Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

A friend of mine has a fairly new Ranger. Just the second time he's had to winterize it. When he went out to the pole barn he hit the key to winterize, and it wouldn't turn over. He pulled the cowling off and tried to turn it by hand but it would only turn a little each way. He pulled the spark plugs out puzzled as to what was going on. When he got to the bottom plug on the passenger side he looked in and to his surprise could see corn. No, not ethanol, corn kernels. Some mouse had gotten into his exhaust port and not being a wrench head I don't the ins and outs, but the mouse could drop corn down the cylinder and filled it up. My friend thought that he would have to pull the head. First, he got the shop vac out and sucked out almost a gallon of corn kernels!! He then tried to turn it over and it turned over fine so he put it in his large pond he has at his place and started it. Ran fine and he even put it up on plane. He gave his kids strict orders. No more shelled corn in the pole barn!! He also put tape over the exhaust ports. Makes me a bit nervous because my boat is stored up at the cabin in the garage that mice visit despite my glue boards, conventional traps, and dcon. Next trip up tape is going on my ports as well.

I usually open the lockers in the spring when it starts warming up so mold doesn't grow. I did that last spring and found a couple cork handles on my rods chewed up.

Also I had a mouse in the boat on one trip. After that I put Decon in the garage and have not had any other problems.

It seems like there is a lesson here... along with a possible corn popping joke....?!?

My Mom and Dad own a farm and I store my boat and camper in there each year.  Needless to say they have a bunch of mice in there becasue Dad raises corn.  I put Bounce sheets in both the camper and the boat each year and have never had a problem with mice.  Something about the smell keeps them a way like mothballs do but they smell a lot better than mothballs.  I throw a couple in the lockers and in the bilge and a few on the floor under the cover.  It's cheap and works great.