Mice and-or rats chewed wiring under the hood of our 2005 Prius, making the car un-drivable. We must replace the major wiring harness for the hybrid system as well as other wiring, which will be expensive. The Prius is 9 years old, and this is the first time that rodents have chewed wires on any of our cars. We found a rodent nest on top of the engine in early January, along with chewed insulation on some wires. I taped the wire damage that I found then. Apparently cold weather since then caused rodents to take refuge in the Prius. We live in a Dallas, Texas, suburb.
Do you have any ideas on how to keep rodents from chewing wires on cars that are parked outside? We park our cars in our driveway year round.
You must take the direct and severe approach. If you are willing to place Decon packages either in containers only mice can fit in under the car, or place them each night in the engine compartment, that would be most effective . There are lots of other traps you can employ in and around the car, but poisoning works best. Take care to keep it away from domestic animals. It is most effective.
Traps are effective but nothing works better the Decon if use correctly.
That is a problem,but I have to agree with Dag(probaly no way to plug any holes in the car I suppose)Is this car in a garage? mice get nervous when they dont have cover and you might try strategic placement of containers of poison,there are also traps you can construct that use other methods besides poisoning if this car is in a building you can put some plaster,flour or something around to find where they come from(in my Dakota they nest in the insulation mat above the engine)- and maybe some natural predators would help with the mice( snakes,cats and predatory birds) of course the natural remedy only works if the conditions are right,you would be suprised how good dogs can address the problem if they can see the little buggers(mice are a mainstay of a Wolfs diet)-Kevin
Maybe one or two of those plug in devices that put out a high frequency tone to scare them away would help. Don’t know if they are effective or not. But in comparison, how much can a tight garage cost in comparison and aggravation? Also make sure grass and brush etc. is cleaned up and cut all around the area and general neatness outside.
The cost of the repair may be covered under comprehensive insurance if you have that coverage. In my state, comprehensive covers the cost if you strike a deer, as well as fire, theft, etc. as well as glass breakage.
My apologies,I didnt notice that you said the cars are outside,the sticky boards and water traps will help some,maybe as Bing said,the ultrasonic repellers,also ditto on removing as much cover as possible-Kevin
High frequency seemed to work, for a while. Then the mice totally disregarded it in my garage. I used eveything with rat traps being effective but needed too much maintenance. Just using a substance that keeps them away, just drives them to a different area and damage elsewhere. Killing them is the only sure fire way either by poison or drowning them in a pail with a peanut butter lased wire strung across the top and a ramp going to the top of the pail. You can use non toxic anti freeze in the winter. It works amazingly well. But, rodents must be killed to be effectively controlled. You will try a lot of stuff to be humane but everyone i know ultimately resorts to poison. Rats don’t care about your humanity and if they had a charge card, they would poison you.
@dagosa I love that idea of the pail of water in my sadistic tendancies toward rodents. I’d love to see a pic of that and how they walk the plank after the peanut butter.
There are several versions. I saw one in action with just a wire over the top but a wire through a bottle works too. It was at a local hardware store which had mouse problems and did not want to deal with poisons. The clerk walked me out back to see it and there were three mice in it from just the previous evening. Obviously, you have to put it in the general area where mice congregate and you would use antifreeze during the winter months. But, great for camps too it you are worried about domestic animals.
Ultrasonic repellers do work, but you need a lot more power than what they claim.
I live on the edge of a Third World village in rural Mexico. We had scorpions; rats; mice; and lizards in the house all the time.
I tried Steren ultrasonics One costs maybe $20 something. Based on their ads, we would only need maybe 3 in our 2,850 square feet house. To stop the vermin we ended up with 8 of them. they look like a small loud speaker 3 or 4 inches on a side, with a power cord.
Don’t waste your time and money on those little things from Home Depot that plug into a wall socket, etcetera.
When we do see a mouse or rat, it looks like it is half dead, can barely walk it is so stunned. We get maybe one scorpion every couple months, and they are also moving more slowly than normal.
And, when lizards get close, they freeze up completely.
The problem is, how to power one on the street?
Moth balls work on possums under our mobile home in McAllen, until they are evaporated.
I bought an old electric mouse trap , still in the box, at an auction last year. it appeared to be a 50s 0r 60s era gadget. it worked! …once. the house smelled liked fried mouse the next morning. after it fried the first mouse the mice never went in again. neat though.
Ultrasonic repellents have mixed results for one reason IMO and the reason I don’t recomend them. They are dependent upon the environment, placement and rodent traffic. Like most sonics, ultra or not, the environment has a big effect on it’s effcectiveness. In an open garage or a very specific area maybe. Also, you drive the problem from one area to another. When taking this approach, rodents will then turn to the next best area and you often can’t account for that in limited restricted area repellents. Kill them ! I am also not enamored with the idea of human traffic and it’s long term affect on children or adults as far as placing 8 of them throughout the house.
Looks like it would be hard on the synapses, DNA or something.Dag,I agree but it looks like its effective for IR,but science is finally starting to find the correlation between resonance,frequency and changes on the molecular level so “caveat emptor” on anything that effects the electromagnetic spectrum( cyclic vibration, vibration.Is energy," the vibration left over from the"Big Bang"?-Kevin
Just an interesting side note here. Just finished repairing a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox AWD that suffered rodent damage. Not to the electrical system, but to the steering and drivetrain. This is the first time I have seen rats eat cv boots and grease boots. In all I ended up replacing 6 CV boots, both lower ball joints and both outer tie rods because the boots had literally been eaten away. Look close and you can see the bite marks. $1600 of damage. This car is parked in the garage every night. Fortunately homeowner’s insurance is helping with the repair and the exterminator has been called.
Hmm, can’t seem to upload a photo right now. Try later I guess.
Sounds dumb, but perhaps some rubber snakes scattered around the driveway?
Or perhaps if you were to contact your state’s Department of Agriculture office the experts there can tell you how to deal with the problem. They have the expertise to deal with these types of issues and their services are free.
