Little foot prints on engine covers (mice, rats)

[Donstar]

My truck was in for some warranty work and an oil change today.  The tech left this comment on my invoice, "little foot prints on engine covers (mice, rats)".  My service advisor said they felt it needed to be recorded but the tech took a quick look around and didn't notice any damage. I first thought of getting an engine shampoo and a thorough inspection but maybe this would be a waste of money.  I don't think this would deter future visits from rodents.  I have no enclosed parking so I can't control the environment.  Any experiences or suggestions? 

[1SLOW1500]

Get a large snake poisonous snake and throw it under the hood, problem will solve its self. I would ask to see the prints. Cats are the most common. Get poisonand 3m tape it down to the empty battery tray and kill the rat.

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[batman900]

A lady at work swears by dryer sheets. She has an old Honda Accord that sits parked in the grass for months at a time and has been doing it for years without a problem, I dunno. My neighbor has 2 cats that poop in my yard but I leave them alone because they are always killing stuff. 

[sturge33]

I had a mouse getting in and making it to the interior this summer.  I tried the dryer sheet thing and never saw it again.  I zip tied a few near the wiper cowl vent since that's where it was getting in.  I also changed the cabin air filter and found out it had been building a nest on top of the filter.

[Donstar]

 

57 minutes ago, sturge33 said:

I had a mouse getting in and making it to the interior this summer.  I tried the dryer sheet thing and never saw it again.  I zip tied a few near the wiper cowl vent since that's where it was getting in.  I also changed the cabin air filter and found out it had been building a nest on top of the filter.

 

8 hours ago, batman900 said:

A lady at work swears by dryer sheets. She has an old Honda Accord that sits parked in the grass for months at a time and has been doing it for years without a problem, I dunno. My neighbor has 2 cats that poop in my yard but I leave them alone because they are always killing stuff. 

Thanks for the dryer sheet suggestion.  It would be pointless to trap or poison these rodents so I appreciate suggestions like yours that may discourage such visits!  Hopefully we don't have good tasting wiring in our trucks!   

[OldBlue61]

I've got a 40"x60" pole barn that is home to my truck and the SO's SUV, along with 4 other cars, an ATV, etc.  The field mice and spiders got so bad that I had to have an exterminator come out once a year and do his thing.  Cost me $200 a year, but I have almost zero mice and spiders now.

 

In my experience, the dryer sheets are best for spiders, and then rodents.  Peppermint oil also works very well in repelling mice - they hate the smell of it.

[wforrest08]

I 2nd the peppermint oil. Find a article online and double check what kind to use I think they say 100% extract if I remember right? use cotton balls to soak it up and place the balls around and inside the engine compartment, frame, ect. I also have TomCat bait chunx up against all 4 walls (inside & out) in the garage and “shed” we don’t have any pets so I don’t have them in a box if you got pets/grandkids/ect bait station them. We live in the country had a mouse tear up the insulation on the firewall of the 3/4 ton and start building a nest on top of the intake. Had one get into the riding mower and ate the insulation of the wires for the coolant sensor luckily it’s a 20 dollar part. I did some research after that and have found on newer vehicles a lot of the wiring is now “soy” based instead of oil based and apparently the little bastards are attracted to it. Bother-in-law left his JD tractor in the field last fall for a couple days went to haul a wagon and it wouldn’t start. Ended up being a chewed up harness the new harness labor ect was 5k. When I use to wrench there was a car that came in for oil changes that we would take the air cleaner out of and remove a pound or two of dog food from every time not sure if that was mice or a ground squirrel. We did this for years on that car told the owner repeatedly don’t park in the same spot and they won’t do that. They didn’t listen...

[thefishhawk]

I use dryer sheets in my camper and they seem to work.    Steel wool is also real good if it's a certain opening they are trying to get through.    I've definitely had them build nests on top of the cabin filter.   Not fun having to take the air compressor in there and stuff blowing off out the vents all over the place!    Peppermint oil sounds like a 2-fer....cabin will smell minty fresh!  I'll have to try that one.     

[L86 All Terrain]

Is GM using peanut wires like Honda now too? Honda decided it would be a good idea to make their wire coating "environmentally friendly" and made the base plastic out of peanut oil stock. Too bad people in Toronto are finding out it is TOO environmentally friendly and the huge cat-squirrels they have there are eating everyone's wire coatings. 

 

The only way to get rid of mice is to kill them and keep killing them. If you are a animal lover, just put some canola oil in a glass bowl, they will jump in and cant climb out and you can release them by your ex-wife's house. 

[BB68]

One of my parts cars had a whole roll of dryer sheets under an inch of mouse poop.

[diyer2]

Mouse traps are very effective but require work to maintain.

I use traps to keep them in check.

 

[xax]

A cat lol

[Donstar]

3 hours ago, diyer2 said:

Mouse traps are very effective but require work to maintain.

I use traps to keep them in check.

 

I agree that they are effective if I kept my truck in an enclosed space but I think I'd be fighting a losing battle outside. 

[diyer2]

Grew up on a dairy farm and we had cats.

We have had a small, rural of grid second  home here in the mountains of Colorado for 20 years. 

At 9200 feet in elevation the temps were colder.

When there I park outside.

 

My experience with mice there has been they were more prone to get into the engine compartment  after the truck had been parked after running it.

They were there due to the heat from the motor IMO.

If we came home in the evening they were more likely to spend the night I think due to the motor being warm later into the night. 

 

I would check under the hood every morning.

I found nests built on top of the motor overnight, a warm place to sleep.

If we left any snacks in the cab they would get to it. This was my 93 Silverado. 

 

Now we were at this place whenever we had time so no on going daily, weekly mouse control.

I would set 6- 10 traps when we arrived.

I would set some traps by the truck, 2 under the hood with peanut putter as bait (works the best IMO).

They never chewed any wires up on my truck.

The first night I would catch the most mice.

 

I had more problems with rabbits chewing wires on a 85 Jeep that we left there as a second vehicle.

I had a solar battery charger on it.

Same thing IMO, they would get under the hood of the Jeep and sit on the intake right under the hood.

I know they sat there because of the hair.

It got warm under the hood from the sun and they  were safe from the Coyotes.

I put chicken wire under it wired to the frame and where ever I could to keep them out of the engine compartment.

 

The traps worked but I started over every time we were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kelloggs67]

You can cut some pieces off of Irish spring soap and put them in a plastic sandwich baggies poke a few holes in it and zip tied to the battery tray on the driver side my co worker dose this inside his car when he stops driving his car for the winter months don’t know if it works or not but maybe worth a try and it will be fresh smelling


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