Projects Mud Daubers & Rat Nests

^Kind of like the worm in the bottle of fire water^

 

I bought someone's project car with a fresh, never been fired up, rebuilt motor. It sat in a barn for sometime with the engine never sealed up. So, put a breaker bar at the crank and the motor was seized. Removed the head and found one cylinder corroded from mouse piss. I had to punch the cylinders 40 over to overcome the damage the little mouse did. It's amazing how it got in there. But then again, I tried stomping on a mouse in a garage and it squeezed through less than a 1/4" gap of closed garage door.

 

Rats are the worst. I had admired this white '63 TBird next door backyard of my friend's house...he said I should ask about it.
I looked at it, the red interior was excellent...steering wheel swung away, no cracks in wheel or leather boot!
Engine was dis***embled, heads held on with a bolt each.
I asked the old gent if he'd sell it, nope. Son was gonna 'fix the motor'.
Coupla months later, my friend says, "Come over quick, bring a trailer. He'll give it to you if you want it..."
I grabbed my neighbor and we dashed over. The old man was sitting on the porch, the 'Bird rolled out to the curb.
He said "One case of Budweiser and it's yours...Take it now, bring the beer in a coupla days."
My neighbor Mike hooked the winch cable to the 'Bird's front cross member, and I steered thru the drivers window.
Up on the trailer, and away we went, 6 miles home.
Rolled it off in front of my house, then into the drive. Push the lever into 'Park' and walk around to open the hood. Zounds and Catfish! Rats!!! Like...5, 6 of 'em. They sat up one by one, looked squarely at me, then one ran into an intake port...two more down the head pipe, drivers side.
They were all over! Rat piss stench...little turds filled the pan over the valley.
No wonder he wanted to give it away...Took months to rid that car of rats, droppings, and the stink.
After it sat there in my drive, 2 days later it smelled so bad you could smell it from the street.
I got a respiratory disease a little later, hard to diagnose...thought it was 'Valley Fever', a killer in these parts.
I was sick from that blasted 'Bird for five years. Finally sold it, after cleaning it all out... Damn, I loved that beauty! RATS!

 

Wow, Were you able to save that engine??

 

It's a Ford I thought Chevy laid claim to the rodent names.

 

Speaking of rodents anyone found one so far that will beat this beauty? This thing was tearing **** up in the maintenance shop where I worked and we had to put an end to him!

 

We had a rat problem. Those wood rats where invading and chewing and filling my vehicles up with sticks horse turds ect. And The D con and trapping wasn't working. I bought a different kind of poison at the feed store and it worked. I really don't like to poison because owls, helpful snakes and pets might get sick if they eat a poisoned rat. Since that time Watching U tube I learned poison resistant rats abound in England. They have rat killings using little dogs and ferrets. Seen one video where they killed 425 rats in one day at a chicken farm. Ive set a 55 gallon barrel next to a wall. it has a foot of water in the bottom. and grain floating on the water. Its a very effective mouse and rat trap. There was a guy called Cat Skinner because he operated a Bulldozer. He gave me a number of derelict vehicles just to drag them off. He had this mother cat and her half grown kittens. They where trying to give me a kitten. Told what good rat and mice killers they where. Well those vehicles had plenty of evidence of rodents. It was almost dark and his wife set out some food for those cats. And as soon as she went back into the house. Several pack rats bigger than the kittens came out and began filling their jaws up with the cat food. Those cats just set there and watched them.

 

Dang Gordon. That rat had been living fat & happy. He looks just a bit over weight. Ha ha.


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I've never been a fan of a cats. That's just me. I'm not a cat person, but obviously they weren't doing what the owner said they were doing. Great stories fellas. This has been interesting. Keep em coming.


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GreaserJosh13 that rat had the same problem I have, he couldn't push himself away from the dinner table! I was surprised the trap held him! He looks big enough to pick it up and walk away with it.

 

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] That's hilarious. I think I have the same problem.


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when my youngest sister was born my Mom did not drive her Ford Station Wagon for 2 weeks. The dog would go crazy around it anytime he got into the garage. When she finally started the car it made
a horrendous sound and when we opened the hood we found that mice had made a nest in the engine,
the fan had sent baby mice and their mother flying. Should have realized the dog new what was going
on.
Also in the same garage my father had bought some lumber he had stacked on one side. When cleaning
the garage I started to restack the lumber to move the pile, I got 1/2 way down when I uncovered a
rat mother. She launched herself at me. I could never hit a baseball but I knocked her 1/2 way across the yard. Mom would never allow Dad to buy lumber unless it was used immediately after that.
When I bought my 50 chevy truck I trailered it home about 50 miles, as I was turning it around in the back yard several mice jumped off the truck and trailer into the yard.

 

One time I bought an off-road vehicle with a popular OT air cooled engine that had been sitting in someone's yard for a while. I dragged it home and drained the oil. I removed the oil cap to refill it and found that mice had filled that area with dog food. Luckily they never got inside the actual engine.

Another time I bought a Caddy that had been sitting in a barn yard. Had it towed home and parked it in the garage. Like someone above, it was full of mice. I started the engine and left it running in the 24x24 for a couple hours, trying to gas 'em. Didn't work, still needed to set traps.

 

Mud Daubers have also contributed to aircraft accidents by building nests in Pitot Tubes which is the pick up of air to Airspeed Indicators.

 

<---- Was going to cut the gas tank bottom off of my A but was torn because it was in great shape with no holes or leaks in it. Finally decided to go ahead and cut the tank off of the top of the cowl panel, When I separated the two pieces fully one third was packed full of old seat padding cotton and crud. With most of it behind the baffles. Someone must have left the cap off. What a mess, now I don't feel so bad.

 

Mom and dad bought a brand new car in '69. I bought it from them in '74. When it had 100,000+ on it a few years later it needed a rebuild. I pulled the engine to freshen it and found what we later identified as 3 sticks of gum (still in the wrapper), a 9/16" SK combination wrench and a pair of 6" slip joint pliers in that engine. Pliers and wrench were in the lifter valley and gum was in the oil pan. How the hell did 3 sticks of gum live 100,000+ in an oil pan? I still have the pliers. Engine had never been apart until I tore it apart.

SPark

 

Ran when he parked it!

 

Many years ago I bought a 33 ply 4-door from this older gent in San Berdoo. When I went to pick it up in his backyard, I noticed a couple rat skeletons under the back seat. No live ones were seen so I thought that was it. Brought the car home and put in the garage. A few days later,i heard some scurring around up in the garage attic which made me curious. So I set a couple of rat traps and next day-BOOM. Two dead rats. Wife wasn't happy I brought them home but was sure happy I caught them. Pays to be an exterminator, or now a retired exterminator. exterminator

 

Ha ha. Nope. That was never asked or expected.


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I was driving in my dd and smelled a funny burnt smell. A mouse in 2-3 day made a nest ontop of my manifold and brung up about 15 of those little orange fruits that come from palm trees.

Rat **** is toxic it gets in the air and into your lungs, then infection time. And a bad one. When cleaning you got to spray beach on it causing it to soak and stay down instead of sweeping it up (into the air).

The best hack (for me) has been pepperment oil. You can buy it at rite aid or CVS. Rodents hate that smell. Place the whole bottle in your engine bay. Find a way to fabricate a place for it. You don't even have to open it. It's strong.

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My Lincoln had been infested with mice before I got it. I tore all the interior out, trashing the carpets, cleaned and painted the floors with Por15 after I patched a few holes, cleaned all the vinyl and metal surfaces with Simple Green which has a nice mint smell to it. Didn't see any signs of any mice for the year it sat under the carport while I redid the brakes, suspension, etc. Drove it to a few shows. Then one Sat night I drove to a cruise in, parked and got out and was standing there talking to a friend, saw something crawl down the tire and scurry under the car. A mouse! He had caught a ride up under the fender somewhere, probably while scouting out a new home. We about died laughing at the mouse, hoping nobody else saw it! Luckily, it ran over to a curb grate, and darted in, out of sight!
Haven't seen another one in or around the car since....

 

We had an old farm tractor, engine seized up tight. Sat for many years right where it was last parked. Bored one day and looking at it, pulled the starter to see if I could pry the flywheel with a crowbar. A petrified rat was jammed in between the starter and flywheel teeth. Had it running in a couple hours after that! I went home. Dad was driving it up the driveway and some guys pulled in and bought it from him. I never got to drive it.

 

This mouse could probably live where ever it wants to.

 

Ha ha ha. That rat is bad ***. Check out these videos on mud daubers. Holy ****. Never knew they were spider hunters. Damn!!!!








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I was in my DD truck and when I first got in, noticed a light "dead fish" smell. Could not find the source and it went away after driving a short distance. This was fall in Florida, and I would commonly leave the windows down an inch or so when parked.

This smell kept occurring and was getting stronger each day when I first jumped in the car, over the next 5 days or so. Still could not find the source, and my searches got more involved each day.

Finally, while driving around one afternoon, found myself a bit hungry. I reached over to the p***enger door pocket and pulled out my trusty bag of beef jerky. It had a 2 inch long petrified frog adhered to to outside of the bag.!

I lost my appe***e for a while ....

 

Ha ha. A Frog. Nice. That's a new one.


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I was removing the spider nests from the ch***is of my Ford after it was shipped from Denver. They were all throughout the frame rails, inside the brake drums too. I got bit on my right hand and index finger. Swelled up and I had 3 holes for a while. Iced it up, took Benadryl and it looked better. The last time I took on a spider I wound up at the doctor for a round of tet**** and antibiotic shots.

 

Couple of years ago I had my right foot operated on and couldn't drive for 3 months. My 50 F1 had to sit during this time. Right before I could drive again I wanted to go to a show so I had my son drive the truck. The throttle hung up and wouldn't return to idle. I had my son pull over after shutting off the engine (302). I got out and found a huge mud dauber nest (size of golf ball) attached to the carb linkage. Good reason for driving our cars and not letting them sit.

 

Dang, I had that same happen to me this past August. Couldn't believe it, but my nest was more baseball size. Guess I need to drive the '61 a little more frequently.

 

Holy ****!!! That would ****. I bet it was a huge surprise to find that on the linkage. They'll make a nest anywhere.


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