Readers offer ways to protect engine wiring from wildlife
QThe article about rats building nests in car engines left out something vital. How do you prevent this? I paid a few hundred dollars for new wiring.
— Fred White, Livermore
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A few tips from ratexperienced readers follow.
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My “rats chomping wires” solution for both cars and the house is simple: four cats! Never had an issue (have never seen a live rat either, just dead ones). There are plenty of cats available for adoption at the Humane Society and county shelters. — Michael Foster, San Jose
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Save a cat, kill a rat. Works for me.
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A friend of mine, and a very good mechanic, Davey Eck of Davey’s Smog Shop in Half Moon Bay, alerted me to the fact that Gain dryer sheets, available in most supermarkets, are good rodent deterrents when tucked into the engine, passenger and trunk compartments of a vehicle and probably elsewhere.
— Bruce Krutel, El Granada
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An interesting idea.
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I am surprised not to have seen one easy solution yet: leave the hood of the vehicle open as wide as necessary when parked to discourage whichever type varmint is doing the chewing/nesting in what before was a nice, warm, dark and cozy place.
I learned this from some good friends in Carmel Valley. — Kent Mather, Palo Alto
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So they even have rat problems in the lovely Carmel Valley.
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This is very common in Europe. We lived in Stuttgart, Germany, in one of my many assignments as a Marine. We heard countless stories about a particular rodent (aka a marten) that would come out of the fields, camp out in warm engine bays, feast and make a general mess of compartment wiring, oil and fuel lines, and firewall blankets.
We did not hesitate to have the local Toyota and
Volvo dealers install ultrasonic devices in each of our cars. They cost about $130 each. We had zero problems over five years, while our German neighbors and others who did not have the devices in their cars continued to have serious problems. The devices are worth the investment. — Col. Kevin McCutcheone
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A Marine can handle any problem.
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I’ve been told that mothballs can be a good repellent. — Betty Nguyen, San Jose
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True, says Joan-theCritter-Expert: “But mothballs are poisonous, so you want to put them in a nylon bag or other container. You can suspend them inside the engine or place them on top of your tires, the most common route rodents take to get into your car. You also can wrap your wires with a special tape developed by Honda. It contains capsaicin — stuff that makes peppers hot — and is another good repellent.”