For those of us with mice and Rat problems, the old idea of opening the hood is NOT enough with modern cars as the internal engine plastic shrouds provide ample “dark” corners (not to mention the space above the gas tank with all those tasty wires and hoses).
If you find droppings in your engine bay, air filter, you have serious costs about to incur.
How much? The last wiring harness for the Lexus RX300 cost us 3,500 to replace.
Not fun (even if the insurance company paid for it).
And the one time my wife drove off without checking the engine compartment, the wood the little creatures brought in, logged into the throttle cable and the engine raced her up to 75 (in a 50) before she got it to stop (an emergency by any definition).
So, the cure?
Open the hood. place a Victor two frequency rat sonic device on top of the cam cover, put a block or anything that will work as a spacer on the front cross member, close the hood (but it will not shut). Loop the wire extension over the front driver’s wing-mirror so you don’t; forget you’re plugged in.
Result? In two years, not one dropping, nothing above the gas tank (it was checked recently for an unrelated fault and was dropped - all unchewed), nothing anywhere in the engine bay.
Guys, this is the kind of stuff @RobertGift would think of . . .
I haven’t seen those but at the farm store last year they had the plug in types on sale with a rebate for almost nothing. They spit out a frequency that is supposed to drive the little buggers nuts. I’ve always wondered if they work or not. So do they?
The other thing is that for $3500 if you do the work yourself, you can build a pretty tight garage.
There is one thing that works…well. Decon. If you are going through that bother, just place the poison there instead and completely close the hood. Domestic animals are too large to bother with motor compartments…unless it’s someone’s pet mouse. Decon doesn’t differentiate…so ask around first. ;=) To save another $3500, I have no problem killing these critters.
@Bing, good suggestion for the money for weather, but I know of no garage that mice can’t get into. For an extra $3500, just find a barn owl. They are killing machines and you can just let nature take it’s course. Just don’t wear a coonskin cap. They don’t differentiate either.
Btw, I tried one of those electronic gizmos. It did nothing for the mice, but it did keep the giraffes away. Haven’t seen a one.
This is what we use to prevent rodents from going near vehicles.
Tester
" . . . but it did keep the giraffes away."
Nice to know that it works in an African nature preserve
LOL
Electronic snake oil…
A long time friend of mine had a problem with a mouse in his house once and nothing seemed to phase that rodent. Traps, poison, none of it worked and sometimes while watching TV late in the evening he would see it run back and forth by the baseboard near the TV.
A few beers in one night and having had enough, he dragged out the muzzle-loader .45 pistol he had built, sat with gun in hand for an hour, and took care of the rodent problem once and for all. The mouse removal process did create some household interior work due to the large holes in the baseboards and floor in the adjoining room. A .22 or air rifle would have been a bit more discrete… 
The mouse was a moot point and word must have spread in the vermin community; he never had mice again…
Muzzle loader .45 pistol in a house ? You think it was the noise that scared them off ?
The noise could very well have done it; or the smoke cloud.
One would think that for household use he would have used a half charge instead of a full load of black powder…
He also owns an Uzi. It’s probably best that was not used…
We had mice problems in our garage, which is attached to the house and insulated, but not heated. Nevertheless it is quite warm compared to outside.
We started with mouse traps and Warferin, but they kept coming.
Mice need food and we soon discovered that we had pet food, bird seed and other edibles in the garage. Next step was to get rid of anything edible which meant the pet food was kept in the house the bird seed in METAL garbage cans on the back deck, and any organic stuff like peat moss and the lawnmower, which has always grass stuck under the deck, was also put I the garden shed.
NO more mice now. We have squirrels in the backyard who help themselves to the seed the birds spill.
The reason for the metal garbage cans is the squirrels who literally chewed through the lid to get inside the plastic cans.