For the last few years red squirrels have been intent on building large nests on top of my ‘17 petrol engine.
I live in a forest and have tried all the recommended ways to stop them. Ultrasonic, spearmint oil, mothballs, anti-rodent sprays to no avail.
I used live traps to transport two of them a mile away but I think they found their way back and now go no where near the traps.

Any more suggestions??

 

Have you run the engine while they're in the nest? The noise, vibration and heat might scare them away.

 

I had a rat build a nest under the engine cover one winter on my 2017 D5. After cleaning and putting traps around the exterior of the house, I settled on the Irish Spring soap trick for the engine bay. Get a bar of Irish Spring, cut it into smaller chunks and place them around the engine bay. Supposedly, rodents, squirrels, etc. do not like the strong scent or some of the ingredients in Irish Spring. I've not had any come back, (could have also been because of the traps/bait boxes around the house, lol). But, worth a try to see, and your engine bay will smell 'fresh and clean as a whistle' too.

 

Mix, 3 drops dawn, 10-15 drops Peppermint Essential Oil, in a squirt bottle.

Soak everything under hood every oil change. especially the hood insulation.

they hate the odor.

 

I’ve tried soaking a bag of cotton ***** with peppermint and spearmint oils but it didn’t seem to affect the rodents

 

JRT

 

Those are funny looking squirrels