Posted on 01/09/2020 6:16:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
A Colorado man said squirrels have squeezed into the inner workings of his vehicle three times and caused about $700 worth of damage.
Gary Seago of Windsor said the trouble began in late November, when his Jeep was making unusual noises and mechanics discovered an animal, likely a squirrel, had chewed a fuel injector plug in half.
Mechanics said squirrels and other animals are sometimes drawn to the engine compartments of vehicles because they consider the soy-based tubes and wires to be a food source.
Seago said repairs were made, but the same part was again destroyed by a suspected squirrel the next day.
He said the squirrels returned for a third time a few weeks later and destroyed another, more expensive part in the engine compartment.
Seago said he is now trying to keep the squirrels away with deterrents including moth balls, strobe lights and high-pitched noises.
A Pittsburgh woman encountered a different sort of squirrel-related car trouble in October when one of the animals stashed grass and more than 200 walnuts under her hood. Holly Persic said the squirrel had apparently been using her vehicle as walnut storage for weeks.
A few years ago, my brand new company car had a headlight go out. The dealer found that a rodent chewed through the wires. They wanted to fully rewrite the car for $1500.
I got a local guy to fix it for $150. It lasted
What a great idea to make car parts out of food
Our cat kills and eats mice, chipmunk and squirrels. Never had a problem with critters in vehicles after someone dumped him in our woods and we took him in.
Yeah, we we were kids we had all sorts of cats and dogs. The squirrels and chipmunks decide to go elsewhere to live. Of course back then, car parts were made of petroleum products.
ah, good times...
It’s warm. He should stop driving it.
Squirrels cause as much, or more damage than Democrats. I was quite startled when I started one of my cars a number of years ago, and heard a horrible sound under the hood. I shut off the engine, opened the hood to find pieces of Squirrel all over the place with a substantial portion of what appeared to be the remains in the fan belt pulley.
I went to get some work gloves, and a bucket to remove the remains from the engine compartment, but upon return found the apparently dead, and dismembered Squirrel was not dead, and had dislodged himself from the pulley, and disappeared into the surrounding fields.
I was fortunate as most often to that point I had to have the vehicles towed, and the electronics restored due the little bastards mischief.
That’s a location upgrade when the axles are sunk in the dirt.
I have heard about this soy based freaking car parts! Someone I know had thousands of dollars of damage on a Volvo because of rodents chewing through tubes hoses and wires! Making car parts edible??? What could go wrong?
This is not a new problem. It started after the car makers decided to suck up to the ECO people and stared using Green materials for wire insulation and such. The mice can make a mess of the wiring real quick as well. They love to chew all that soy
I have lived in the country for over 20 years and never had a problem with cars, farm equipment, or anything. But, recently, my Tahoe was attacked by mice who went after the wiring. I was advised to get this very strong peppermint spray. I sprayed my Tahoe and the Yukon, solved the problem. I was going to spray my wife’s Lexus, but she said that she wanted to do it herself. She didn’t get around to it and the Lexus wiring became a happy meal. Baby mice were living inside the headliner where Mommy and Daddy mice were munching on the tasty soy based wiring harness. Hundreds of dollars.
Another brilliant move by the earth muffins.
Had some muskrats set up housekeeping in my pontoon boat, they chew up some of the wiring. Did a night stake-out and “relocated” a few of them.
When the Prius first came out the insulation on the electrical wiring was made of a soy based material. My friend moved to the high desert country of New Mexico and found that the rodents loved to eat the wiring. After two major repairs and over a thousand dollars of costs, she puts bright lights under her car every night to keep them away.
Rats and rabbits are crazy for the wiring. Colorado had a huge problem where hundreds of cars left at airport parking were damaged by rabbits. I found out that Bounce dryer sheets rubbed on wiring or just sheets themselves if in an enclosed area will work because something about that fresh smell is what they hate. Search Bounce/rats.
I cleaned her rodents out in short order with a 5 gallon bucket about a third full of water. Using duct tape as a hinge I fastened a ruler on the rim with peanut butter on the end over the center of the bucket.
The rat walked out for the peanut butter and it dumped them into the water and automatically reset for the next rat. Caught over a dozen of them the first night. problem solved.
I had the same thing happen to one of my vehicles. I just put out rat bait where I parked after this. Squirrels love rat bait. They died.
Actually it is not a pretty death. The bait is a powerful anticoagulant which is warfarin. They just bleed to death. That is okay with me. The little bastards cost me a great deal of money on repairs. They are dead.
Oddly the same drug is used in therapy in humans under strict controls and monitoring at much lower doses. It saves lives in preventing strokes and deep vein thrombosis. It is a powerful drug but used properly and monitored a good drug.
Today we have other drugs that are much more benign. However for certain conditions warfarin is still the drug of choice.
cpdiii the pharmacist.
I tried a bunch of stuff to keep the mice out of my garage - still can’t figure out how they get in. Since I’ve added a couple of more bright lights and leaving them on all the time I haven’t had a problem.
Were expecting a cold spell though, so we’ll see if the lights will continue to keep them at bay.
Wrist Rocket or Tiki blowgun. Both are quieter and sharpen your eye just as well. I pinned a tree rat to an oak trunk with a mouth dart once and it didn't know what hit him. The Wrist Rockets and a steel bearing (or Wrist Rifles, if you like the big, long-draw bands) can knock one into the next zip code from 25 yards. Been years since I owned either, but the little bandits are starting to get into my blueberry bushes and peach trees now that they're getting big enough to fruit, and I ain't running a produce stand for flea-laden rodents. Time to consult the BudK folks on their Spring 2020 inventory.
No where is that "Like" ^ button?
I grew up backwoods and dirt poor. I learned all the tricks for killing animals for food. We lived on roadkill stew.
Black walnut hulls or quick lime will provide a mess of fish real quick.
That happened to my husband’s ‘98 Jaguar. It was outrageously expensive to repair. One thing after another with that darned car. Now it’s power steering has gone out. We’re afraid to get an estimate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.