Damn critters!!

**MerkurRS** · 02-01-2016 04:16 AM

My car has been in the garage for almost a week since we received over 30" of snow Friday through Saturday over a week ago. Yes, I know I have Quattro, but I also have OCD issues and prefer a clean car. Plus, there have been many people out there who can't drive in the winter weather and i prefer not to have them hit me.

Friday was a decent day and I wanted to get the car out, so I did my prelim under hood review and found some remnants that a little furry visitor had left behind.

Yesterday I had the car out all day and, when I parked it for the night, I decided to get revenge before anything serious happens.....

**Sceanzo** · 02-01-2016 05:00 AM

Good idea. They will chew through wiring harnesses in no time and that is not a fun bill to foot.

**BernanksBeard** · 02-01-2016 05:10 AM

They used to climb into my OEM intake pipe, and chew on the plastic around the panel filter of my B6 A4. I had to weave screen into the front facing intake and slid a piece of screen into the fender intake. It worked, just made me wonder where their new home was. Haven't found them in my B8 yet... But I'm sure they found something... Thanks for the reminder, I should start looking...

**bakedziti** · 02-01-2016 05:28 AM

Get some peppermint and put a few drops around the engine bay.

**chaos2984** · 02-01-2016 05:36 AM

Sounds like you need to sure up the holes in your garage and get rid of them that way. Sux but hey atleast they didn't chew your harness and you end up with a nice check engine light when you started it up after it sat.

**jsh139** · 02-01-2016 05:45 AM

Cold blooded!

Where there's one, there's usually more. I'd set a few more traps around your garage.

**pdqgp** · 02-01-2016 05:50 AM

Good thing you caught him. I have a short story and will try and find the pics but....

My wife complained once that her AC was stinky. It was spring and I thought perhaps it needed cleaned and was simply musty. The smell eventually went away and nothing was ever made of it.

Her daily is a minivan and I normally just take it through Valvoline for it's typical LOF maint. When there one time I had the guy replace the cabin filter with one I picked up. Easy enough but what the hell. When he pulled her old one out it looked like it had been in their for 90k miles because it had. There was also a petrified mouse stuck to it. Guess that's where the smell came from that spring.

Late that summer her AC Compressor took a shit and in process of diagnosing it and cleaning out things I found what looked like a bird nest in the air intake behind the cabin filter. WOW! It was big and rather funny in hindsight.

Check out things good just to make sure he/she wasn't building a nest. They move REALLY fast at doing so.

**MrFunk** · 02-01-2016 06:26 AM

Originally Posted by chaos2984

Sounds like you need to sure up the holes in your garage and get rid of them that way. Sux but hey atleast they didn't chew your harness and you end up with a nice check engine light when you started it up after it sat.

I'd get to the source and plug holes / set traps around the garage.

Originally Posted by jsh139

Cold blooded!

Where there's one, there's usually more. I'd set a few more traps around your garage.

+1...

**ef1018** · 02-01-2016 06:51 AM

They are never alone. Put a bar or two of Irish Spring soap and a few of those dryer softening sheets there. I've stored cars over the winter and never had a problem. If it's going to be more than a few weeks I'd also put a few dryer sheets into the tail pipe, so,your muffler doesn't become their new condo. Inside on the floor mats also.

**chaos2984** · 02-01-2016 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by MrFunk

I'd get to the source and plug holes / set traps around the garage.

+1...

+1 Yes I ha to deal with a squirrel in my house once. That wasn't fun. But luckly I found where they came from and sealed the hole with a board and a bunch of screws to act like a spike strip to keep them from coming in again. lol

**blbroo** · 02-01-2016 08:05 AM

Best way to keep live critters out of your garage? Garage cat.

She has a flap door to come in and out. No critters in the garage other than the dead ones she brings me as presents.

The rest of the huge rabbit, that goes with the lucky foot she made for me, is just out of the picture.

Stay classy.

**homelessNY_LI** · 02-01-2016 08:08 AM

Yea I have a neighbor cat, when she isn't picking at the garbage she's taking care of the unwanted pest

**Motown_Dub** · 02-01-2016 08:16 AM

Garage cat is awesome. To the OP, as everyone else has said, there are more where the first one came from. Find any possible entry point (high and low...they can climb) close them up, then set more traps and don't stop until you aren't catching any for awhile.

**amz** · 02-01-2016 09:39 AM

At least Audi didn't use a soy-based coating like Honda on the wires!

http://jalopnik.com/your-honda-is-de...sui-1755154748

**BoostEasy** · 02-01-2016 09:46 AM

NSFW lol.

That little critter just wanted to stay warm and paid for it with his life!

That said, the mouse traps in my attic are armed and ready. No pics for you!

**Nightkiller6** · 02-01-2016 10:34 AM

Some mice chewed through some wires in my moms Acura MDX engine bay a few years ago and caused $1000 in damage.

**AWDLover** · 02-01-2016 11:10 AM

That sucks. My oil level sensor went out last winter. Bought a new one, got under the car to replace it, and found a rabbit that frequented my work's parking lot had chewed through the wires. Must have loved the car when it was cold...warm place to get out of the winter conditions and plenty of under car plastic panels to relax on.

**cspcrx** · 02-01-2016 12:14 PM

Last Tuesday I came home and found a cat turd sitting in the middle of my garage floor where my wife parks her truck. Looked around and found no other signs of kitty but had a feeling it must have come home in my wife engine compartment. A few hours later she gets home I asked her to open the hood on her truck, 09 Tacoma, and sure enough there are paw prints where kitty took a 38 mile ride from her work to my garage.

**El Presidente** · 02-01-2016 01:52 PM

Damn thats scary.. I had the same problem so i sealed up all spots and hopefully killed off the mice that were trapped in my garage (fingers crossed). But I usually now let my car cool off outside for some hours before pulling it into the garage. I guess they like the warm engine bay compartment. Let me know what helped you guys i would love suggestions.

**ENV²** · 02-01-2016 02:00 PM

That is what you get for not taking the car out to play in the snow.

**A4SlineWA** · 02-01-2016 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by pdqgp

Good thing you caught him. I have a short story and will try and find the pics but....

My wife complained once that her AC was stinky. It was spring and I thought perhaps it needed cleaned and was simply musty. The smell eventually went away and nothing was ever made of it.

Her daily is a minivan and I normally just take it through Valvoline for it's typical LOF maint. When there one time I had the guy replace the cabin filter with one I picked up. Easy enough but what the hell. When he pulled her old one out it looked like it had been in their for 90k miles because it had. There was also a petrified mouse stuck to it. Guess that's where the smell came from that spring.

Late that summer her AC Compressor took a shit and in process of diagnosing it and cleaning out things I found what looked like a bird nest in the air intake behind the cabin filter. WOW! It was big and rather funny in hindsight.

Check out things good just to make sure he/she wasn't building a nest. They move REALLY fast at doing so.

Great now I'm petrified to change my cabin filter that I recently bought

**pdqgp** · 02-02-2016 05:14 AM

Originally Posted by A4SlineWA

Great now I'm petrified to change my cabin filter that I recently bought

I found the cell pic which was from my old cell......now in the hands of my son. The round chuck is a piece of dog food he scavenged from our garage as we have two big dogs and keep sealed containers out there but of course some likely spilled as we refilled them.

**Arn560** · 02-02-2016 05:59 AM

Lucky you caught him in time. You could have had a nasty shock while rumbling down the road at 65mph and he decided to make an appearance in the foot-well and up your trouser leg!!!!!

**SouthernBoy** · 02-02-2016 06:47 AM

PETA is not going to like you. But then, f--k PETA.

I am like you, anal about my car. It has been sitting in my garage, not driven and not started for 12 days. Fortunately, so far, we have never had any problems with mice but some of our neighbors have over the years. I'm going to go out and check my engine bay this morning after seeing your post.

**evanb** · 02-02-2016 04:02 PM

A mouse built a nest in the clutch housing of my B5 S4 and it cost me about $1500.

**brianc21** · 08-09-2017 11:33 AM

Just had this issue over the weekend. Got done with work at 2am and the car started rough and tripped the sport diff fault, crankshaft position sensor and a handful of others and went into limp mode. Thought it might be water intrusion since it had been raining all night. Dealer says a rodent chewed thru some wiring and looking at around a $500+ fix.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

**MerkurRS** · 08-09-2017 11:45 AM

Its a constant issue for me!
I parked my 1998 B5 A4 2.8 for a few days and something chewed my oil sending unit wire, causing me to think that my oil pressure was zero when the warning light lit up. Luckily for me it was an easy fix with a repair to the wire. Sorry for your dilema!

**LYKUNO** · 08-09-2017 12:13 PM

I've used a product called Fresh Cab for years to repel mice and other critters. My in-laws use it strategically placed in and under their motor home and it works well for them as well. It is a 100% botanical product and smells a lot like pine trees - not at all objectionable. A review here. More info available at the company's website.

**Peewee** · 01-23-2019 06:16 AM

Hey there. Have anyone trying using gels or ultrasonic devices? I read about these on pestcontrolhacks and planning to test it, because I'm tired of setting traps and poisonous substances all over my house, garage and even backyard.

**airjordan223** · 01-23-2019 06:46 AM

My local paint shop swore by using bars of Irish Spring soap.

Searching that online seems to have a lot on both sides of it working or not.

**Tangerined** · 01-23-2019 10:09 AM

This is my solution...

https://i.imgur.com/Z9MlSir.jpg

**doughboy17** · 01-23-2019 10:18 AM

I love the glue traps. Sometimes I won't even bait them with peanut butter; I just fold them into a box shape and place them against a wall seam.

**doughboy17** · 01-23-2019 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by blbroo

Best way to keep live critters out of your garage? Garage cat.

No critters in the garage other than the dead ones she brings me as presents.

The rest of the huge rabbit, that goes with the lucky foot she made for me, is just out of the picture.

Stay classy.

Excellent! [finger tenting]

**Silver Streakin** · 01-23-2019 11:34 AM

I keep a TomCat mouse trap at each side of each garage door. The ones that are a little black box with poison inside.

2 neighbors have 1 outside cat each. The 1 never leaves their yard, but the other 1 comes over to our back yard all the time since we have nip growing.

We have 2 indoor cats... maybe their smell helps keep them away too.

Plus, there's always black snakes. They like the bird eggs too. I just saw snake skins in a front flower garden while taking down the Christmas lights.

Lots of birds of prey in the trees behind us.

No pests inside the house. Actually, we rarely ever see a squirrel or rabbit.

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