Keeping Rodents away from the wiring - Educate yourself

[Offroadalliance]

Rodents can cause some of the worse problems being electrical nightmares, weve seen vehicles total from the damages. alot of these are great ideas to help keep that problem minimized.

Always remember to loom your harnesses and wires that you do for aftermarket parts too. They go for whatevers easiest and the more difficult you can make it the better chance you have.

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[AZMikeL]

Yep, Arizona packrats eat Irish Spring soap for dinner. They also must wear ear plugs, because ultrasonic devices don't work on them.

My dad lost a car to a fire started by all the packrat debris that collected under his engine. I've had wiring harnesses chewed through that disabled everything, fuel pump wiring and windshield washer hoses chewed, and of course lost a ton of under-hood insulation. I even had a skid-steer loader that had so much packrat damage the shop never could fix it all, and they ended up taking it in trade toward a new tractor.

Aside from a well-sealed garage, the ONLY thing I've had long-term success with is popping the hood and hanging an LED shop light over the engine bay in my truck every night, and for the Bronco we leave the light on the ground and park on top of it, so we can still use the remote start. Both locations have been working - knock wood - for the last 2 years...

The packrats here are insane. They managed to haul about 200lbs of crap (both literal dog crap and cactus bits/gravel/wood/etc) up into the belly of our 5th wheel RV when we had it. Thankfully, they did not cause any actual damage. After I got it all cleaned out, I put a long string of x-mas lights around the bottom of it on the ground with a disk to dawn timer. That kept them away.

Around this house, I've had to use quickcrete to keep those little bastards from digging up the little section of pavers where my firewood rack is - there WAS a 1" gap between the pavers and the wall. Put xmas lights on the ground in that area too, which double nicely as landscape lighting.


I've found exactly 3 things that work on our super-rodent pack rats:
- Concrete - I keep a bag of quickcrete on hand so I can fill any new holes in the ground with it
- Lights at night - they do have ONE weakness
- The buckets of green poison from Tractor Supply - my last option as I don't wan to to kill owls and hawks

 

[KRAKEN]

Irish Spring does not work here. Leaving the hood open helps... and barn cats that patrol for rodents.

 

[bastardsonofelvis]

I rather car manufacturers move away from petroleum based wiring for sustainability.

If and when car manufactures find a better solution, I am sure will be implemented.
If you are going to complain about this, provide a solution then. Do some R&D and help the industry.

Sustainability my arse. Once you account for all the resources wasted repairing all the damage across the entire fleet of vehicles they put this wiring in they've wasted orders of magnitude more energy and materials. Classic envirotard nonsense -- like low flow dishwashers that waste even more water because you have to wash the dishes anyway when they come out.

I have a solution -- use the wires that didn't attract rodents.

 

[Reidt131]

I have seen a bunch of posts rallying for action against car manufacturers for going SOY based wiring. Please do your research first and understand what you need to do as a car owner as part of up keep to the vehicle. I rather car manufacturers move away from petroleum based wiring for sustainability.

All you need to do is go through this article and be better informed and know what steps you can take.
Which Cars Have Soy Based Wiring: Do They Attract Rodents? (motorverso.com)

There is a video embedded in the above article on prevention tips. Fast forward to that

If and when car manufactures find a better solution, I am sure will be implemented.
If you are going to complain about this, provide a solution then. Do some R&D and help the industry.

UPDATE - Thanks for all the positive tips for people to try out! Depending on your rodents and geography, some will be more effective than others.

The big thing I am getting out of this is car manufacturers are not raising awareness to customers at purchase time. Nothing in the owner manual. That is where I bet most would like to see a change and additional information provided - @Ford

IMO, wire insulation on a $40-$90k vehicle is the last place we should be looking to improve sustainability. These vehicles will last for years.

Soy based plastics would be a welcome change for single use plastics that are used once for maybe a month (the time it sits on shelves) and then gets pitched to the wind.

There is something to be said for using less "healthy" materials in an application like a vehicle which is exposed to some of the harshest elements and weather of any consumer product.

 

[AXMRDR]

I had some rats damage my F350 engine wiring/ tubing while it was sitting for a while as I was recovering a few years back. Peppermint oil did the trick. You have to make sure you get the expensive stuff, not the cheaper versions. It isn't easy to find as one would think. It was $8 for a tiny bottle, about 2-3 tablespoons worth.

 

[Taltyman]

My wife convinced me to put a cover on my Bobcat welder over the winter a few years ago. They ate all the wiring during that winter. The cover just gave them a nice winter home. We also get mice in our house from time to time. We use electric traps that executes them. Maybe put a couple of those in the garage or near where you park.

 

[MichaelCar001]

It's better to keep rodents away from your house cause they destroy everything, not only your car. Indeed, your car is the last thing they are interested in.

 

[wilbersk]

I’m thinking motion activated lights under the hood, but they’d need to be operational only when the rig is off probably?

 

[indio22]

My wife convinced me to put a cover on my Bobcat welder over the winter a few years ago. They ate all the wiring during that winter. The cover just gave them a nice winter home. We also get mice in our house from time to time. We use electric traps that executes them. Maybe put a couple of those in the garage or near where you park.

A couple days ago I was using a canister vacuum to cleanup sawdust in the garage, and wondering about the odor coming from the vacuum exhaust. Opened the canister to find baby mice in a nest of towel remnants. Apparently the birth mouse had climbed through the vacuum hose into the canister to nest.

This is after I put various mouse killing baits in the garage the past few months, which I saw were being nibbled on. These damn mice get everywhere. Even the feral cats that I've been feeding to keep down the mouse population apparently can't keep up with them.

 

[PEGB]

A couple days ago I was using a canister vacuum to cleanup sawdust in the garage, and wondering about the odor coming from the vacuum exhaust. Opened the canister to find baby mice in a nest of towel remnants. Apparently the birth mouse had climbed through the vacuum hose into the canister to nest.

This is after I put various mouse killing baits in the garage the past few months, which I saw were being nibbled on. These damn mice get everywhere. Even the feral cats that I've been feeding to keep down the mouse population apparently can't keep up with them.

Stop feeding the cats. That will solve the problem. Hunger is a great motivator.

 

[EasternSierra]

Stop feeding the cats. That will solve the problem. Hunger is a great motivator.

I think you'd also need to leave the garage door cracked so the cats can get in to deal with the mice, or else install a cat door. Otherwise the garage is a safe refuge from almost all predators other than maybe snakes.

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