Finally caught this little guy

[Meeka]

Get a garage cat.

They also like those raisinettes, chocolate covered raisins. I just put them on a regular mouse trap in my garage in winter, caught many a little bastard.

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[Gaidheal]

Set up some bait boxes and keep them topped-off with products from Liphatech: Resolv, FirstStrike, revolver, Flatline, etc.

If you need a pesticide license where you live to get those products call a pro to set you up.

Get them *before* they get to the vehicle and things are so much better/easier.

Here in Canada the only stuff you can get from hardware (etc) stores is a total joke compared to what we (I'm in pest control) use.

Other brands and products are good too but I've had 100% and *immediate* success with Liphatech and won't use anything else unless/until I see a need to deviate.

 

[Cherokee]

Now... How do I clean up the mess? I vacuum most of the poop and food. Before I go buy meguire APC or degreaser. Just making sure it's the right way so I don't do any electronic damages. So spray it on the engine bay then brush and use a rag to clean off the urine? It peed on some screws so I want to make sure I don't have rusted bolts again which happened on my last vehicle.

Edited post to put a dead rat into spoiler. Feel free to click but don't go PETA on me.

Spoiler: nsfw

I see no rat. I see only a mouse.

 

[DLMDINIA]

Rats my ass, that’s a lowly mouse! You Americans make such a BIG deal over the smallest things, and I’ll have to leave it at that or get suspended! Jeez , a Rat. We have grasshoppers in Canada bigger than that ‘Rat’.

I thought it looked like a rat myself so I looked up the differences between the two. Can't see the head so can't identify that way, but you can see the tail. When enlarged it looks scaly to me. A mouse has a hairy tail, but a rat's is hairless and scaly. I'd say small rat. Also, mice eat grains, but rats eat anything including trash. I vote rat.

 

[kidshelleen]

You want stronger capsaicin than jalapenos - at least 90,000 scovilles. The same thing applies for coating bird seed to keep tree rats out of the feeders. They scoff at the ~10k of jalapenos.

Just spray cat urine around the engine bay....

But seriously, to clean it from mouse/rat urine you probably need to first apply the same enzyme-stuff that's used for pet urine odors, and lots of it. I think it probably also works for rodent urine.

-ks

 

[xk42]

I have no idea what they are but this little guy climb trees and have giant poo which is why I thought it was a rat. But anyway, they both have to go.

I thought it looked like a rat myself so I looked up the differences between the two. Can't see the head so can't identify that way, but you can see the tail. When enlarged it looks scaly to me. A mouse has a hairy tail, but a rat's is hairless and scaly. I'd say small rat. Also, mice eat grains, but rats eat anything including trash. I vote rat.

 

[KenR]

I parked my 2020 F150 over a bright 12 VDC LED light for years to stop rodent damage a 2nd time [it worked 100% for me]. I still park over the same LED light with my 2025 Maverick [no issues].

 

[Jah.]

It's a young rat . tail to long for a mouse .

Father-in-law had problems with groundhogs gnawing on wires of pickup truck at his farm (80 acres) . could shot firearms on farm so guess what happened to those critters . I miss the farm because I had a firing range set up to practice shooting side arms . here in Florida squirrel , rats and mice can cause problems in vehicles and homes . learned from plumber that a lot of his call Are from rats gnawing on pex (plastic ) water lines in attics . I guess they like the taste .

 

[commod0re]

Get a garage cat.

Cats in general do not deserve their reputations as ratters unfortunately

That’s not to say that there are no cats who are good ratters, there are, but it’s less common than media has led us to believe

 

[commod0re]

A mouse has a hairy tail, but a rat's is hairless and scaly.

House mice have hairless tails so I don’t think this is true

 

[mwr32]

Check your air (engine) filter box. They can crawl down the intake. I fashioned a metal mesh screen towards the top of the intake to prevent them from going down.

 

[retrojet]

The 5 gallon bucket traps work well...

 

[kidshelleen]

Cats in general do not deserve their reputations as ratters unfortunately

That’s not to say that there are no cats who are good ratters, there are, but it’s less common than media has led us to believe

It depends entirely on the individual cat. Some are great. Some are useless. I've had both. I grew up on a farm (and have had cats since; with an extra litter box and plenty of food and water they can hang out alone for a week). A rat got into a barrel once where we kept milled grain. The barrel was only about half full, and the rat couldn't jump out (surprised me - only about 20"). I dropped the cat in and the rat started racing around like it was a horizontal exercise wheel. The cat was confused for a moment, then casually stuck out a paw in the path of the rat an caught it.

We had a rescue cat for a while who insisted on going outside. He loved to kill chipmunks and just eat the heads. I used to see decapitated chipmunks when mowing the yard.

My current cat is a feeble mouser, although she surprised me a couple of months ago by jumping up on the couch with a mouse that had a sucking chest wound. I taught it to swim and had to get blood spatter out of the couch. Only one she ever caught in 15 years.

Her late brother was a great mouser. I remember a couple of times when we was tossing a cat toy 6' into the air in the family room, until I thought, "Wait... that's not a cat toy." One other time he came strolling into the room with cheeks puffed up like a chipmunk and a mouse tail sticking out of his mouth. He went to the middle of the room, spat it out, and gently patted it a couple of times until it jumped up and tried to run away. He was good at wearing out his mice without breaking them.

-ks

 

[SafetyGuy]

The 5 gallon bucket traps work well...

I can vouch for this contraption...but don't use water, use ANTI-FREEZE in the bucket.

Your nose and stomach will thank you on clean up day.

.especially if you leave if for a few days, or more.

Andy

 

[DLMDINIA]

House mice have hairless tails so I don’t think this is true

Not according to Orkin. The hair on a mouse tail is fine, but it's there.

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