rodent damage under the hood...

bladegrinder

Well-Known Member
My truck just sits at home as I drive a company truck. I start and let it run for 10-15 min. every 4-5 days.
so today I start it up and start smelling gas, I thought, man that things running rich! but it got stronger then I knew something was going on, I shut it off, looked under the hood, didn't see anything.
looked under the truck and holy crap gas is pouring down from the tank. it was dark but I could see it was spraying the bed above the tank.
Soooo, I got squirrels all over, I'm thinking the got up there and chewed threw a line.

It's spraying so bad I don't think it's safe to drive to the dealer, I have to have it towed.
I use a water bottle with holes in it filled with moth balls under the hood of my tractor in the woods for flying squirrels and that seems to work for them anyhow. anybody ever have this problem.....I know somebody has..:mad:
 
I've heard of this before. The electrical insulation on newer vehicles is made from soy beans, which evidently squirrels and other small rodents like. I'm thinking your gas line is similar, or at least the covering is.

You might consider a cat. Or the mothballs like you are using for your tractor.
 
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I feel ya man! I live out in the country and rats chew up EVERYTHING! We've tryied moth balls, peppermint oil, dryer sheets and nothing seems to do it. You name it we've tried it!
 
Shoot 'em!

I'm for that!!
My girlfriend just paid the dealership $600+ to pull part of the dash off on the repair of the heater blower. Before they called her about the problem they sent her a photo. It was making all that noise because mice had moved in to the heater box. She was NOT happy.
 
Agree they don't like moth balls! I made a container out of hail screen and hung it on the corners of my house! They were using my house for a buffet! No matter how many of the critters I put in a pot with gravy I couldn't keep ahead of them! They love the black pipe they use on AC drains. However sleeve that with a piece of PVC and they won't touch it!! They will eat the insulation off of wires and they will eat the lead boots around the pipes where the vent stack come thru the roof!!
However skin them out throw them in a cast iron pot and stew them down. Throw in a little flour and stir into a gravy and some rice and you got a meal nobody will pass up!! LOL
 
Wood rats (squirrel) are most excellent as described above. As good as quail, grouse, rabbit and other critters.
 
I've battled mice and squirrels around my truck, that sits outside in a pretty rural area like what you described. I've been lucky (so far) not to have major damage yet but they love to crawl up in there and hang out and build nests in the engine bay. I was once driving my truck to Home Depot on a Saturday morning and was stopped at a light. A mouse popped out from under the cowling and was sitting at the base of my windshield. I was hoping he would move just an inch or two so I could activate the wipers and fling him off into the street. But he wouldn't cooperate and disappeared back under the hood.

I've tried the dryer sheets, peppermint oil, and some product called "Rat-Away" that smells like cheap watered down cologne that you spray around your vehicle, on the tires, etc... Can't say if they really work or not.

One thing I did do is craft up a 5 gallon self-resetting bucket trap which I keep next to where the truck is parked. It seems to keep the mouse population down in that area.

andy
 
However skin them out throw them in a cast iron pot and stew them down. Throw in a little flour and stir into a gravy and some rice and you got a meal nobody will pass up!! LOL
Three words Cliff: Squirrel and dumplings...No finer way to eat a tree rat.
 
I got my truck back two days later to the tune of $560.00. :mad: it was rodent damage to a fuel line.
since then I've eliminated 5 squirrels. I'm using two catch live traps cause the wife doesn't want me killing them, I don't care as long as their away from my truck.
she seems to think I'll never get rid of all them, well for $560.00 those traps will be running for as long as I live there, which should only be a couple more years, then I'm moving to the woods where live ammo will come into play. :D
A friend was telling me about a new trap that takes a co2 cartridge, when a rat or whatever sticks his head in it, it crosses a lazer beam and shoots a steel rod into it's head, then resets. I may look into that device just for the cool factor.
 
@C Craft remind me not to go to your house for dinner!

Daniel the funniest thing years ago my mother in law said she had never eat squirrel. So cooked up a mess in my cast iron dutch oven, made the gravy and dumplings. So she tries them and decides she likes them! So one of them had not cooked to falling apart for some reason. We are sitting there eating and my wife looks at the pot and says that one was a big one! I look over as I picking a bone out of my mouth and go, "oh yeah that one is a special one" and I went MEOW.

Then I busted out laughing and had to duck the wife's swing! My mother in law and the wife both wouldn't eat another bite. I sit there and eat till I was about to bust!!
 
I got another squirrel today, I think that was #6 or 7.
I also got a raccoon in a bigger catch live trap in my back yard last night. I have a large koi pond back there and they show up once in a while. I got a possum back there a few weeks ago.
 
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