Rocky ate my car

[KEH]

I'm glad to hear that about pepper spray. I can't have pecans because of squirrels so next year if I think of it I will try pepper spray on the trunk of the trees. I have already tried shooting the squirrels but as others said replacements come in.

I'm against relocating them at least on my property. I'm in favor of others dealing with their problems at home.

KEH

 

[inane2]

Chipmunks are a pain to me and my shop. Little guys are so quick. They like to retreat up the downspouts. I can usually flush them out and have an air rifle waiting on the other end for them. I have a feral tom cat that patrols the property. He's very good at catching and toying with them, then simply rips their little heads off.

Funny story, used to have a massive chestnut tree on the corner of the shop. Great food source for all types of varmints. It's gone now and that has helped a bunch. One spring, I was getting the Dixie Chopper ready for mowing season. Even though I'd had the battery on the charger, it seemed a little sluggish starting. 33hp Generac, 990cc, this motor will scream and if you mow at night, you can see the muffler just about glow orange. I was letting the engine warm up in the shop to change the oil and after a few minutes, it started shooting flaming hickory nuts out of the muffler. Shocked me pretty good because they were hitting the metal walls. Sounded like I was under attack. Turns out, the muffler was just about jam packed with hickory nuts.

 

[555]

I was a fleet manager for the USDA. We always had one or more vehicles that saw very little use. One of them was a 2009 Ford Explorer which the varmints found especially appealing. Once a week I would clean hickory nut shells off the top of the motor.

 

[GRB]

I'm pretty sure there is some soy based wiring. The big problem was all the Japanese made knock sensors that were being eaten at a substantial rate. My 2006 Ridgeline was eaten about 2010 and the replacement part was noted from Honda as Non Soy Based Wiring and had a pic of a squirrel or rat with a circle around it and a line through it. It really could be just one manufacturer of one product but I know it affected Honda, Toyota, and Nissan.
I don't think it was widespread through other wiring.

I have seen lots of damage in cars from rats and they seem to eat up everything. In my shop we have fixed rat damage for lots of people including several repair bills well over $5,000. I've seen them eat the plastic insulation and the copper wire.

In CA, our native Grey Squirrel never bothered cars. They have been replaced by the invasive Eastern Fox Squirrel from Kentucky/Tennessee. Those are far more numerous and damaging. Pets were let loose in West LA at the Veterans Hospital and they were purposely imported for Golden Gate Park since they were a lot more people friendly than the native Greys. The people in the mountains never have damage from the Greys but the people in town have damage from the Fox Squirrel. They are an invasive species so all need to die.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Grandpa Gus' Mouse Repellent Pouches

I have no idea if they actually work, but the principle is right !

 

[clubairth]

Yes crappy Soy based wiring!

Maybe follow some tips from this guy?

https://www.howtopreventratsfromeatingcarwires.com/2017/02/10/does-your-car-have-soy-based-wiring/

They can be impossible to get rid of and you have the perfect habitat for them.
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[alien]

Peppermint oil? Works for rodents.

I store a classic car over the winter. I use a few different things for rodents. Irish spring soap scattered around the vehicle, D Con rodent poison stations along the edge and in corners, and peppermint oil dropped around the perimeter and on some cloth placed under the vehicle. Not sure if any or all of them work or I have been lucky?

 

[4xdog]

The "soy" used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is there as a plasticizer, originally developed as a more sustainable and possibly safer alternative than the common di-octyl phthalate (DOP) plasticizers used for years.

Soybean oil (and other vegetable oils) are epoxy-modified for this purpose; the soy product is typically referred to as ESBO, epoxidized soybean oil. It's typically added (as far as I can tell) at from less than 10% by weight for "stiffer" PVC articles to up to 40% by weight for really "stretchy" PVC. It's overstating it, IMO, to call it "soy-based wiring". Something like "chemically-modified soy oil-containing wiring" is probably more accurate.

So the hypothesis is that a minor component of a chemically-modified vegetable oil in an otherwise somewhat nasty synthetic polymer is an irresistible squirrel bait.

Not impossible, I guess, but I don't buy it. Squirrels have eaten wiring on my vehicles for many years and the f'ing tree rats around my house eat all kinds of things -- biobased or not. My belief is that they're attracted to the dark, dry space under a car's hood, possibly with some residual warmth, and the handy wiring simply reminds them of the tree branches they commonly chew through in making their dreys.

Here's more technical detail than anyone here is likely to want on ESBO:
https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/To...il062019.pdf?LVXyPPxn8xq7shrxW2dBtF_lqU9rGPy_