I’m following up to say it’s been a week and no return of the rodent(s).
I would say the cayenne pepper is working, but it’s hard to prove a negative.
Add to that, city rodent’s traditional food source has dried up (restaurant dumpsters), a
and they are eating much differently and farther afield than they did before. That’s a plus for the negative, IMO.
There are several restaurants a couple blocks away, and the rats are roaming in search of food and shelter.
We also had a mild winter.
Just last night I saw a group of at least a half dozen rats crawling on and into trash cans in back yards and and the alley behind my house.
A few days before I found the nest in my car I filled several tunnels in my next door neighbor’s yard, and this week they started two new ones.
An update:
Been a month or so since the engine compartment of my car served as a rat lounge.
As of my last post I was using cayenne pepper, which thankfully stopped them from chewing anything, but didn’t stop them from hanging out.
First thing I did was stop parking in the same place all the time.
I move around about a half block away to break their routine.
I read somewhere they don’t like Irish Spring soap.
So I tucked in a couple bars, still in their boxes to avoid a possible mess from melting.
Their odor was quite strong. This was the result:
I noticed they were snacking on one side of the engine compartment and pooping on the other.
Then I looked into rodent repellent spray. Most are mainly diluted peppermint oil.
So I got some full strength. Boy is that stuff pungent!
I also folded up some strips of metal window screen and filled in the open spaces with horizontal surfaces, clear of moving parts.
I know this makes anyone into “detailing” their engine compartment cringe.
But it seems to make it a less than pleasant place to be.
