RATS ARE EATING MY D3

[wardh]

WARNING! with the season we have had rodents have built up and with winter approaching they are seeking out warm shelter. :(Namely my much loved D3. Yesterday I lifted the hood and on top of the engine cover was a pile of foam, bits of plastic, paper and dry grass. To the right in front of the main battery compartment the wiring harness was chewed through exposing the copper in the cables. I removed the plastic cover from the top of the engine and the whole engine top was covered with chewed up foam, paper, and grass all packed around the oil filter and every little space you could see. Turning the engine cover over revealed 1/3 of the sound proof foam had been stripped off the cover.

Now the scary part is this all happened over ONE NIGHT the previous day I had been to Brisbane and as I aways do had done a complete under bonnet check before the trip.

So yesterday was spent removing the debris from the top of the engine, luckly there was no damage to the wireing or hoses on the engine. I then split the chewed harness in front of the battery and repaired the wireing, heat shrinking joins and tapeing the damage.

In the afternoon I went to the produce store and bought a large box of rat poison and 4 traps and set it all around the vehicle in the garage. I left the engine cover off because I will have to repair/replace insulation on cover and I left the bonnet up with a trap set in front of the battery.

This morning I checked the traps, nothing but bait had been taken from all the stations. A carefull look around the engine bay revealed no damage but plenty of droppings with a slight tinge of green, I sort of got a satisfied feeling hopeing that the bastered had a real gut acke, but it was then I spotted the pile of insulation and plastic on the floor under the D3 below the transmission.

Last night as far as I can see the rat has been working away at the foam and plastic above the transmission about where the selector lever is. Now I need help! How do I check this. Is it possible a rat could access the centre console from there and get inside the vehicle. How can I access and look inside the console.

Help please, "Rats are eating my D3"

Howard

[p38arover]

Ruddy heck!

Do you live in a rural area or on a farm?

I have no idea how you'd fix the problem. Will the insurance company cover the damage?

[Scouse]

Will the insurance company cover the damage?We've had similar repairs through here go through insurance.

[wardh]

Ron,

We are rural, 56 acres outside of Stanthorpe, but be aware this can happen in town. Some 20 years ago on the Gold Coast a rat damaged my wifes car.

There is nothing to attract vermin around our property, we have no crops, fruit or veggies and the D3 is garaged in a clean New steel shed with no rubbish or long grass around it.

I also had a Discovery 1 once that had the turbo inlet hose eaten, a rat thought the ribs on the hose were a good thing to try out his teeth. Again this happened when the season started to cool.

Scott,

A good point about insurance I must admit due to being so upset by what is happening I have not thought about that. Thanks for the reminder I will check it out.

Howard

[roamer]

Common problem in rural areas ,we live about 500m from a macadamia farm, when they pick up the nuts the rats go crazy looking for food.

We always have baits out where cars and machinary are kept,
The rodents keep eating them I keep putting them back, they just love the stuff ;);)
If you don't like baits, some reckon leave the light on and the bonnet up
Cheers Ken

[nicho]

Try lighting a very smokey fire in a brazzier in the garage and leave the doors of the disco open Rats hate smoke if there are any in there they will hitail it.

[roamer]

Try lighting a very smokey fire in a brazzier in the garage and leave the doors of the disco open Rats hate smoke if there are any in there they will hitail it.




What The ..:angel: Smoke out the shed and the inside of the car.

This is a D3/D4/RRS forum......:cool: please behave lol

Cheers Ken

[JohnF]

When I wanted a RR, and before I purchased my first one, I met two people who had given away old RR. One RR-- a bored dog belonging to the owner's lady friend had eaten the seats. So If you are going to give you D3 away, just because some of it has been eaten by rats give it to me :):):) It will be accepted gratefully.

But sorry for your problem. Perhaps a hungry carpet snake inside the D3 may help--years ago I got a mention in column 8 of the Sydney Morning Herald when someone saw the carpet snake I had loose in my car.

Chain a dog-- a good ratter species under the car also.

[Neil P]

Couple of saucers of bleach around the vehicle . They hate the smell.

[wardh]

Thanks Guys some interesting comments.

Ken, I also usually keep baits in the shed all the time, have done since the D1 turbo hose attack. Unfortunately this critter seems to want to fix up his living quarters and move in before having a good feed

Nicho, I love the leather smell of the D3 not so sure about smoked leather. Also glad I happened to check and find the nest otherwise the amount of rubbish plus engine heat and possible wireing shorts could have resulted in smoked D3

JohnF, Look up Stanthorpe Qld, known to freeze the balls off a Brass Monkey. No carpet snakes.

Dogs? mumm! got a dog I think she share's her dinner with the wildlife.

Lights? I used to have an old Disco ball but that might encourage the vermin to realy party. Might burn a couple of small kero lights on the floor either side of the vehicle tonight and still hope the buggers get a gut full of ratsack.

Anyhow you have cheered me up somewhat but does anybody know how to get into the centre console around the auto selector lever. Still need to see if there is damage or lf they can access the vehicle interier.

Cheers Howard

[wardh]

Couple of saucers of bleach around the vehicle . They hate the smell.

Thanks Neil I will include the bleach. What the hell may as well included moth balls I know possoms hate that just in case they are cross breeds;)

[Gillie]

I had this problem in the Falcon work car two years ago. But alas with two small children there was probably a few crumbs in the car seats they were after. I just cleaned the car and never had the problem again.
I have heard that snake poo scattered around tthe outside of the house will keep them away.
We currently have a cat at the moment and are one of the select few without a mice problem at the moment.
good luck with it, they can be very destructive.

[Graeme]

Anyhow you have cheered me up somewhat but does anybody know how to get into the centre console around the auto selector lever. Still need to see if there is damage or lf they can access the vehicle interier.http://www.aulro.com/afvb/1288941-post24.html

[Disco4SE]

We have rat / mouse problems on the Mornington Peninsula as well. A client was down at their holiday house at Mt Martha over the easter break. The wife left her brand new Mercedes Benz in the garage and used the husbands car over the break.
In that short time, rats had made a nest behind one of the headlights and eaten out part of the wiring loom. Cost her $1,800.00.
BTW: It is a brand new home and about 500m from the beach.
Cheers, Craig

[bigcarle]

read in the paper (forgot which newspaper duh) about the rodent plague we are having now up to 8000 rodents per hectare! :o
i think 1 cat would be very fat before they even made inroads on that number same for the python :D

[Neil P]

read in the paper (forgot which newspaper duh) about the rodent plague we are having now up to 8000 rodents per hectare! :o
New York Times ? Sounds like Manhattan a couple of
summers back :lol2:

8000 per Hc. is a seperation of 20" per rat !

[TerryO]

For about the last two to three months or so around here you have not been able to buy Ratsack or any other poisen as it is always sold out in every supermarket and general store every time we go in.

We have mice in the house and no matter what we do, how many traps we set, how much poisen we put down we can't get rid of them. Recently I have even seen mice crossing the roads around Goulburn as I have been driving along, that means there are millions of the blighters around the area.

Its certainly a problem all around the country it would seam.

cheers,
Terry

[Graeme]

For about the last two to three months or so around here you have not been able to buy Ratsack or any other poisen as it is always sold out in every supermarket and general store every time we go in.
A local here tried snail bait (the blue one) saying it killed them in about 5 minutes and is cheaper than rodent bait. Napthalene keeps them away for a little but they end-up eating it and dying from it and I think they stink worse when dead.

Get your bait from a rural commodity supplier - they are selling heaps.

[wardh]

I caught a very large rat over night in the garage and I am hopefull he was the offender. The wife did a lot of research yesterday and found some useful information.

It seems that pepermint is one of the best deterants, they hate it because it irratates their mucus membrane, so last night she made up a spray with water & pure essential peppermint oil, I sprayed the bonnet lining and the insulation under the vehicle, Then parked the D3 away from the house over night. I set more traps in the garage and hey presto, trapped rat and no more damage to D3. Will repeat for a few days.

Cheers

Howard

[tony66_au]

Got the same issue with my RRC but mine was parked in a paddock for a while.

I baited the car with 8 block baits and walked away, next day they were 90 % gone so i re-baited and the next lot were nibbled and that was it.

Sadly now I cant get in the thing without airing it out first and after removing half the dash and finding 12 dead meeces and 2 dead rats (Yes I know they don't cohabitate ) I reckon im just on the tip of the iceberg.

Ive also done a bio hazard style interior clean and the buggers **** everywhere (Scuse the language) which is nasty so I was thorough.

On the bright side my central locking works again (Probably until the rat carcass dries out) but it looks like im stripping the dash right out to finish the dead rat/mouse removal.

Good luck,

Tony.

By the way, I have an extensive baiting program I follow on a weekly basis (Or sooner if demand dictates) which i follow year round and I am still feeding out bait at the rate of a bucket a week, you cant get rid of them but you can keep the population at bay.

[bigcarle]

not in the same league but when i bought a Morris Nomad recently off ebay it came from Beaudesert and had been parked for 22years due to the original owner being deceased.
on inspection i saw a mummified rat at the back of the engine, however after purchase and engine degrease another 2 mummified carcasses came out! :o
lucky they didn't get inside as the interior is in very good nick;)

[Dingmark Jim]

Rats eating electrical insulation is sometimes a problem for jet aircraft parked overnight. It's one of those things that gets checked in the initial walk-around. What is it with rodents and wiring? In the US, a fortune is spent by telecoms on research to find out how to keep squirrels from eating phone cabling. One of the big blackouts (from Canada to near Washington DC by memory) was caused by a squirrel eating insulation in a transformer, causing a short circuit and down went the lights for 40 million people. It's going to be a bigger problem as there are more sensors around vehicles. Even if our new D5's run on fibre optics power telemetry systems is still needed.

At least this is one advantage for Perth having been in a drought....

[RHS58]

Old thread resurrected.

I have evidence of a rodent(?) in my D4.
Poop and puddles on the front passenger floor mat.
Attempts at nesting - sound proofing material brought in to the glove box.

Not really any rat / mouse smell.
We do have dunnarts in the garden.

How do they get in to a shut and locked vehicle?

Ron

[Graeme]

Inspect the pollen filter for damage. Also remove the engine acoustic cover.

[LandyAndy]

Old thread resurrected.

I have evidence of a rodent(?) in my D4.
Poop and puddles on the front passenger floor mat.
Attempts at nesting - sound proofing material brought in to the glove box.

Not really any rat / mouse smell.
We do have dunnarts in the garden.

How do they get in to a shut and locked vehicle?

Ron

Do you have a nice bushy beard????
Could have escaped from there:p:p:p:p:p
Andrew

[gotaflat]

Inspect the pollen filter for damage. Also remove the engine acoustic cover.

yep - check the pollen filter - they ate through mine and got into the car.. I posted a pic a while back.

as we are on a farm... i gave them a 'special brew' ... :wasntme:

cycle your poisons around your shed/house - they get use to one type. Warfarin (ratsac)/counmatetralyl (racumin). make sure your cats down eat the dead ones.

ow - and set a trap in your car... then you know you got the bastard thats in your car....

[crawal]

After spending $600.00 in the past 6 months on rat damage to the disco. i forgot to check the caravan :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Little :censored::censored::censored:
They had made it home trashed everything plastic , matting fly screens , etc
Insurance said bad luck :censored:Left the other cars alone just the disco , now all cars have camphor balls and smelly things in them under them and plenty of bait packs around the sheds , house etc
Never had a problem in the past 16 years living here, now war is declared ((((

[RHS58]

Do you have a nice bushy beard????
Could have escaped from there:p:p:p:p:p
Andrew

Yep.
A very bushy beard.

[Narangga]

yep - check the pollen filter - they ate through mine and got into the car.. I posted a pic a while back.

as we are on a farm... i gave them a 'special brew' ... :wasntme:

cycle your poisons around your shed/house - they get use to one type. Warfarin (ratsac)/counmatetralyl (racumin). make sure your cats down eat the dead ones.

ow - and set a trap in your car... then you know you got the 8astard thats in your car....

My father did not like poisons so his 'special brew' was icing sugar mixed with cement...

He also referred to the warfarin he took for his heart complaint as 'ratsac' :D

[Oztourer]

Hi Howard
I used these two videos when I did mine. The second one is for an RRS but the process is similar. Good luck with it!!

http://youtu.be/l-ROTQt7-ds


http://youtu.be/poQmCr_HSBQ

[crawal]

Dale , thanks for the tip going grocery shopping , to get special ingredients :D

[LandyAndy]

Borax is something to add to the brew,its not nice stuff in big doses.In the cleaning isle at coles.
1 teaspoon in a watering can is very good for seedlings too.Boron promotes cell growth.
Andrew

[RHS58]

Inspect the pollen filter for damage. Also remove the engine acoustic cover.

Pollen filter is pristine.
Nothing untoward under the engine cover.

So how do the ****ers get in😡

[gotaflat]

check aircon ducts - pull centre dash and look to see if they have come in there? and around the rubber grommets in fire wall?
try a little talcum powder around ducts and look for the marks. Not many ways in really. - unless they are camped up in there ...

[crawal]

up under the rear bar , chewed the air return flap, into the rear quarter panel then chewed all the wires above the fuel filler

[drivesafe]

I owned and operated a security business for many years and we regularly had problems of false alarms being caused by spiders and insects landing on detectors in home and rodents passing by detectors in factory and commercial premisses.

When working with another company on a large installation, I was told to try spraying metho on and around the detectors.

While surface spry would kill insects, the problem was that the alarm would still be triggered before the insect died.

With the metho, because it contains Ipecac the insects and rodents are actually repelled and keep away from the detectors, and the effect lasts for up to 3 months.

Might be worth the try?

[DAMINK]

Dumb suggestion perhaps but what about those 12 volt rodent repellers?

Zaparat? Ultrasonic Rodent Repeller 12v (http://www.zaparat.com.au/contents/en-us/d15.html)

Seems a little excessive but given the issues you have perhaps not so much.

[mick88]

Back after the 2011 floods through Victoria the rodents were in plague proportions and someone on here suggested this product from Derwent Traders.
We purchased a tub and it is brilliant, cleaned them right up in no time at all. The blocks from the supermarkets were like candy compared to this stuff.


Ditrac (Tomcat ll) Red Blox 1.8Kg (http://www.derwenttraders.com.au/rats-and-mice-traps/diatric-tomcat-ii-red-1-8kg-blox)


Cheers, Mick.

[Disco-tastic]

Back after the 2011 floods through Victoria the rodents were in plague proportions and someone on here suggested this product from Derwent Traders.
We purchased a tub and it is brilliant, cleaned them right up in no time at all. The blocks from the supermarkets were like candy compared to this stuff.


Ditrac (Tomcat ll) Red Blox 1.8Kg (http://www.derwenttraders.com.au/rats-and-mice-traps/diatric-tomcat-ii-red-1-8kg-blox)


Cheers, Mick.

That stuff looks awesome. Not too expensive either when you consider 5 packets of ratsack are $5-7 bucks.

Cheers

Dan

[LGM]

Racumin......sachets of a very potent blue coloured poison for Rat's and Mice....place it outside the location where the vehicle is kept i.e. not in the garage or shed. I use a 300mm length of 90mm water pipe with the ends capped and a 30mm hole in the end caps sufficient for mice and rats to enter but small enough to stop pets like cats and dogs getting at the baits. This stuff works really really well!

[RHS58]

The mice and rats have been thriving in the garden shed on a diet of Tomcat blocks. Obviously they are tolerant of it after a while.

Have just switched over to Talon.

Have set a variety of traps in the car garage - I reckon if I put baits in there the ****ers will have a feed and crawl in to the cars to die, and boy, won't that stink, particularly on top of a hot motor or in a ventilation duct!

Have searched high and low, can't find where they 've been able to enter the car.

Cheers

Ron

[CSBrisie]

Very sympathetic - we live in suburban Ashgrove in Brisbane, and had a rat attack our RRV - in the carport - last year....fortunately it didn't do too much damage (under the bonnet like you) and we repaired it at our cost.


Now the dog sleeps in his bed in the carport at night (a Hungarian Vizsla I've learnt is a very efficient pest controller) and no more RR ambushes...just a dead rat left in the drive by "Rigby" every couple of months.

[Narangga]

The mice and rats have been thriving in the garden shed on a diet of Tomcat blocks. Obviously they are tolerant of it after a while.

Have just switched over to Talon.

Have set a variety of traps in the car garage - I reckon if I put baits in there the ****ers will have a feed and crawl in to the cars to die, and boy, won't that stink, particularly on top of a hot motor or in a ventilation duct!

Have searched high and low, can't find where they 've been able to enter the car.

Cheers

Ron

The 'special brew' that my father used in country SA, that I quoted earlier, was used around vehicles and seems to work slowly and so he did not ever have a mouse or rat die in the vehicle.

[worane]

These blighters are bad but when I was living in Kenya monkeys were an absolute menace. Leave a door ajar and they would trash your whole house.
We all had small weld mesh on all the windows.

[RHS58]

So far nothing in the traps.
Fresh droppings on the cars bonnets and D4 engine cover.
Found an impressive nest under the Honda's bonnet insulation.
No evidence of chewed wires etc so far.
Put out baits this morning.
:(
Gonna have to get a cat. I'm allergic to cats:(

[SimmAus]

The suspense is killing me....you'll have to post pictures to prove success!!!!

[RHS58]

The suspense is killing me....you'll have to post pictures to prove success!!!!

The tally so far:
1 x Mouse - RIP
1 x Yellow-footed Antechinus - this is the little female pictured that I suspect has been pooping and peeing over and within the D4, and nesting in the Honda. She has now been relocated.

Bacon rind seems to be the bait of choice.

Have placed out 3 x rat traps, 2 x mouse traps, 3 live cage traps.

[SimmAus]

Hopefully you got the culprit.
The yellow footed thing got my interest, so I googled...

The yellow-footed antechinus (Antechinus flavipes), also known as the mardo, is a shrew-like marsupial found in Australia. One notable feature of the species is its sexual behavior. The male yellow-footed antechinus engages in such frenzied mating that its immune system becomes compromised, resulting in stressrelated death before it is one year old.


Poor bugger!

[RHS58]

Some would say " what a way to go!"

I cringe to think what's been happening in my D4. ��

[RHS58]

Aargh! They're back!
5 days and the bonnet has been clean.
This morning, more pee and poop all over the bonnet.
Traps untouched. Will try fresh bacon rind.

[SBD4]

They love peanut butter.

Search for bucket trap on youtube. They seem to work well.

[crawal]

Yes we have used the bucket trap in the chook house ,use a alloy can the good old peanut butte :Drand just enough water for the swim bit

[Muskie]

WARNING! with the season we have had rodents have built up and with winter approaching they are seeking out warm shelter. :(Namely my much loved D3. Yesterday I lifted the hood and on top of the engine cover was a pile of foam, bits of plastic, paper and dry grass. To the right in front of the main battery compartment the wiring harness was chewed through exposing the copper in the cables. I removed the plastic cover from the top of the engine and the whole engine top was covered with chewed up foam, paper, and grass all packed around the oil filter and every little space you could see. Turning the engine cover over revealed 1/3 of the sound proof foam had been stripped off the cover.

Now the scary part is this all happened over ONE NIGHT the previous day I had been to Brisbane and as I aways do had done a complete under bonnet check before the trip.

So yesterday was spent removing the debris from the top of the engine, luckly there was no damage to the wireing or hoses on the engine. I then split the chewed harness in front of the battery and repaired the wireing, heat shrinking joins and tapeing the damage.

In the afternoon I went to the produce store and bought a large box of rat poison and 4 traps and set it all around the vehicle in the garage. I left the engine cover off because I will have to repair/replace insulation on cover and I left the bonnet up with a trap set in front of the battery.

This morning I checked the traps, nothing but bait had been taken from all the stations. A carefull look around the engine bay revealed no damage but plenty of droppings with a slight tinge of green, I sort of got a satisfied feeling hopeing that the bastered had a real gut acke, but it was then I spotted the pile of insulation and plastic on the floor under the D3 below the transmission.

Last night as far as I can see the rat has been working away at the foam and plastic above the transmission about where the selector lever is. Now I need help! How do I check this. Is it possible a rat could access the centre console from there and get inside the vehicle. How can I access and look inside the console.

Help please, "Rats are eating my D3"

Howard

I park my car in the shed and I live on rural property. I purchased a Big Cheese electronic pest system that emits a high frequency pulse and it keeps the geckos, mice and cockies out! A must have!!