Rats Ate My Truck

[The Heretic]

If you have issues with rodents, if not you, then your neighbors are providing them a food source.
Eliminate that food source.
They nest near what provides.
Eating food in your vehicles, having snacks in your vehicles for road trips, you're luring them there.
They'll destroy things at all cost for a bite of an energy bar or a french fry.

Not meaning to imply my comment is the wholly grail of an answer, but rodents are not dumb by any means.

I live in a forest on twenty acres. There are a lot of field mice, despite there being two owls and multiple coyotes roaming around. While they come into the house and find food, the ones outside find food out there too - they live fine off the grass and grass seed.

All of the neighbors have problems with mice and they have dogs and cats - I don't. The mice outside are many and fat; when I mowed an area I saw one about every five feet - they live under the grass mat and were rooted out by my flail mower - but as soon as I stop mowing they are back - this year I will carry a handgun with shot ammo. The juveniles and skinny ones come inside the house and get into all of the cars to escape predators and make nests/etc. - you would be surprised how they can get up onto shelves/etc. you think they could get to.

 

[MrMillspecer]

We live out of town in a wooded area and have problems as well. Rodents have ruined the hood liner on my truck, insulation like material , and part of the insulation on the firewall. I had to remove the hood liner and trash it. I rubbed wheel bearing grease on firewall insulation and that has worked for now. They use it for nesting material. They also build moss nests in your airbox. Its happened a few times. Leaving your hood open helps. Mothballs help some. A good cat and air rifles have helped the most. Chipmunks can be real destructive also.

 

[2A2Dend]

I live in a forest on twenty acres. There are a lot of field mice, despite there being two owls and multiple coyotes roaming around. While they come into the house and find food, the ones outside find food out there too - they live fine off the grass and grass seed.

All of the neighbors have problems with mice and they have dogs and cats - I don't. The mice outside are many and fat; when I mowed an area I saw one about every five feet - they live under the grass mat and were rooted out by my flail mower - but as soon as I stop mowing they are back - this year I will carry a handgun with shot ammo. The juveniles and skinny ones come inside the house and get into all of the cars to escape predators and make nests/etc. - you would be surprised how they can get up onto shelves/etc. you think they could get to.

Like I referenced. They do not survive and populate because they are dumb. You may pick off a few. That boils down to wrong place at the wrong time.
A mouse, rat or squirrel, the same as a bear going through your trash or campsite. In the outlying countrysides, you're in their space.
What's yours is now theirs. You may as well build a fortress and have an electrified/water filled moat as perimeter defense.

This thread, a topic that will get a lot of response.

 

[Mistman]

Horribly destructive little pissers. Had to get rid of a mini van that was infested. I'd put 4 traps in it at night, when I'd get home from work the next day there would be 4 dead mice. After a few days I stopped as it seemed the traps were pulling them in from outside, no way there could have been that many living in it......or could there. Sold it early on a cold day before the smell got too bad. A neighbor had a year old Prius totaled from them eating up the wiring. I built a custom car years ago, kept it in the shop over the winter. A $60k car I ended up not enjoying simply due to the smell, they got into the trunk and made nests on top of the coil-overs. I couldn't get the smell out. I bought my daughter an older Honda a guy has sitting in an orchard for a couple years. I had to drive it home with my head out the window. I completely rebuilt the dash after trying multiple products to try and eliminate the smell. They built nests in the duct work, had to replace it all.

 

[MrMillspecer]

Only once in 20 years outside of town, have I had a mouse in the heater fan. And didn't realize it until someone was on their way to look at the car. I took it for a quick pre-chech drive, it had set for some time, and when I turned on the heater the whole dash shook and it smelled of death. Called the guy's to let him know but he showed up anyways. I did have it removed and cleaned out with a shot of lysol by the time he arrived. But it still stunk. He bought the car anyways. Lol

 

[Ura-Ki]

I used to have to leave my two cars for months at a time while serving or deployed, and even in a garage, the critters would nest in them! I came home one time and thought I had cleared the cars of critters, started them up and pulled them out and let them run for a while!
Next day, I was looking forward to a nice drive in my Challenger and went to start it up and it sounded like the engine blew! We're talking tossing parts and bouncing off the underside of the hood! Opens the hood and it was a great big Ratcoon! Must have crawled up into the engine bay where it was still nice and warm, and when I cranked it up got chewed up in the belts! What a nasty mess that was, blood and guts and parts all over the place!

 

[Flopsweat]

In Germany, it is common to have a so-called "Marderschreck" (marten repellent?) in the underhood. This is an ultrasound device that keeps pests away.

Proven to not work. I wish it did work, but they don't.

I had some from black decker , that i think had reverse affect .one was living long term within 5 ft of it . Some old devices from e the 80s or 90s appered to work . But we also had cats

 

[SUPER X]

Proven to not work. I wish it did work, but they don't.

I had some from black decker , that i think had reverse affect .one was living long t

I used to have to leave my two cars for months at a time while serving or deployed, and even in a garage, the critters would nest in them! I came home one time and thought I had cleared the cars of critters, started them up and pulled them out and let them run for a while!
Next day, I was looking forward to a nice drive in my Challenger and went to start it up and it sounded like the engine blew! We're talking tossing parts and bouncing off the underside of the hood! Opens the hood and it was a great big Ratcoon! Must have crawled up into the engine bay where it was still nice and warm, and when I cranked it up got chewed up in the belts! What a nasty mess that was, blood and guts and parts all over the place!

I had the back seat out and the window was down for about a month in the summer. Ended up a coon was in the trunk that crawled in between the x brace behind the seat .back.

 

[cookie]

It is hard to understand why people don't put out poison and insect baits as a prophylactic

 

[WoodsPlinker]

Packrats suck... Just spent the last few months getting rid of them around my chicken coop. I patched all the entrances and the little s.o.b's chewed a 2" x 4" hole in the plywood overnight.

Been a few weeks now and silent in there. Murdered three adults and lots of children, plus a ton of field mice. All is quiet at night now and the traps haven't been touched in weeks. Food still sitting there untouched.

 

[Tilos]

Rodents completely stripped the wires under my brother's utility trailer. It must feel good in their teeth.

More likely the wire insulation was Soy based, something the tree huggers came up with, and is common on foreign brands.

 

[The Heretic]

It is hard to understand why people don't put out poison and insect baits as a prophylactic

Inside the house, yes - I have no pets (that may change if I retire due to unemployment). I put down poison and glue and spring traps in the house and inside the vehicles.

Outside the house? No. Dogs and cats may get into it, as well as birds, etc. - and scavengers may come along and eat the poisoned mice (even though it is a small amount). Coyotes and owls are mice predators - I don't want to harm them.

Before all the neighbors kept their dogs on a leash, neighbor dogs used to come over and hunt the mice - which I encouraged even though they dug holes - not I not only have a LOT of mice, I have gophers/moles too. A neighbor has an invisible fence setup for his two new labs and they stay within it - they have no gopher/mole problems, but they do get mice inside nonetheless.

 

[The Heretic]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=548136796045182

 

[MrMillspecer]

My cat sleeps all day and hunts all night. Left me a gift on the doorstep this morning .

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Toyota's taste better than the others!

 

[Ura-Ki]

You know Sharks chew on fiber optic lines on the sea bed? Crazy, but it's true!

 

[Oregonhunter5]

You know Sharks chew on fiber optic lines on the sea bed? Crazy, but it's true!

Serious?

 

[Ura-Ki]

Serious?

Yup, serious!
They have a fleet of ships that have to go out and find the "short" bring the line up and fix it as it's super expensive, but quite nessessory!

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Yup, serious!
They have a fleet of ships that have to go out and find the "short" bring the line up and fix it as it's super expensive, but quite nessessory!

I'd like to own that business
Question. Aren't we beyond that dated technology now?

 

[The Heretic]

I'd like to own that business
Question. Aren't we beyond that dated technology now?

How are fiber optics "dated technology"??