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Rat attack!

t arnold

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1700 miles on new lariat hybrid. It’s the season for getting ready for winter. Driving last Thursday and running very rough. Get out, lift hood, rats nest. Chewed thru wires on one injector harness. Dealership says 2 connectors and short harness. $695 plus tax! They had to order connector.
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B2000

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Have not had any problems in any of my garages but when I parked my old B2000 in the driveway mice or some rodent filled the air cleaner with acorns. To do that they had to crawl up and into the snorkel. No damage though- just emptied it out.
 

Scott Asheville

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OP, I share your pain. Ten days ago I posted my own thread on a rodent attack. And yup, it cost me the same amount of money to get it fixed - just shy of $700.

I had the same thing happen a decade or so ago with an old Ranger - rodents chewed through the spark plug wires. This time it was rodents chewing through the wiring harness. So that's twice in twenty years, which I'm OK with.

Some things people do include (1) starting up the vehicle daily, (2) using an essential oil rodent spray (like peppermint), available on Amazon. This time I'm going with the spray.

Both times I was hit, my vehicle had been sitting for several days.
 

Cancunbadlands

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Geez! Hope won't take any longer
 

gjallen3

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Here in AZ it's Pack Rats. If I keep it garaged I'm OK, but put it out in the driveway over night and I'm bound to get some. Luckily I was able to splice the chewed wires and all is good. I check under the hood each morning if I can, spray with peppermint regularly (not sure that works), gave up on those battery powered sonic/light things. They actually build nests right on top of them. Worthless. I don't have a cat so what eventually worked for me was trapping them. I also found leaving the hood open at night cut down activity, but I don't like doing that.
 

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dhaskit

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Evidently, the insulation on electrical wires is often made from Soy.
Yes, as in Soybeans. Rodents love it, which really sucks.

Sorry to hear about your perils, man. I’ve had vehicles chewed on as well and it’s often difficult to find all the damaged wires. I have no helpful suggesting to prevent it.
 

d7602002

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If you have rodents like that can't you put some sort of trap near the vehicle that will attract them and kill them? Or some kind of poison they can drink. I'm a believer I'll let animals live until they become a problem for me, then they must die.
 

Propane Burning Man

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A problem here too. Every place is different, but I just figured rodents are everywhere. Rats are the worst. They do their dirty work at night which makes it a tougher problem to deal with. I have trapped 100's of em over the last 20 years. No bait. Find where their trails are that they use over and over set the trap in the trail and they will run right on it. I also have a .22 rifle with a laser sight on it. I have a rat problem at the chicken coop. At night I sneak over there with my headlight on my head and the rats will many times just freeze in the light, then put the red dot on em and BOOM... out go the lights! The rats still alive will clean up the mess! I rarely us poison. Only if I can use it somewhere only rats will get to. Otherwise other animals will eat it too. Cats work good too. ✌
 

gjallen3

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Evidently, the insulation on electrical wires is often made from Soy.
Yes, as in Soybeans. Rodents love it, which really sucks.

Sorry to hear about your perils, man. I’ve had vehicles chewed on as well and it’s often difficult to find all the damaged wires. I have no helpful suggesting to prevent it.
There is some debate around the soy theory but it does make sense. What I have read really drives rodents to chew is that their teeth are constantly growing and they have to chew things to keep them filed down or they will grow out of their mouths, They do chew just about anything. Wood, plastic, wires, etc. Given the choice, maybe the soy based wires are more tasty but if they are in your engine bay they will snack on something else if not the wires. Best to just find away to keep them out.
 

gjallen3

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A problem here too. Every place is different, but I just figured rodents are everywhere. Rats are the worst. They do their dirty work at night which makes it a tougher problem to deal with. I have trapped 100's of em over the last 20 years. No bait. Find where their trails are that they use over and over set the trap in the trail and they will run right on it. I also have a .22 rifle with a laser sight on it. I have a rat problem at the chicken coop. At night I sneak over there with my headlight on my head and the rats will many times just freeze in the light, then put the red dot on em and BOOM... out go the lights! The rats still alive will clean up the mess! I rarely us poison. Only if I can use it somewhere only rats will get to. Otherwise other animals will eat it too. Cats work good too. ✌
Yes please! Do not poison rodents. Because they eat the poison and don't die right away. Only for raptors or Coyotes to eat the poisoned rats in turn poisoning an unintended target and killing them.
 
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gjallen3

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If you have rodents like that can't you put some sort of trap near the vehicle that will attract them and kill them? Or some kind of poison they can drink. I'm a believer I'll let animals live until they become a problem for me, then they must die.
Do not poison rodents. Raptors and other carnivores eat the poisoned rodents and then die from the poison in the rat. Shoot 'em or trap them. It doesn't matter but please! Do not spread poison every where.
 

Fender66

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Here in the southeast, squirrels are about getting into things (boats, camper, cars, homes).
They can devastate some wiring.
 

DermotF

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I feel your pain. A few months ago I had my headlights staying illuminated for about 10-15 and couldn’t get them to turn off.

ended up being some chewed wires on the headlight wiring harness
 

zorki1c

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My dad had a Ford 9N tractor that sat for several months. I started it up and feathers and blood went everywhere. A sparrow had built a nest on the engine and when I started it the bird flew into the fan.
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