Rat's Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

[KENB]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

My folks came to visit with their brand new Buick Rendevous. Same thing happened to them. Parked the card in the shed during a storm, and a rat built a nest overnight, and chewed wires. Mom was hotter than a 2 dollar pistol on the fourth of July. Brought it to the dealer. Dealer did not cover it under warranty either. Mom was even hotter at that point.
Dealer says that rats are attracted to the vegetable oil base used in new car wiring harnesses. I don't know if that part is accurate, but that is what the dealer said. Cost her around $160 bucks to get it fixed. I put out rat bait poison the next day.

 

[BB_TX]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

<font color="blue"> rats are attracted to the vegetable oil base used in new car wiring harnesses. </font>
Hmmm? May be something to that. My truck is only 7 months old. And MF1455v's friend's truck was only 6 months old. And all of us are in Texas. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
I wonder if some kind of cover odor would work. A guy I work with said his neighbor had squirrels in his attic. He got some of the fox urine hunter's cover scent and spread it in this attic. The squirrels left and never came back. May try that. Wonder how that will smell when it gets warm. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[EastTexFrank]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

Is this mainly a Texas thing???? See the attachment for what I found under the hood of my M-I-L's van last year. It sits out in the pole barn most of the time. We've gone through 3 wiring harnesses and in fact it's sitting right now needing a fourth. We've had both squirrels and rats nesting in there and never found a good way to keep them out. We can't use poison ... too many critters. In fact it may have been one of the dogs that got it this last time. We've tried just about everything, except fox's urine, I don't know about that one. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif We're trying a barn cat right now so we'll see how that works.

I'm a little surprised that you have this problem since it's an every day driver but you better carry an emergency or spare belt with you because sooner or later it's going to get caught in there and then you lose just about everything. I found that out when a cat decided to call the engine compartment of my truck home during the cold winter nights.

 

[Michigan_Mike]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

Bill,
Had the same problem with my truck and field mice. If I recall correctly, the cost wat about $1,600 to get it fixed.
I put out D-Con in the pole barn, and that seemed to work.
The way I know they were field mice, is that after getting back fraon a trip to town, one of the little critters was looking at me through the windshield from behind the wiper. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[BB_TX]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

<font color="blue"> Is this mainly a Texas thing???? </font>
Maybe not entirely, but seems to be a lot of it going around. My wife told me last night that a lady she works with said her husband's truck had the same problem. Rat or mouse nest under the hood of his F150 Harley truck. About $1500 to replace the wiring harness. Called the insurance company. They will cover the damage minus the deductible. Lady said they get those claims regularly.

 

[nontypical]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

I fond if I leave the hood up, it does not give the critters a nice dark sheltered place to hide to do their dirty work. It's made a big improvement. Before I would always find chewed up acorns on and around the engine. This does not happen now, unless I forget to open the hood.

 

[virgil]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

Had the same problem with rats in both my JD 8100 out in west texas. These machines had 7 on board computors each. Rats loved the canola oil based insulation on the wiring harness. Wires could not be spliced, the had to replace the harnesses. $$$$$ Not covered in warranty.
Some one told me to place several sheets of "Bounce" in and around the rats favorite places of construction (destruction). It worked as long as I replaced the Bounce sheets about once a week.
Bounce is the little sheets that you put in your clothes dryer for some reason. My wife has tried to tell me why but I'm too hard headed to listen.
I believe that there were at least 3 rats per machine. 1 rat to rip the wires out, 1 rat to pile it up, and the last rat was sent to the beer store.
I also placed Bounce in and on my stripper and planters in the barn. antifreeze in small shinny open containers around the seed helped a lot also. The pack rats in the barn got to where they would steel welding rods, small parts, nuts, bolts and small tools.
Too bad the insulatation in the wires is not based on cyniade!

 

[Argee]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bill,
I put out D-Con in the pole barn, and that seemed to work. )</font>

The cheapest and original way to get rid of mice, chipmunks, and other vermin is to introduce your barn to feral cats.

 

[BB_TX]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

Service advisor called and said the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still about $550. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif He suggested wedging moth balls in various places under the truck. My wife said if I put fox pee and moth balls under my truck, I would probably be riding alone. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[TBAR]

Re: Rat\'s Nest Under the Hood of My Truck

BTDT.........

I replaced my alternator on my Superduty after it quit working and my batteries went dead.........that did not fix the problem.

I traced the entire circuit from the fuse box to the instrument cluster(tore the dash out), out of the cluster to the firewall, firewall to the alternator.

Ended up finding that a rat chewed a wire in half right behind the passenger side battery box(yes the passenger side) below the starter solenoid. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Found the rat nest in the valley of the engine of all places. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Here are some pics took trying to find the problem.


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On edit - I now keep rat bait tied to the batteries.