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Winter Storage- critter proof?


MystiikVLX

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For those that store their boat inside during the winter, what precautions do you take to prevent mice etc from making a winter home in your boat?

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I've been told by a couple people that mice hate the smell of dryer sheets. I stuff then under the edge of the cover all the way around. Not sure if it actually works, but the one winter I didn't put any in the boat something ate a hole in the cover. My boat lives in an unheated barn for the winter.

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We've stored a boat inside a commerical building/garage for the past 20 years without doing anything more than putting the cover on. The building is secure and has concrete floors but that's about it.

Edited by That Guy
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I put moth balls on paper plates and in paper cups and place them inside the boats. Sure, it smells when uncovered in the spring but the smell is gone within a few hours of uncovering. I store my boat in an unheated pole barn with gravel floor. Critters get in my pole barn but have never got into any of the boats.

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I have glue traps and rat poison in my storage unit. I have caught a few and noticed some of the poison has been eaten. Did this after I had noticed they shredded a life jacket I had laying around to make a home.

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a good tight fitting cover, with no straps or anything hanging down to for them to climb up. I use dryer sheets inside the boat, I dont know if it helps keep the mice out, but it makes the boat smell fresh when I uncover it.

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I put moth balls on paper plates and in paper cups and place them inside the boats. Sure, it smells when uncovered in the spring but the smell is gone within a few hours of uncovering. I store my boat in an unheated pole barn with gravel floor. Critters get in my pole barn but have never got into any of the boats.

I do the exact same and have not had an issue for the last 11 years.

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I seem to be on the polar opposite here. I leave mine open, take out all the cushions and leave no hiding spots. I do lay down decon around the garage, but the garage does not open, and neighborhood dogs/cats do not have access to eating it.

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the most important thing is to vacuum every nook and cranny then vacuum again. I take all the seats out in the winter and store in my house. I also put moth balls and dryer sheets in it. Never a problem. Don't forget to tape up the exhaust so they don't climb in and make a nest.

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I second, third and fourth the dryer sheets. I don't tape up the exhaust vents.....I ball up a good handfull of dryer sheets and stuff them in the exhaust vents. I leave all the drain plugs out and stuff dryer sheets in those as well. I also put dryer sheets EVERYWHERE in the boat. I just by a box every fall and fill the boat up with them in various locations. Sure I have to throw them all away in the spring but that takes 2 minutes.

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Mine lives in a covered shelter like this :http://mdmshelters.com/barn_style.php

Since it is not completely sealed around the doors where they meet the ground I have had issues with animals getting inside during the

past. The building is located out in the country on my parents property so lots of critters around. For winter storage I clean the boat

really well and put 3 or 4 of the large damp rid containers around in the boat. I then cover the boat and shrinkwrap the heck out of it

, probably going a foot above and maybe more below the cover as I wrap it. (by the way, when I say shrinkwrap I am talking about the plastic pallet

wrap-saran wrap like stuff , not the expensive heat molded stuff) Would be really hard for anything to get in and I have been doing it like this for about 5 years with no issues.

I also put rat/mouse bait or poison around inside the corners of the building. It usually slowly dissappears the first few weeks and then I put some more in.

The second batch usually makes it through the rest of the winter. Whatever eats it is not happy so make sure your dogs or cats can't get to it if you use it !

I also have used the dryer sheets before. The year before I started shrinkwrapping the boat I had filled her up with dryer sheets and just had the boat cover on.

When I pulled off the cover in the early spring, a mouse and it's nest fell out on the ground...mouse ran off...surprised the snot out of me, haha.

Nest was in between the cover and just above the rub rail. I thought for sure I was going to find an infestation inside the boat but I didn't. First couple trips out that season

you could catch a whiff of something deceased if the wind was just right. I am guessing my mouse's buddy had gotten in the boat and died somehwhere.

Not sure but I have yet to find the little rat's dried up corpse. (pun intended)

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I just read on amazon good things about the snap e trap. I've never had mice in the boat yet, but I've had them in a camper, my barn, an old car, and in my tool box, so I know it will happen one day.

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