We got a lot of nice wicker type furniture for our pool last year. We stored them neatly under the deck with expensive covers for winter. But some rodent got into them and made nests. I'm guessing maybe chipmunks. Although I do seem to have a vole under my front stairs. Whatever it is eats acorns. I don't suspect mice or rats as there was droppings on a rock under the chairs, but none on the furniture. My experience with rats and mice is they shit everywhere.

Anyhow they chewed through some furniture and scraped up some of the chairs. I'm going clean and sanitize these things. I'm thinking it would have been better to just leave these out all winter so the animals don't see them as a good hiding spot. I don't have the shed space for all these. Maybe some zip up covers but that will surely be pricey and they rodents can chew through anyhow. Any suggestions.

I was overrun with chipmunks a few years back. They tunneled under and killed a number of trees, chewed up the wiring in my truck, and otherwise were causing all kinds of havoc.

Those little havahart traps work fairly well baited with bird seed, as did a couple thousand rounds of Gemtech subsonics (but them little bastards are tough to hit).

I did put a dent into them with those two methods, but what did the most damage was about half a dozen great horned owls that moved in.

I was just pressure washing the furniture and the damn thing was still in the backrest of one of the chairs. Out it came with 2 pinky babies. Not chipmunk. It ran away fast. Too big for a mouse. I'm thinking vole, which is what I think is under my front steps.

I use a bait box, hidden where only the munks, voles, mice can access it and it is also zip-tied shut. Takes care of the problem and you never have to deal with them. Now if you have dogs that could tear open the bait station it may not work for you, but I do not.

I was also going to suggest bait boxes. Use a fair number of them, and periodically check under your coverings for dead animals.

Get a cat. When we had various cats that liked to spend a lot of time outdoors, vermin were rarely seen. Now that our last cat has been dead these past few years, the chipmunks, mice and voles roam with impunity.

To kill them use a trap made of a 5 gallon bucket like this

https://www.google.com/imgres?...1&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim

To repel them next season get some of this

https://www.tractorsupply.com/...cEAQYAiABEgJgM_D_BwE

I never had luck with homebrew repellent, but was turned onto this and now with it in our camper that's parked in a pole barn they don't even come in the pole barn. I was very impressed it worked.

We got a rodent control company that laid out traps with poison in them. The poison didn't kill them in the trap but made it impossible for the critter to absorb water. Impossible for neighbors cats and dogs to get into. That was my biggest concern. It was about $30/mo and problem was gone in two months.

I'm thinking your problem is squirrels/chipmunks. Those damn things can do a lot of damage to the wiring of vehicles which is why I leave the hood of my tractor always up. That works but does not help if they get behind the dash.

Some may disagree with this but out in the barn and my garage I have found that moth balls spread around keeps them out of those areas. It definitely worked when I put them behind the dash of my outside vehicles. Yeah, you can smell them for sure but I'll take that over re-wiring crap all the time.

It’s definitely a vole or some other small mouse like rodent. I think I’ll go with the repellent when I store the furniture in the fall. Personally I think the plastic wicker stuff would hold up in winter and I’d rather just leave it out in the open. If we store it I don’t want poison to leave dead rodents in the furniture and it’s a pain in the add to get under the deck to move it around and check. Leaving in the open would discourage nesting I think.