keeping critters out of my X5
 

I watched this video where a dude spent $700 on under hood plastic covers from BMW, to coverup/beautify? his BMW 335i. https://youtu.be/H8U7FTdYnO8

It does look cleaner, but it brings to mind the under hood appearance of my E53, which has two large cavities on either side of the cabin microfilter housing. From everything I've seen or read, this is normal? Were there ever any covers offered to enclose them?

I'm semi-rural, and have had a problem with invasive rodents (field mice, rats, and squirrels) in/out of my unsealed 3-bay garage. I haven't kept a car in it for several years, except for my now-traded Chevelle (which was inside '94-'21). Though mice, rats, scorpions, & snakes found their way into two of my wife's cars over the years inside the garage, they never got into two trucks, the Chevelle, and my home-built trailer, which resided there for thirty years.

Why? I long ago started using mothballs under hood, and bars of Irish Spring soap inside the cabins, to deter critters. My wife can't stand the smell of either (but recently started to like the soap), so her vehicles never received the protection.

So, in reference to my new '01 X5, since there are two gaping cavities along the firewall, an inviting home for critters, I bet, I'm wanting to seal them, or critter-proof them. I'd rather seal them further if possible, but will continue to use the "protective" products I've used for a long time.

Parking outside i take it? If you park inside it’s best to put traps/poison in the garage.

In our 3 car Mtn home garage, mice have been an occasional problem for the past 20 years.

Mice have invaded all of the cars we have had over those two decades, (getting into the interior), with the exception of our 2001 X5, which is 20 yrs old next month...

I have had some under the hood mice camping as the X is sometimes parked for winter months, but no mice have ever gained entry into the interior, fwiw. Maybe the ol'E53 is very 'tight'?!

Fwiw, I have had no luck with mothballs, swifter sheets, Bounce dryer sheets, peppermint, et al...maybe our mice are 'tougher', or their determination gets them past the usual suspects of home remedy anti-mouse 'deterrents'.

I have bait boxes and a couple of traps in garage, basement and other spots; I occasionally trap a mouse.

No fix to completely stop/deter mice that I know of...as our 15+ yr veteran from Terminx says: anyone that thinks they are 'mice free/mice proof' is in denial, lol!

My 50Cts,
GL, mD

I liberally scattered green pellets on my garage floor
 

I used D-con bait traps at first, with little effect, and switched to using some poison pellets in a bucket from Tractor Supply. Last couple of years I had greater success using a Tomcat product.
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I'm trying a different approach this year...no poison bait, but encouraging some neighborhood feral cats to stick around (2 mama cats, 6 kittens from two litters), which I'm feeding daily while they settle in. We're going to get them spayed/neutered at a "feral cat clinic" nearby. We'll have to trap two that live under a shed out back, but there are six that are getting so socialized towards me and the wife, that they've moved into two former chicken nesting boxes/roosts in our back yard and under the deck. The primary two in our back yard like to be petted now, so they're about ready to scoop up. The dogs and semi-free range chickens in the yard get along with them, too.

I've got mothballs and Irish Spring in all my vehicles, which are all outdoors. The little trailer was built to be air-tight, and is, but still has soap bars and Bounce dryer sheets inside (keeps it fresh between trips). But, I'd still like to seal those large openings under hood in the X5.