Apr 12, 2011 – Driving Ms. Rattus
QUESTION:
How would you control a rat in a car?
ANSWER:
Rodent damage is common when these animals decide to get into vehicles, either inside the car itself or up into the engine compartment. They do what they do best, and gnaw on anything available, including wires and hoses. I have a friend who recently has a couple thousand dollars of damage done to their car by rats, although squirrels and other rodents are also well known for doing this. I will assume that in your case you are not dealing with a single rat that is entrenched in this car, and needs to be removed, but as is most common you have the rodent(s) coming and going and need to prevent this from happening. This is really tough, because it is almost impossible to seal the vehicle up such that the rodents cannot get into it. If the car is kept within a garage that could be sealed to exclude the rodents, that is the effort that should be made. But, cars kept outside remain vulnerable.
There is one repellent that you might try, and this is called DeTour For Rodents. I combines white pepper and garlic oil to create what the manufacturer calles a contact repellent, meaning the rodents have to come into contact with the material, so it has to be applied where you can be sure they will get onto it. It comes in a caulking tube and is applied as a paste. It is supposed to last up to 30 days if it remains in place, and hopefully will also leave some lasting reminder to the rodents that this location is undesirable. Because of its ingredients it is a Minimum Risk pesticide.
Other than this one possible repellent, you may be looking at attempting to kill the rat or rats with traps, and these can be placed in strategic places and baited with something tempting. Since the rat is unlikely to be finding things to eat within this car, it should be leaving it nightly to forage for food, and placing the traps where you suspect the rat to travel will increase the odds of capturing it. If this is a car used daily then obviously the traps would need to be removed each day, and this is going to be a real bother.
How would you control a rat in a car?
ANSWER:
Rodent damage is common when these animals decide to get into vehicles, either inside the car itself or up into the engine compartment. They do what they do best, and gnaw on anything available, including wires and hoses. I have a friend who recently has a couple thousand dollars of damage done to their car by rats, although squirrels and other rodents are also well known for doing this. I will assume that in your case you are not dealing with a single rat that is entrenched in this car, and needs to be removed, but as is most common you have the rodent(s) coming and going and need to prevent this from happening. This is really tough, because it is almost impossible to seal the vehicle up such that the rodents cannot get into it. If the car is kept within a garage that could be sealed to exclude the rodents, that is the effort that should be made. But, cars kept outside remain vulnerable.
There is one repellent that you might try, and this is called DeTour For Rodents. I combines white pepper and garlic oil to create what the manufacturer calles a contact repellent, meaning the rodents have to come into contact with the material, so it has to be applied where you can be sure they will get onto it. It comes in a caulking tube and is applied as a paste. It is supposed to last up to 30 days if it remains in place, and hopefully will also leave some lasting reminder to the rodents that this location is undesirable. Because of its ingredients it is a Minimum Risk pesticide.
Other than this one possible repellent, you may be looking at attempting to kill the rat or rats with traps, and these can be placed in strategic places and baited with something tempting. Since the rat is unlikely to be finding things to eat within this car, it should be leaving it nightly to forage for food, and placing the traps where you suspect the rat to travel will increase the odds of capturing it. If this is a car used daily then obviously the traps would need to be removed each day, and this is going to be a real bother.
