How can you prevent rats from chewing wires in the engine compartment when a car is parked outside?

 

Set 4-5 traps around the car--Pain in the A$$ but you will kill the M-Flockers

 

Put moth ***** or moth flakes in a few old socks and put them in various locations in the engine compartment and under the front of the car. The socks make it easy to clean up in the spring ... just remove them.

 

I have heard that moth ***** work also,but personally I would trap and kill the nasty things!

 

Give them something else to eat: POISON. If you are concerned about neighbor pets you can mount poison in an industrial grade black plastic box. You can purchase these in any Agway or similar store and get additional advise there for usage That should do it!

 

If you have rats chewing on wires, you need to kill them and fast. We have conures and keep them outside in our screen room during the day and bring them in at night. Rats found the few remaining sunflower shells between pavers after sweeping and here's what I learned. First went to buy traps, there are two trap sizes small and huge. I got heart and went for the small and sales guy laughs and says that's for mice, if you got rats get the big ones. Got home, called manufacturer (Victor). They said same, go big, get 'em all and do it fast. First night put one out and caught one. Thought, ok, job well done. Then thought, maybe there's more than one. Next night got one. Went back to store and bought 6 more traps. When it was over in a week, got a dozen total and get the big traps!. Rats nest within 200' of where they feed and they invite their friends over for dinner. They can reproduce under 2 months of age and gestation is 2 weeks with 5-10 more in each liter. One female produces 40 babies a year. Rat droppings are generally 1/4"-1/2" length, black and tapered ends. If they are rats, there should be droppings nearby. Otherwise, could be squirrels, rabbits or something else. If rats, call the trap manufacturer, they can give you some helpful tips. Oh, and ours got into the patio area by chewing through fiberglass screening. If you research, rats will chew through concrete or metal to get to food.

Keep trying different bait and don't believe it if anyone says only peanut butter or something else. Ours knew the peanut butter trick and they left the pb traps alone. (they didn't care for Ballpark franks either) Experiment until you find what they like and best way to bait. Don't just lay the bait on top of trap, make them work to pull it off and spring the trap. Mine were roof rats, yours may be a different species. Some say cayenne pepper or Rataway works to keep them out of the engine compartment but once they found a food source, they aren't going away and if they are big, who knows, they might even enjoy a little peppery seasoning on their plastic.

 

What about just leaving the hood open and up at night. I think they feed between 2 am- 5 am.

 

Rats feed just after sunset and again just before sunrise. Not sure I understand why you'd want to leave hood up at night?

 

Stick a cat under the hood when you park it. Just dont forget about it when you go to start the car....

 

Florida99 hit it right!! Once rats find an area or food source they like, you need a combination of traps, poison, barriers, and elimination of their harborage areas. I've been in the pest control business in Orange County Ca. for 45 years. This is a big problem in all urban areas. You won't solve this overnight. I never park my vette outside at night for the same reason. Rats will feed day or night, it depends on the environment they are living in. Good Luck, Rod

 

I had a 1995 lincoln continental that had not been driven for over a year I found a rats nest in some time ago. Remarkably none of the wires or hoses were chewed on at all. I cleared out the rats nest and left the hood up on that car and the rats did not chew on anything or return to rebuild their nest.

 

Rodsvet may be able to add an expert opinion but there are different species of rats and they eat differently. i.e. a rat near farming in mid-west will eat seeds and grains. Near city, rats will eat what is available. The Lincoln rats may not have been attracted to the wiring because another food source was available to them and their diet was for something else. If you do a little research, you can find the species that is common and a nuisance to your area. Where I am, I found roof rats and Norwegian rats were the problem.

And something else Rodsvet said...I learned rats are everywhere and are a real & growing problem. We live in a decent area in S. Fl, but rats don't go by zip codes. Just because the city or area is maintained and the neighbors are clean doesn't mean rats aren't in the neighborhood. They are there, you just have to know how to see them.

One other problem I found was after killing them and letting my neighbors know what happened, some of my neighbors knew they were around, had seen them and two even knew where they were living but did nothing. Rodsvet will love this, one neighbor (2 houses down) always left the garage door open, sometimes overnight. When I described the droppings, she said, come and look at this. Go in her garage and floor was covered with thousands of droppings. 2 houses away! Another neighbor across the street said, oh yea, they live in the palm in back of my house. Why didn't they do anything? Don't know. I want to add that the first, the hubby is a retired FBI agent and in the second, the guy works in property management for a well know Fl developer. This isn't the inner city. You may find similar.

 

I'd have to agree with JGVette. Go to a feed and tack store and ask for rat bait stations. Use Contract All Weather Blocks. They work wonders. We had a roof rat issue but once they started eating that bait they were dropping like flies. Don't let your dogs get a hold of them when they die though, the poison is in their system...............

 

Move to a neighborhood without rats!

 

I have bars of Irish Spring soap in both of my vettes. I haven't had any problems since I did this about 6 years ago. I guess it's the manly deoderant.LOL

 

watch out there's a new species the irish rat immune to irish spring soap. never bathes so the soap doesnt affect them, drinks all the liquor in your house and then eats your corned beef

 

 

Anything but killing the rats is just delaying the problem until it gets worse. There are more of them each day and the problem will get out of hand if it isn't stopped now and fast. The rats are there as they are in every neighborhood. They need to be killed, period.

 

Sounds like a quote from "Mein Kampf". If you sub in a different word for rats.

 

Crushed rat poison mixed with peanut butter, they love peanut butter.