Rodents in Engine Bay

[PuYang]

Hi guys, sorry if this has been posted before, or if this belongs in a different section. but hopefully you guys can share some methods and ideas.

So, me and my brother park our cars outside in our driveway. I only drive my cars on Weekends, so my car is basically sitting there 5-6 days a week. (perfect shelter for rodents lol) Recently, we found random nut shells and poop pellets in my brother's car's engine bay.

Yesterday, i decided to pop my hood to look. i found TONS of onion chunks (size of the average apple slices people eat), and nutshells, and of course, poop pellets.

We are assuming they are rats or other rodents that come at night seeking shelter from the cold or rain. I read online that this is a common problem in certain areas, and can cause buttloads of $$$ problems, such as wires being ripped and worse.

I did some slight research online about preventing rats etc, but i havent read anything guaranteed to work. my brother tried one of the suggested methods: dryer sheets (apparently rodents are said to hate that smell?), needless to say, that didnt work out. he still found more nutshells and poop.

Im thinking about laying a bunch (and i mean ALOT) of mousetraps under and around my car during the weekdays. people have suggested poison... but i dont want the rat to eat poison, then run into my engine to sleep and die in there lol. im also not too keen on killing them, as much as i hate them for what they are doing.

so if anyone has any suggestions on preventing rodents, please share! i have read too many methods online, but none of them have substantial proof of working.

sorry for the long post, and thanks for your time!

[AndM]

if your cheap, try calling a professional company that can give you tips on removing them. If that doesn' work, then hire someone. It can be a pain in the ass if you don't know what your doing.

[hk20000]

get a cat.

[Matsuda]

get mousetraps, or have a bucket of water with a ramp covered in peanut butter that goes to the top of the bucket. Few years ago my parents house had that problem. At first there was burning socks in my engine bay when I drove the car to work. After that was chewed up dash, and my whole center console wiring being chewed up and a $1200 dollar repair bill. We killed the rat with mousetraps laid around the garage.

[n0ob]

Isn't it a bad idea to set mouse traps or, even worse, set poison out on your driveway or in your front yard or w/e? What if someone's cat comes by and decides to eat some cheese from this trap, or, again even worse, eats the poison? :-S

[PuYang]

^thanks everyone for your replies.

@n0ob, thats another reason why i dont want to use poison. we have neighbors with cats and other pets. im not really hoping to kill them, unless i absolutely have to.

as for the mousetraps, i wanted to put them right under my car. never seen cats go under my car... so hopefully they wont lol... was still hoping for other methods that can just repel the rats.

@matsuda:
that might work, however, my car is in the driveway, which means outdoors. im not sure how rats work, but do they come in groups? or is it usually just 1 or 2? if they were rid of, wouldnt more come? your situation sounds more confined, and were solved after removing 1 rat. im not sure if thats the case here...

[orange7]

park your car somewhere else?

[jasonturbo]

Put up a sign that says "No rats"?

[G-spec]

no dryer sheets don't work, I filled my car inside and engine bay with them and I still found rat poop literally on the dryer sheets on my seat.

My car smelled bouncy fresh but fckin rat bastards still ransacked the car...

I had found a massive nest with wall insulation inside the air filter behind the glove compartment, took a whole day to clean out and disinfect.

I suggest you go a step further with some other options, but don't do food rat traps, thats only gonna attract more mice.

I would have suggested mouse trap sticky double sided tape all around the car to trap the mice soon as they try to cross the line towards your car, but that only works if you're storing the car in a garage for a long period, you drive it on the weekend so yea

[JDMCivic]

I built a stainless steel wall about 10inches high with sticky bobcat traps around all the tires on my summer car parked in the carport...no more rodents unless they r spider rats
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[68style]

Something I didn't realize until it happened to me with my '68 mustang on storage insurance: ICBC covers rodent issues... also my Dad's 2003 Toyota Highlander, they chewed something on his engine and they covered all the repairs on a claim... something to think about in case anything is wrong with your car.

[PuYang]

thanks for the replies.

do you guys think it would be too extreme if i laid a "barrier" of mouse traps around my car? (from wheel to wheel). hopefully no innocent neighbor pets will go there. that would probably require ALOT of traps lol, but i cant sleep at night knowing rats are making sweet love in my engine bay. also didnt make it any better finding large onion chunks. i shoulda took a picture to show you guys. but i was too pissed and cleaned it all out when i found it. ;p

unfortunately, i dont have anywhere else to park. i live at home with my family. 4 cars, 2 garages.

side question; where can i buy mousetraps anyway? this has never been an issue i thought id run into. never realized i have not seen any for sale before.

thanks again everyone.

EDIT: @g-spec

i dont mind spending the effort to lay out the traps and removing them. since i only do drive it on saturdays, i can simply lay them out when i get home. and remove them next saturday when i drive again. kinda annoying, but rather that than cleaning out poop every week. and this is assuming they havent already damaged anything inside. im hoping when it gets warmer out, they will be gone. last summer when i got the car, me and my bro's car were clean for months. im assuming this only happens during the winter, so the rats seek shelter.

[n0ob]

Originally Posted by PuYang

do you guys think it would be too extreme if i laid a "barrier" of mouse traps around my car? (from wheel to wheel). hopefully no innocent neighbor pets will go there.

[syee]

Do you know if it's a rat or a mouse that's doing the damage? You'll need different traps if it's a rat vs a mouse.

If you're worried about the neighbors pets getting into the traps, I'd suggest a bait station or a live cage trap.

[Phatmobile]

buy something called Camphor / Naphthalene Moth Ball; many people would put camphor or naphthalene balls in the cabinet to keep the insects out of the clothes.

stick them in your engine bay and the smell will keep them away.

[G-spec]

^ yea and the moth ball smell will keep the bitches away as well, stankonia up in there, lol


besides moth ball is hit and miss you'll find google searches where guys swear by moth balls, but you'll find just as many people who say it doesn't work whatsoever..

a lot of hits and misses when it comes to this issue unfortunately, not really one solid solution which is frustrating for guys with the problem

[PuYang]

@syee; i dont know if its rats or mouse ;[ i never even seen one in person. i just see their poop and nutshells lol.

@phatmobile; i read about mothballs repelling rats. have you or anyone you know tried and succeeded with that method?

EDIT: ah... g-spec answered my question lol. thanks.

[sleepywheel]

My neighbours and I all have the same problem. I've started my engine and saw a rat run out from underneath. Lots of rat crap under the hood and smells a little ripe once the engine warms up.

First thing to do is clean up around your driveway so that there's no place for them to hide. Then I bought a live rodent trap and left that alongside the wall, which is where they'll run and have caught about 6 or 7 so far. Glue traps only catch mice and they have to be checked everyday since they can get off the glue given enough time.

It will be tough to stop them completely though.

I'd heard about moth balls and I think I'll give them a try.

Putting a whole bunch of mouse traps under the cars brings up the scene in the movie Mouse Hunt where they laid traps all over the floor.

[PuYang]

@sleepywheel; my driveway has a row of bushes on both sides.... and being azn family, my dad would rather my car explode than for me to trim away his bushes >;C

they are coming from the bushes CLOSER to my car, because thats where i found the other onions. maybe i'll just lay some traps in that area...

mouse hunt was a terrible movie lol

[Phatmobile]

other thing you can try is Ammonia + Cotton ball / pad. thing is you need to change them often to make sure the smell is there.

[fliptuner]

From my understanding, they are attracted to the smell left behind by other rats (who were probably attracted to the warmth of the engine in the first place).

I would suggest shampooing the engine bay thoroughly and sprinkling it with 3/4" chunks of Irish Spring when you park it.

You can also try a product called "rataway"

[Fafine]

if you have time to lay traps all around your car and then remove it on the weekend then lay the traps again before the weekend ends.... why not just build a plywood wall or something to block out the rats... pretty sure they can't chew threw plywood..

[fliptuner]

Rats can chew through concrete.....

[Fafine]

Originally Posted by fliptuner

Rats can chew through concrete.....

damn..

[Dinan3]

I found a rat nest in the airbox of my s2k before. I was pissed. It's fine now since I moved to a condo with a clean underground parking.