I’m not sure if this is allowed but it is sort off archery related. Last Saturday when I went out for my weekend FS my dog Duchess was bouncing around the front of my Colorado, wheel well to wheel well and under the bumper. I thought, oh she saw something. So I checked, saw nothing and put her in the house before I shot because she likes to try to catch arrows! As I took my bow off the rack a rather large rat ran in front of me and I thought,:good girl Duchess! So I took my shot, came in for awhile and then took the truck to run some errands. No problem.

Got up Sunday for church, started the truck, and the engine light was on. Then it flashed across the bottom of the speedo gauge that I had reduced power, service Stabil Drive. Popped the hood and out bounced a couple of heathy rats that had nested on the fender well. I called the service dept of my local Chevy dealer and set up an appointment for yesterday. The little buggers chewed 2 harnesses and a couple of hoses. $1500.00 to repair it, and the parts are 2 days out.

So, I’ll be making a couple of bow strings, start work on a dozen arrows and polish up a bow while I wait for the truck to be repaired.

My friendly warning is that as the weather gets colder, Pay attention to your outdoor vehicles. Keep shooting and pay attention to your dog when it jumps around your vehicle.

Lance

Here’s a pic of my Good Girl! Lance

wow Lance. sorry for this. aaarrgghh. I used to have a truck that had odd come-and-go electrics issues....nothing solid or even bad. Started seeing a squirrell leave the engine area when I slammed the door. think he was storing & eating hickory nuts in there. and chewing wiring. used a test light & found & taped up a bunch of shorts. mine was a cheap fix on an old truck......will insurance cover any of your repairs?

Borrow a couple of Frisky's cats. You won't have a rat problem...they're used to having to fend for themselves if they want meat!

Time to set up a "bait station" and sit for awhile with blunts. Or, get out the traps and the pellet gun, no rules for "varmints" when they come over the line!

I work in a tractor dealership. We (our customers) have lots of problems with all kinds of rodent-type critters ruining wire harnesses, hoses, packing mufflers full of nuts and nesting and getting into cabs and building nests, peeing, chewing the living S*** out of the interrior. The usual repellants only work to a small degree. My Dad's neighbor had a woodchuck get up under his truck and wrecked a lot of damage. I have been fortunate. So far.

Tough one Lance. My buddy had $2000.00 done to his wires by mice at his hunting cabin.

squirels did that $1500 deal twice to my car

I had field (white-footed) mice get into my Silverado and started nesting inside my fuse box. Luckily, we found it before they got too comfortable. I dosed it with cayenne pepper and they left for higher ground and bigger berries. I live right against the woods so I have to keep an eye out for trouble.

Had a squirrel chew thru my fuel pump and lines cost me close to 800

Had a squirrel chew thru my fuel pump and lines cost me close to 800

Dang Varmints. My place Up Nord der is under constant attack from large Industrial size mice and Red squirrels. When they are trying to chew their way in you would swear it was a raccoon. So far, so good re wires.

I say, "show Em your knife collection"..

Thatttt's a bummer. We have had that happen on tractors and so on but never on a car truck....so far.

We have more problems with two varieties of mice, but once in a while get a pack rat out at the cabin. My wife brought one home in the engine or undercarriage of her FJ Cruiser-- a drive of about seven miles, before it jumped out at home and was last seen heading for the river with the Irish water spaniel on its heels.

For some reason they like to store stuff on the carburetors and air cleaners of old trucks, tractors, and ATVs including about five pounds of dry dog food in the air cleaner on one of the four-wheelers. The serviceman just laughed when he found it. Me? Not so much.

So sorry!

My German shorthaired pointer killed a rat in the house last year. I got to trapping them and killed 16 more. I had no idea there would be that many. Kill em now before they multiply!

Ground hogs do it too. JF

We have that same problem out here with squirrels. Anyone with a vehicle sitting outside in their driveway, has to be concerned about that. Glad your Duchess picked up on what was going on.

I lift the hood on all my tractors, shrouds on mowers etc.etc. I should mention, all my equipment is under cover. I also spend around $200 per winter on rat poison. I put it anywhere I think a rodent would seek shelter/warmth, top of engine, pully shrouds, under seats, any nook or cranny I think would house one.

We have that problem here all the time. Haven't found anything, that will keep them out.

Only thing to do that works (so far) here is to lift the hood on everything two or three times a week. It's a pain in the butt, but much better than the expense of chewed up wiring harnesses.

Rick

Years ago mice chewed the wires in my bass boat...and it had a shrink wrap winter cover over it!!

What I did later learn from an electrician friend, was that apparenty the wire coating that they use has CORN OIL as part of it's composition!

And give Duchess a hug!

I have to park ny lawn tractor in my man cave. Field mice eat my wiring harness.

I've had mice get into most everything I own at one or another. It was always humor to the wife. Well she came home the other night unloaded a few in the garage and left the car sit outside. Next day she went to leave came running back in and told me an animal was in her car. Ended up being mice they chewed through the cabin air filter and Devoured a box of Kleenex. Still makes me snicker.

To keep mice under control, make a down pail. Youtube has several videos on that subject It takes less than an hour.

Should be drown pail

When I move in here, I wanted to keep my cats in the yard, but they kept going over to the neighbor's garage. I told him they seemed to be attacked to his garage, and he said he was giving them treats to keep them coming over, lol, as mice and squirrels were damaging his truck and it all stopped when my cats cleaned them out, lol! No rodents at all here, except for the squirrels, and they stay safe in the trees with my guys in the yard.

Joe

I meant they seemed to be attracted to his garage. Spell check got me.

Thanks for the heads up Lance. I had a squirrel chew through my rubber hose propane line to my grill Twice. Changed it to copper. So far so good.

Same thing happened to my sons brand new Tacoma. The dealership explained that this happens way more now that they have moved away from petroleum based rubber. The outer coverings of the wire harness are now using vegetable based. Meaning it is now made of food for rodents. They stated there are several lawsuits around this as some customers cannot keep the rodents off of them.

Yep, happened to my Jaguar

Old dog is onto something. I always have a couple outside kitty cats in my yard and feed them once a day. No mice problems. Anything else for that matter. I haven’t seen one of those little green lizards in ten years.

A car guy told me one of the pack rat problems is that wires used to be coated with oil-based coating, now they are soy-based coating, better to eat.

In my pole shedI run 4 bucket drown traps using peanut butter smothered all over the soup can. They are armed year round - in Winter I use antifreeze and summer just plain water. I also have at least 20 of the plastic traps in there, and I put poison blocks on nails all over the perimeter of the building. Constant vigilance is required because my extended family and I all store things there. Two RVs, three boats, a jet ski, and two old Toyota land cruisers among other things Mice are like dictators, they require over-whelming force and pressure. I feel a little bad about the poison blocks on nails cuz I always worry a hawk or something might eat a delirious, poisoned stumbling mouse. I am told that the stuff is not supposed to kill birds…

But zero mice chewing problems since I declared war.

Prior to this they got into my trucks, chewed up everything including wires in both the boats and vehicles… and crapped all over everything. I am sure I have killed well into the middle hundreds worth of mice over the last three years. I hate them little suckers.

"A car guy told me one of the pack rat problems is that wires used to be coated with oil-based coating, now they are soy-based coating, better to eat."

Yes! SOY based, NOT corn oil. My bad! Correction noted!

But what's next? Coat them with peanut butter?? WTH!

I have had them seize a 150 hp out board motor ,build nests on the power heads, chew the harness of a ride mower, and get in my basement, and eat my sinew and, build nests in the heater box of 1 car that was parked in my garage.

Peanut butter is good bait on a mouse trap;)

In Phoenix if you have citrus in your neighborhood, you got rats. 5 years ago I started getting a young pair of these guys every year. They or mom and dad whipped out my cottontails I had for decades. But don’t see rats in my lawn anymore. They show up in spring and should leave anytime now. I do miss my cottontails though.

RonL

My friend had the same problem with pack rats at hunting camp. Found out that if you raise the hood it kept them away as the wanted a dark place to nest and feed. Works good for him. No more eating the harnesses.

have had mice in old jeeps. probably there when i bought them. no problems until they run up your pants leg while you're driving down the road...

My truck stays parked outside under a shed. Tractor under a shed with a towel in the seat , cat will sleep there sometimes. I’ve not had any problems with mice. Guess the old cat is earning his keep after all.

You ought to see what they do to a combine over the winter, especially one of the newer electronic control ones.

Update: Service has had the truck now for 8 working days. They had to order one of the harnesses and it just arrived so hopefully it will be repaired by the end of the day! Thanks for all the comments and stories. I’ll be purchasing some sort of repellant in a spray form to try out. Lance

Not only mice and rats but woodpeckers too. I have a red bellied woodpecker that takes the shelled peanuts and squirrels them away on top of my two shed doors so when I open them I get a shower of shelled peanuts. It's HELL I tell you!

I wonder if there is some kind of pepper spray that will deter the rodents? I saw a FLIP N SLIDE mouse trap on YT. Guy put it in a friends chicken house deal caught like 50 ( or more mice in 1 night) Otherwise? People gonna have to get some cats for help?

Sorry about your truck Lance. Thanks for the heads up.

Get you some rat snakes and/or owls. I have some black rat snakes on my place, one leaving skins almost 7" long. Haven't seen a rat or mouse in years.

When I am in NYC if I leave my truck near a park, or a trash heap, etc., rats will get under the hood. I usually have to move it daily for work, but otherwise I check it. A few times I have found leftover fried chicken, rats seem to love that. I leave for work early and move the car often, so far no wiring problems. But knocking on wood here.

Buckeye, you don’t have to tell everything.

Wow that's a rough deal. $1500 is a huge loss. Thanks for putting this thread up.

I find mice nesting in the engine and cabin air filter box of both of our Toyotas several times. Also in my fishing waders, garage refrigerator motor, anyplace warm. They get in by chewing through the gasket on the bottom of the 18' garage door.

A lot of vehicles use wire that has a soy based insulation. Mice and rats love it as well as packrats.

Leave your hood popped open a bit and that will discourage them from nesting there a bit.

I was restoring a 1957 MGA in my heated, “I thought secure” shop and I found were my just installed new correctly made $300 wire harness had been chewed on. Many traps baited with peanut butter later I had my mouse problem corrected. I figured out the mice had been attracted by bird food my wife had stored in the shop. Cotton

We buy bird seed by the #40 bag, and store it in a galvanized metal trash can with lid down tight. Spillage gets swept up. I've found seed in the vehicle filter boxes, so mice are bringing it in from below the feeders. Also, some nesting material content in the filter box has lead me to investigate the source. Sure as heck, mice there as well.

Another reason to kill every rat/tree rat I can get a round into...

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