Rats have been entering my mini's engine bay and leaving their sh*t there. What can I do to prevent this from happening?

 

Poison the rats.

 

This is a joke, right.. If you have rats in your Mini, you might consider packing your stuff and finding another place to call home.

 

Wow, we're sorry. I also post in another forum, RATnet, which is the online forum for Riders Association of Triumph. This Mini fanaticism is mild compared to the stuff we enjoy on our bikes. I assure you that I haven’t been in your car, but I’ll talk to the other guys and ask them to knock it off. Sorry. Really, I mean it.

Take a look. There are lots of Union flags here too.

http://www.triumphrat.net/

 

Oh yeah... I have a similar problem with rodent nests in my New Holland tractor. Try an old sock with mothballs in it under your hood while it's parked..

 

Kill em' !

 

Put out some bait, they will wreak havoc on you car if they start chewing the rubber and hoses and such. When I worked at the Jaguar Dealer in San Diego we had more than one late model Jag totaled by mice, squirrels and rats getting under the hood and into the interior of the car. That Connolly hide must really taste good to them!

You can also put down glue traps........put a dollop of peanut butter in the center.........

Or, get a couple of cats and don't feed them...........

 

put a cat inside the car.

just kiddng.

May be driving the car more often would help.

 

Which Triumph do you have? Mine's a Bonneville America. I occasionally go to the RAT site but for my bike www.bonnevilleamerica.com is much more active.

 

A 1979 Bonneville, and I used to have a 1995 and a '96 Datona 1200 but only the '95 remains in my stable. I regularly ride with guys who have a Speed Tripple, Speed Four, 675 Daytona, Tbird Sport, Thruxton and a T-100 Bonney. I can leer at a Thruxton all day and I'm considering a new Scrambler.

That wasn't you under MINI 18's bonnet was it?

 

Start a wildlife relocation program with one of these. I do this with mice. Seems to work well. Take them miles away so they don't return.

 

I cannot do this since we have dogs running around the garage during night time :(

 

I think our rats are too big for glue traps hehe. i think ill try the sock with mothballs inside them. i hope this solves my problem... will update you guys for result

 

No, I missed that ride

I rode a TBird a few weeks ago. What a bike! I've heard it called the "Gentleman's Hooligan Bike." Now I know why.

 

Get a "live catch" trap like a "have a heart". It will be small enough for the rats to get in for the bait (peanut butter) but not the dogs. Once caught relocate the trap to a trash can filled with water.

 

Oh man! I had mice get into mine around winter time last year. They chewed the top of my spark plug wiring and they chewed through a foam piece on the side of my engine.

What happened was this was our first winter without our garage cat. My german shepphard now sleeps in the garage, so the mice were feeding on his food. I eliminated the food source and dropped out every trap ever created and they disappeared. I never caught any of them, but once the food source was gone, so were they.

Now, when I was having my CAI and pulley installed, the mechanics found the true nest in my old airbox. I never saw it and it would have killed my car. You need to open the box up immediately. The air filter was almost completely blocked with shredded paper and poop.

I also heard some suggestions about getting fox urine online or Walmart and pouring it around or on the tires because that is how they are getting into your car. Apparently, the smell of the fox urine makes them think a predator is around and they leave.

This entire incident was so disturbing to me. Of all places your car should be safe is your garage or home. Shoot me a PM if you want further communication on this. I'll try to find the old posts on this topic and post them here.

Good luck.

Posts:

http://www.motoringunderground.com/f...highlight=mice

http://www.motoringunderground.com/f...highlight=mice

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...highlight=Mice

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...highlight=Mice

 

Place brick on trap completely submerged for way longer than you think you need to eventually you can remove the brick and dispose of the Rodents permanently

Keep the poor dog's outa there tell you slaughter the little buggers

 

Get one of these. Your dogs can't get hurt by it and I can confirm it will kill rats, pack rats, mice etc. I love mine.

http://www.ratzapper.com/

 

How do you know its rats?

If it is, I'd be worried about far more than a bit of poop. ... like what wires they have chewed ... and where are the coming from.

A Jack Russell Terrier works well

 

Yea, could be really large mice. Or chinchillas.

Definitely. I had mice make a nest in the heater of my Integra. Little bits of nesting material kept blowing out the vents.

Hard to get them to stay in the engine bay, though.

 

Terriers Rock! I grew up with Airdales and my parents have Kerry Blues now. Jack Russell's are cool too.

 

At my house we use a '48 Chevy 1/2 ton and an '80 Truimph Spitfire as decoys. We've signed a treatice with the mices. My neighbor had a skirmish with them in a Lexus. Seems the Japanese used soy in their wiring, and Mickey does tofu! Now he protects his outdoor stores with a cover and an 8" section of caging from the concrete up.

We use old fashion snap traps for rebel mice that break the pact and cross the DMZ into the hallowed house of auto.

For those who are appalled at the thought that mice and rats are part of some of our lives, remember there are places where these critters are indiginous and not a sign of filth.

 

[FONT=Verdana]i had the same problem with a squirrel and its nest in a 1992 jeep cherokee limited. i had an outside parking space where i lived. 2 months after buying the jeep i drove to the dealership for an oil change. the service guy said " watch your engine bay. you had a 2 pound nest near your fuse box". he never showed it to me so i didn't know if this was code. his way of trying to get me to buy undercoating, an air filter, or something like that.

3 days later per his advice i open my hood and there in front of me was a nest. i jump back, dropped the hood, and went running to my condo and grabbed my wife. when we returned to the jeep we both were like what the hell is this? after cleaning the sticks and grass out i noticed some of my wires had been chewed.

for a week i would check every day before i went to work and sure enough the signs of a new nest would be present. i researched the internet, brought rat traps, used animal smell stuff, etc.. nothing worked. finally someone mentioned i try washing my engine bay. by this point my spirit was broken, what did i have to loose. i sprayed down the engine bay and after that never saw anymore signs of the vermin, thank god.

i do think certain car manufactures may use materials that will attract rodents. good luck and I hope you find something which will end up working for you.[/FONT]

 

www.critter-repellent.com markets a rodent preventer called, "Shake Away". It comes in a container and looks like a large saltshaker. You shake out the granules onto your engine [wherever the problem is]. The granules do not slide off if you need to use the car, but can be wiped off if you show it or want to clean the engine bay.

 

I live in Germany, and we were having problems with a Marder (German spelling don't know what it is in English) eating the wires in our minivan. I went and checked my MC (2006, 2007 MCS is at the dealer waiting to be picked up), and it had eaten a little bit off of the spark plug cables. The dealer gave us this device that hooks to the battery and emits some type of ultrasonic pulse that drives the animal away. We were also told to use cat hair, and some type of spray that the Germans sale. The most important thing was to clean your engine!