode rather than "fresh"
(when applicable to your vehicle) to block off this entrance into
the interior of the vehicle when parking.  This closes the
outside air door.  Typically, these vents are vacuum operated so
the motor must be running to operate the vent.  So, switch to the
"recirculate" position before shutting off the motor.  Note:
driving in the recirculate mode in moist weather can cause the
windows to fog up.  To fend off mice, rats, squirrels, and
chipmunks, tie old socks up with a handful of mothballs {
paradichlorobenzene, PDB) inside and place them around the ground
or underside of the vehicle.  For longer-lasting control, use
toilet-bowl PDB cakes.  Rodents hate the smell of PDB and will
stay away.

Happy motoring, Phil.