My Karmann Ghia is off the road with storage insurance, and I have it stored at a friends place. I have a custom fit cover overtop to protect it from the elements and it’s sitting on a patch of gravel so the ground is well drained. Unfortunately, it seems to be a popular place for rats to nest. There is is an accessible space behind the battery where I think they can crawl in from the wheel well, so every time I go out to start it I have to pull out a new nest. I’m pretty sure it’s rats based on the droppings - though I suppose it could just as easily be mice or some other similar rodent - I’m no fecal specialist.
I’m wondering - if I were to put out some rat poison, would the rats crawl into their nest to die, or would they crawl off somewhere else? While I’m not fond of having rats living in my engine, I really don’t want dead, decomposing rats in there.
I had an old Porsche 356B that I stuffed in a barn for a few years. Had some turds in it but other than that no damage, not even to the genuine leather seats. Having decomposing rats in your classic car while in storage would not be pretty.
Rat poison either makes them bleed to death internally or die of dehydration. If you want them to crawl off looking for water get the stuff that causes them to die of dehydration.
The one that makes them bleed to death internally says something along the lines of “Vitamin K is the antidote to this” on it. So get the one that doesn’t say vitamin K is the antidote.
But keep it out away from other animals. I don’t think there’s an antidote to it.
Why not just plug it with something? If you put out your grandfathers blood thinner it will just get into the other creatures in the area and kill them too. Maybe some cheap metal mesh window screen or something, not fiberglass or cloth as they will nest in that. Or, maybe just maybe put some rattle snake piss in there…I hear that helps.
Cover every nook and cranny. I mean everything.
My friend left his car sitting in a garage for 2 months and a couple of mice got in there. We discovered this while taking a road trip to Ann Arbor, MI when the badgers were playing the wolverines in football. The smell was absolutely ridiculous. We had bandannas on for the 9 hour car ride and had to keep the windows down on the highway the smell was so bad… It was the worst experience ever. It still smells to this day and it has been 6 months.
I would line the outside of the car with rat poison. I would cover the exhaust pipe. I would cover everything.
