Crunchy peanut butter! force one of the tiny peanut chunks into the hole on a trap so they have to work at getting it out. If you just smear the bait on the trigger, they just lick it off and go about their business!.Gets em every time!
My dad was in the hospital quite a while back. Same thing with his Late model Mercury. The varmits were squirrels. Filled the ENTIRE egine compaartment with leaves all the way to the top, ate the wiring and even the aluminum insulation around the A/C box!!!
I had something real bold trying to set up house under the hood of my OT daily driver/parts chaser, a '82 Caprice wagon. It got used every day and I logged about 250 miles a week for years. It could be almost any time of year, I'd pop the hood and the intake manifold around the carb would be full of acorn shells and big seed pods. I had no oaks on the property so whatever it was had to find them and truck them up under my hood, sit down and have dinner. I'd vacuum them out and within a few weeks they'd be back. They never went into the vents or interior, never chewed on the wires or anything else. Bob
Decided to take my Effie out this weekend past. Hosed her off and went to wipe the interior down. 4 beady eyes watched me do it. Field mice had nested behind the seat during the recent snowstorms I guess. I drove Effie just before the snow, but covered her for a few weeks. No other damage as far as I can tell.
I accidently left an overflow bottle with antifreeze in it along the wall on the floor of the garage one winter. I went to use it, and it had four dead mice in it. Whoops, that worked pretty good! I guess they went in through the opening in top, and couldn't get out - drown in the antifreeze. The only reason I mention this, if you have a dog or something - you could put a lid on the bucket with a small hole in it. Mice can get into it, but your pet can't.
I don't have a rodent problem and I live in a rural area. Might be because I "mark" my territory instead of walking into the house. At least a few times a year I go to different spots. The house garage is a different story. It's attached and warmer so traps and Decon. So far the dogs are OK and it's been 7 1/2 years here. I hate cats. Don't even want em near me. The crazy ol bitch next door feeds all the strays and I regularly scare the fuckers away.
The shop I have now is reasonably tight and I also put out a rat bait and mice bait (pellets instead of cubes like the stuff for rats). They were setting off the motin detector on my alam system. Been quite awhile since I had a problem. Back in the 70s I rented a shop that was little more than a barn, part concrete floor and part wood. Holes here and yonder for easy access by rats/mice. But I had an 8 foot rat snake also! Saw him stretched out across a drive in doorway in the sun on Spring day. Regularly found skins he/she had shed in corners of the shop. Never saw any evidence of rats or mice! Dave
My friend down south had a big ass bull snake he named "slick" in his garage. It would just hang out and look at us when we were in there. He said he never had any mice or rat issues. Just 5 foot long snake skins every so often, plus his wife wouldn't go into the garage for any reason.
I've had those buggers chew on the O2 sensor wires on my wife's car and twice on the oil level sensor on mine. I first soldered the wires back and sleeved them with shrink tubing and they came back again and chewed through them anyway. I fixed the wires again and sleeved them with some heater hose. Problem solved (for now).
There's some really good ideas in this thread, but that's the funniest damn thing I've read it quite awhile!
while working at a commercial nursery,, had 2 tractors and 1 building start on fire due to rats eating the wires ... got a few cats to live in compound,, no more rats ... only had to replace the cats when they got ate by coyotes...i know ,, awwwwww... the cats wern't pets ,, semi wild and in a large area that we fed and watered in a gated area ...
The Jalopy Journal
