CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Vehicle maintenance experts and advocates espouse the need this time of year to preparing vehicles for cold weather by checking tire and battery health, but a Charlottesville mechanic is urging residents to check their vehicles for rodent nesting.

“One of the big things we’re seeing now is mice,” Todd Archer with Bob’s Wheel Alignment on East Market Street told WINA Morning News Monday. “This time of year they’re starting to build nests and stuff in your vehicles, and we’re starting to see a lot of wire damage and things like that.”

Archer urged vehicle owners to check areas especially under the glove box, and around the air filter box and cabin filter areas.

Mice can squeeze into and nest in very small spaces, and the vehicle has plenty of materials they can gnaw out to build nests such as wire housing, insulation, seat cushioning, etc.

“There’s preventative things you can put in there; peppermint is a really good deterrent that doesn’t harm the mouse but keeps all the rodents out of your vehicle,” Archer recommended.

There are many reasons experts give that rodents are drawn to vehicles.

“I think cars are drawing it with this ethanol, you know, the corn in gas,” Archer speculated. “That’s my opinion, and we just see more of it than ever before.”

Big wildlife control experts, such as Skedaddle which operates all over North America, attribute mice in vehicles to warmth and protection; plenty of nesting materials with wires and insulation materials; and food sources such as crumbs from snacks or pet food… and even small insects that get trapped.

“It used to be people who lived way out in the country who had cows, and goats, and livestock with feed around,” Archer said. “Now you’re seeing it in lots of cars and they’re doing a lot damage to cars.”