i was serious about trapping them. feral cats will multiply if you just leave them be.
trap them humanely and take them to a shelter would be best.
wouldn;t it be more disturbing to just leave them there?
Taking them to shelter is only as good as humanely killing them yourself (keyword here is humanely. If you can't do it quickly and cleanly, please take them to a shelter). Unless you find healthy kittens, there's about a 90% chance they'll be euthanized at a shelter. The best course of action for strays is to capture, spay/neuter, and release, but I wouldn't expect most people are willing to do this (though I've done it a couple of times, myself). Regardless, this wouldn't fix OP's problem. Car cover is probably the easiest way to go, though bitter apple may work.
As for using hot sauce to keep animals away, not all animals respond to capsaicin (the ingredient that makes peppers spicy), so this may or may not work. I know most birds are resistant to capsaicin, but not sure about cats / squirrels / etc.