There are three common problems we encounter when taking our power equipment out of storage and begin use for another season. Battery failure, carburetor fuel flow problems, and Mice Nests!
Mice are a nuisance, often choosing the engine housing of your power equipment for winter nesting and Spring reproducing. It doesn’t seem to matter where you live, but where you stored your equipment does increase the chance of mice nests. Equipment stored in sheds or outside under the deck are more likely to have mice nests. Consider your engine and the engine oil chemically breaking down as a bio-heater, of sorts. Nesting mice accumulate Acorn shells, debris and waste inside power equipment engine and crankcase/transmission housings. Mice chew the coating off the wiring, ignition coil, and the plastic housings; the mice think it’s food.
Most importantly, mice nests blocks air flow around the air cooled engine cooling fins, causing overheating. Overheating burns out ignition coils, causes engine stalling, damages the oil, melts wiring harnesses, and ultimately the engine will seize.
During inspection before starting your lawn tractor, this is what a mice nest can look like.
Be sure to check for mice nests before starting your equipment for use. Many engines and lawn tractors provide ‘peep’ holes for you to check. Often grass, straw and other nesting materials stuffed within will be hanging out the seams of the engine shroud/housing. If you encounter a mice nest during inspection, do not start the engine, call to schedule service and have us remove the nest and make the necessary repairs before attempting operation.
If your lawn mower or lawn tractor choke seems stuck or the engine keeps stalling and is hard to restart, you may have mice nested under your engine housing/shroud. If your snowblower or snow thrower’s drive is impaired, hesitating, and making noise when engaged, or the drive speed shifting mechanism is not moving, then most likely mice have built a nest inside your crankcase/transmission housing.
Mice nest removal starts at $60. Consider changing out burnt damaged oil and overheated spark plug(s) when I am there. Cleaning out mice nests is probably one of my least favorite things to do, hah! During cleanout you will encounter mice feces and urine, mice usually have separate areas in the nest to bed/breed, store food and excrete waste. Acorn shells will jam up electric starters and mice urine/waste getting inside electric starter housing’s can cause damage and failure. Sometimes the ignition coils are chewed beyond repair and need replacement. Mold, mildew and who knows what else can also grow. Mice are dirty and carry disease. Mice can fit through a hole the size of a dime, unbelievable. Some more mice nests and wiring repair examples are shown in the pics below.
What can you do about mice nesting in your power equipment during storage?
Actively setting traps or bait targeting and killing mice year round where you store power equipment. Eliminate food sources like stored pet treats, bird food and grass seed. Do not provide easy access to nesting materials. Take a look at the pictures again; grass and leaf clippings left under your lawn tractor on top of the mower deck or the push mower’s deck/frame; paper towels and brown kraft lawn/leaf material/debris bags; and filling/insulating/stuffing materials from outdoor furniture pillows, soft sided coolers and pet toys, are among mice favorite nesting materials. Years ago, a customer, while removing a mice nest with babies, from her lawn mower, out in Narragansett, RI, shared that usually PotPourri bags filled with the herb Sage worked as a natural deterrent for the mice. Make a few of those Sage PotPourri bags and place them around your power equipment and under the hood, on the frame near the engine mounts of the small engine power equipment during storage, it can help.
