Rodent Troubles!
 

Guys,
I had what I think was a squirrel build a nest in my truck's engine compartment and chew through about 32 wires of my engine harness.

I put rat traps with peanut-butter on top of my engine to keep the varmints away. And even trapped a squirrel in a metal cage and then taught him how to swim.

I then bought this Goodnature A24 rodent killer and set it up underneath.

Then over the weekend I found more evidence of them trying to make a home in the back of the engine by ripping up some of the insulation on the firewall and making a nest on my motor.

Any advice or suggestions on how to keep these critters out of my truck would be appreciated! Truck sits a lot in driveway and I've been told to keep moving it around.

I also heard that cayene pepper or tobasco sauce will keep them away?

I even caught a raccoon one night in this same cage I caught the squirrel in.

I am contacting.... http://m.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/

Dan

We have had similar issues over the past 10 years I have lived out here on the farm. I am told that the wiring harness insulation is made in part from soy beans and that is what attracts them. Oddly enough we are surrounded by soy beans yet they chose to nest in the trucks. The only thing that I have found that works is a .22 and a scope. Lets just say I could feed a small nation. The nice part is I have noticed with less squirrels we also have far less Coyotes chasing us down as well. I have not had to defend myself in at least 3 years. Prior to that you could not even take the dogs out (200 lbs each mind you) without packing. A win/win.

I would be livid.

You are much nicer to them than I think I could be. I'd have an order arriving from Acme right about now.

Peanut butter on a glue trap kills 'em dead!

How does the glue trap kill them?

Rodent Troubles
 

That seems to be a common problem with the Duramax Diesel pickups. The last time we needed a harness for a 2008 we were replacing the Turbo on, we had to ship it in from Idaho (it was on National back order).

Kind of like the first Chevrolet Volts when they came out. The main high power leads were made using peanut oil as a release agent when manufacturing them. The first car did not last 1 day on Hoskins Chevrolet lot before the Squirrels came a calling from the Busse Woods Forest preserve across the street. GM told the dealer it was an environmental problem and they would not cover the repair under warranty. Over $3000.00 internal cost to repair it.

Bill

We use mothballs around our seed corn bags but looks like your getting alot of damage over night. I had to watch videos of the battery powered a24. Thats awesome

yes, if you youtube it, it's impressive. It is actuated by a co2 cannister, not a battery. I have not had any luck with it so far.

My old neighbor had a rat chew up her Saturn, when they ripped up two miles of roads, the rats came into,the neighborhood. They liked the Saturn. Must have been yuppies. Lol

If it's squirrels I'd stick with the live trap. Just put 1/2 dozen peanuts on the pan for bait. I caught 7 of them in an afternoon at my cabin.

They're susceptible to being caught right now because coming out if winter there's not a lot of food around.

They like modern wiring much more than vintage stuff since the modern wiring insulation is vegetable based plastic material and is yummy.

I use old style mouse traps with peanut butter and since we have indoor cats, I put out a bowl of used kitty litter with several pee-clumps in it, just inside all the garage doors. Cat pee drives the mice away. Psychological warfare is a wonderful weapon. I would be happy to sell you some of our patented mice-away clumps at a nominal cost, of course. :-)

Soy-based plasticizers...they love it...supposed to be biodegradable..i guess once it goes thru a digestive tract...thats the bio part


ground squirrels around here love it...they ate the wire harness covers right off my dually...didnt touch the wires though

ive seen them destroy interiors too..once they get a taste, i guess they become addicts, or its easier than hunt and gather..i dunno

Well, they're back! After covering my repaired harness with a special electrical tape from Honda/Acura that has a "hot pepper" chemical additive in it!

Caught a "suspect" overnight

I wondered if you ever figured out what did the damage. Unreal how they want to eat that.
I were installing some field drainage tile, 4 inch diameter. We had the roll half unrolled, 3300 feet and found several holes. Mice or rats decided it tasted good. Funny thing, the tile has recycled orange juice and fabric softener bottles. I had stored it in my barn and you could walk in and smell it. I figured the fabric softener might act as bounce dryer sheets and keep them away. The 2nd roll we used had no damage so not sure which roll had which bottles in it

Jim
Did you use peanut butter ? I feed that to mine on a Victor rat trap, they love it

Yes that’s what I’ve been using.
The larger “rat” traps I put on engine harness have been set off dozens of times and this is my first catch.

I had a mouse problem in my garage I use mouse traps with peanut butter and was catching 3 Aray for about a month then they just disappeared. So I spread decon blocks around the garage and used 2 of the electronic things that plug into the wall that supposedly puts out a sound they don’t like and have had any issues yet and no signs of anything eating off the decon blocks!

In your photo that looks like a chipmunk rather then a rat or mouse. I guess they can do damage too. The best defense I ever had was a great mouser of an outdoor cat. You have to have one though that enjoys catching and eating or killing (to show their trophy) to you.

Almond slivers on the snap traps work good also. Mice like almonds.

I HATE those damn things!!

Rich

We've lived here over four years now and there was a outdoor cat that used to hang around here a lot and now I know why! I used to try to shoo that cat away from our house but now I miss it! We did get a cat today but she will be staying indoors.

Yes that is a chipmunk in the photo that got trapped, I thought all along it was squirrels but now I'm not so sure!