Rats, in my new car

[Rick Potter]

Just got a 2002 Corvette from my brother. It sat for two days without being run, and the battery was dead. I popped the hood to charge it, and a healthy looking rat was sitting on top of the motor. After a couple seconds of looking at each other, he took off.

I had always heard that GM and Toyota were wired deliciously, and prime candidates for rat fine dining, but two days?? I found a bit of chewing on a wiring loom under the battery box, and have to check it out and see if I have a draw of juice there, which might explain why the good battery went dead.

We do have rats around here, and I am pretty sure it didn't come with the car.

Anyway....Does anyone with experience in using an ultrasonic rat deterrent have a recommendation on which one I should buy? I am thinking of getting one that stays in the engine compartment and runs all the time, since the car will be usually be stored using a battery tender. All the models on Amazon claim they are best.

Thanks

[George Bokros]

If it runs off the car battery it will likely suck the battery down. I left my radar detector on for four days and my battery was dead. If you have it under the hood running on a/c you will have to remember disconnect and reconnect each time you drive the car.

[Frederick Skelly]

Man, I'm sorry to hear this Rick. I hope you get it sorted out and that there is no damage.
Fred

[Pat Barry]

Gives new meaning to the term rat motor!

[Jim Koepke]

Gives new meaning to the term rat motor!

Or "Rat Rod"

jtk

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

I have same problem in the past, only with mice. If I would see rat sitting on the motor and looking on my, I am not sure who will be out earlier.:))
When I investigated which u/s device to buy, I stop on most simplest and cheapest one, working on battery. This one - https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P7825-Animal-Repeller/dp/B00EEH920Y/ref=sr_1_20?crid=3SBUHI92RLWCX&keywords=car+rodent+repeller&qid=1567906262&s=lawn-garden&sprefix=car+rodent%2Clawngarden%2C142&sr=1-20.
Maybe this is coincidence, but for a seven-eight month after I put it under the hoods of two my cars - I don't have any problem.
And telling the truth, I am more willing to bet that it is just coincidence. Most professional in rodent extermination said that these devices never work. Who knows?

Ed.

[jared herbert]

I tried an ultrasonic deterrent for a mouse problem. I think all it did was attract more mice. It sure didn’t keep them away

[Greg R Bradley]

Just give it back or junk it. Free isn't cheap enough. They were marginal and mostly unfulfilled promise when new and went downhill faster than just about any car in history. If it has 20,000 miles on it, that car has been junk for more than a decade. If you want a decent car with that series of drivetrain, find a Chevrolet SS. Won't rattle and shake and make horrible noises as you drive. Won't have horrible resonance in the exhaust that make you wonder about the incompetence of the designers. Automobiles version of Harley Davidson Junk. Corvettes were designed to sell to people that don't drive them and just look at them. Once you drive them, they go downhill fast.

[Alan Rutherford]

I hear mothballs work to discourage critters.

[Rick Potter]

Don't hold back Gregg. I have to keep it because it makes me look 75 again.

Today I installed a big rat sticky trap right on top of the battery of the car, which is now in the garage, then I put sticky traps in the garage also.

I am leery of using poison that the dogs could get into, but I have let them into that part of the back yard. No rat yet, but they got a possum last night.

We have a few poison stations, like you see near grocery stores, but my bug guy had an accident, and has not been here in a few months. He is going to restock them soon also. He is also unimpressed with ultrasonic devices.

We have not had mouse problems since living here, just rats in the back yard, near the fruit trees. I hope that does not change for the worse. We have a 14' high freeway block wall for a couple hundred feet along the back yard, and the State was thoughtful enough to plant some kind of Ivy on their side, so the critters have an easy access to climb it. We see racoons, possums, squirrels commuting across it regularly, and the dogs go nuts.

I will report the body count, if applicable.

PS: maybe I should be looking for an outside cat that can survive my two dogs?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Glue traps do work, but beware that he may flop around and get glue trap goo all over your engine. We had one enter our home and so I put glue traps on the floor where I knew he was coming in through a window. I forgot the traps were there and stepped in them. It was a mess to get off!!!

[Edward Dyas]

To me it sounds like there is a nest in the car somewhere. I've had rats and mice get into junk cars but never one that is driven from time to time. I believe I would put rat poison someplace a neighbors cat can't get to.

[Gary Ragatz]

To me it sounds like there is a nest in the car somewhere. I've had rats and mice get into junk cars but never one that is driven from time to time. I believe I would put rat poison someplace a neighbors cat can't get to.

About two years ago, I had a mouse set up housekeeping in the engine of my Buick. Drove it 1500 miles, from Michigan to south Florida, where the engine started missing. Took it in to a dealership, and the mechanic found a nest filled with a bunch of fluffy stuff and a lot of bird seed (from a broken bag in our garage in Michigan). Apparently, the mouse got tired of bird seed and started gnawing on the insulation on some wires.

I read on-line that GM has used a soy-based product as insulation on wires, to cut down on use of plastics, and that the soy-based insulation is edible. Didn't spend enough time looking to determine if that is fact or just internet BS.

Don't know if the mouse came along for the ride to Florida, or stayed in Michigan. It was actually kind of humorous - if not for the $1000 repair bill. :mad:

[Brice Rogers]

I had an '84 Vette and kept a trickle charger on it. I would only drive it one or two times a year. It turned out that the batteries didn't last very long. I had read that when a battery just sits that the acid stratifies (heavy stuff goes down) and that by driving the car periodically that the movement and vibration is good for keeping the battery healthy. I typically on got 2 years out of a battery.

BTW, there are electronic rat killers - - throw in some kibbles and bits and when the rat/mouse goes in it electrocutes it. They work well but are meant for indoors.

[Rick Potter]

I told my brother about putting the glue trap on top of the battery, he told me that his girl friend set some in the garage of her condo. Some time later she heard a noise from the garage, which got worse, with scratching at the door and banging noises.

She thought it was a burglar, trying to get in and called my brother(70 miles away). He told her to call the police, and he would be right over. He got there at the same time as the police (?), who sent two cars. They also could hear noises in the garage, and with guns drawn, they told her to hit the opener. As soon as the door opened, they all ran.

It was a really mad skunk, wearing one plastic sticky snowshoe. Turns out one of the police had been sprayed just two weeks earlier.

Moral of the story...When in Palm Springs, do not annoy skunks wearing snowshoes.


PS: I find no evidence of any long term rat or mouse residency, the droppings on top of the battery were fresh, and there were no others I could find anywhere. I am pretty sure he was a local boy.

[Bernie Kopfer]

Get a electronic rat or mouse trap. The rat size is effective on mice too. Baited properly and I usually have the rat in a day or less. Drop him in the garbage can out of the trap and it is ready to go again. No fuss and no need to handle a dead animal.

[Doug Dawson]

Glue traps do work, but beware that he may flop around and get glue trap goo all over your engine. We had one enter our home and so I put glue traps on the floor where I knew he was coming in through a window. I forgot the traps were there and stepped in them. It was a mess to get off!!!

Of all the "non-biological" controls, glue traps seem to work the best. Accidental contact can be resolved with vegetable oil (the only use for that stuff, IMO.)

On the subject, get a hungry cat, and chain him to the radiator.

[Rick Potter]

Bernie, which model do you recommend? My brother has one also and after a couple months of no action, he got a rat last week.

Good tip on the veggie oil Doug. I was wondering what to do if my dog stepped on, or worse, sniffed one of the glue traps.

Got hold of my bug guy today, and he is bringing fresh bait blocks for my rat feeders.

[Doug Dawson]

Good tip on the veggie oil Doug. I was wondering what to do if my dog stepped on, or worse, sniffed one of the glue traps.


When a rat or mouse is dispatched with a glue trap, what is the ultimate cause of death? It is the ennui.

We once had a king rat that would survey our kitchen at his leisure. He laughed at our amusements left out for his mortal benefit, declaring them unfit carriage for his departure to the beyond. What finally caught him was a ring of glue traps around the base of the dishwasher. We heard the cries as he dragged and rolled himself across the floor, clothed with glue traps. We did the only thing we could. We dropped a cinder block on him, and went out to a movie. When we came back, glue traps were strewn across the floor, but the rat was not there. This rat had no ennui, apparently, but on the bright side, he never showed up again.

The bottom line: keep your vegetable oil in a secure location, and don't tell anyone about it.

[Kev Williams]

There's always these things--
415898

As to poison- most of our recreation toys reside at our favorite boat harbor, and every kind of varmint known to man does too. Nothing more fun than hearing wife yell 'OMG there's a mouse under the pillow!' in the motorhome or houseboat. So for the past 13 years I've routinely laid out mouse blocks, in the lower compartments of the boats and motorhome, and on the ground around where they're parked on the hard. A few things I've noticed:
-- they must taste like candy to mice because they're never around long, and more than once they've eaten thru sealed bags to get at them-

--blocks on the ground or under the boat dock DO keep the mice out of the rigs, for the most part--

-- when I find dead mice inside (my house too btw), they're always right in the middle of the floor, not hiding along or inside walls, but right in the wide open, as if they were hoping someone would help them.

-- at the harbor there's scads of feral cats running around, Never have I seen one that got sick or died. For that matter, I've never seen ANY sick or dead animals, including mice, around the harbor, and I go thru a lot of mouse blocks. At home I just make sure to put them where pets can't get to them. Never lost a neighbor's cat either, to my knowledge.

[Doug Dawson]

There's always these things--
415898

As to poison- most of our recreation toys reside at our favorite boat harbor, and every kind of varmint known to man does too. Nothing more fun than hearing wife yell 'OMG there's a mouse under the pillow!' in the motorhome or houseboat. So for the past 13 years I've routinely laid out mouse blocks, in the lower compartments of the boats and motorhome, and on the ground around where they're parked on the hard. A few things I've noticed:
-- they must taste like candy to mice because they're never around long, and more than once they've eaten thru sealed bags to get at them-

--blocks on the ground or under the boat dock DO keep the mice out of the rigs, for the most part--

-- when I find dead mice inside (my house too btw), they're always right in the middle of the floor, not hiding along or inside walls, but right in the wide open, as if they were hoping someone would help them.

-- at the harbor there's scads of feral cats running around, Never have I seen one that got sick or died. For that matter, I've never seen ANY sick or dead animals, including mice, around the harbor, and I go thru a lot of mouse blocks. At home I just make sure to put them where pets can't get to them. Never lost a neighbor's cat either, to my knowledge.

Mouse traps baited with peanut butter can be very effective if placed in a mouse traffic area, at least the plastic ones (the wooden ones are nearly worthless.) An equivalent rat trap can result in a scary near-amputation of a digit when it goes off (in the middle of the night on a fridge raid, say, or reaching around for where you dropped your keys.) These things are serious mojo, more frightening than a spinning naked saw blade.

I've observed poisoned rats that died inside a wall, on more than one occasion, and the smell is horrendous for several weeks afterwards. Mice, OTOH, probably not so bad because they're so much smaller, less to rot. At least I haven't noticed.