Rodents

Information and questions about driving in Andalucia, buying or importing cars and motorbikes plus legal issues surrounding taxes and licenses.
axarquian
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Rodents

Postby axarquian » Tue Aug 14, 2018 4:38 pm

Hi,

My car seems to have been visited by rodents. Scratching behind the instrument panel has been heard. Mouse/rat bait that was laid has been eaten/moved. Any suggestions as to how to evict these creatures would be much appreciated. Is there Anyone out there who specialises in visiting properties and evicting rodents from vehicles ? The idea of a rat popping its head out of the dash while driving does not appeal !!

olive
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Re: Rodents

Postby olive » Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:23 pm

Of greater concern is damage to the wiring loom

Keep putting bait down until you smell decomposing rodent. I find Mercadona's offering the most effective. Red and black box.

El Cid
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Re: Rodents

Postby El Cid » Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:44 pm

Killing it is probably easy but finding the remains could be very difficult without dismantling the inside of the car. In the UK I once had one (poisoned by our neighbourj die under our floorboards. Luckily I picked the right floorboard but it could have been a big problem, and boy, do they stink!

Trapping into a baited cage at least gives you the body, but what about trying these ultrasonic devices having left the window open?

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Wicksey
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Re: Rodents

Postby Wicksey » Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:53 am

We've never found the ultrasonic devices work. We used to live in a very old farmhouse in France and the roof space was alive with rats. We tried traps (and even put the cats up there one night!) and bought an ultrasonic deterrent but the only thing that worked was poison although I hated using it. Trouble is we couldn't find all the bodies .... you can imagine the smell, but it did subside after a week.

Problem for the OP may be keeping out any future infestations, even if you manage to dispatch the current ones. Keep going with the poison but finding if there's a nest nearby may help or parking somewhere different?? Get a cat? Ours are brilliant ratters!

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spanish_lad
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Re: Rodents

Postby spanish_lad » Wed Aug 15, 2018 12:52 pm

Its always a good idea to use cinta americana / gaffa tape to put some rat poison inside the engine bay, that way you can drive around and you dont have to worry about stuff falling down.

If its "tree rats" - the ones that like almonds and dark spaces, then thats easy enough, but if its mice the poison for them is like pellets, so its harder to stick them in place...
Alhaurin el Grande since 99, working at the airport since 2011.

casita-bonita
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Re: Rodents

Postby casita-bonita » Wed Aug 15, 2018 1:46 pm

Happened to me a couple of times. Firstime a rat got shut inside the car. Made it's way along a wiring conduit till it reached under the fuse box, and absolutely decimated all the cabling. Had it grua'd to Simon in Velez who did a magnificent job of figuring out the mess and restoring it all to working condition. After that episode I scattered some rat poison parcels around the car, including under the fuse box. He said that I was lucky that the little b***** hadn't eaten the cable withing the conduit as in that case the car would likely have been written off.

Couple of years later my car would only run in limp mode. Opened the bonnet and noticed that a large chunk of the noise insulating felt was missing, or to be more accurate had been moved to the battery bay and converted to a nice little nest. I've had a couple of problems in the past which caused the car to go into limp mode, one of which was a garage knocking off a vacuum pie from a sensor while changing the headlights. I always check this pipe when the car goes into limp mode in case the pipe has fallen off. On closer inspection I noticed that both the wires connecting to this sensor were eaten through. Quick fix for the garage.

One tip I was given was to place chunks of white polystyrene in crevices that may look homely to a mouse or rat. Seems that don't like the stuff. Cranky as it may sound I tried this. Along with the aforementioned poison inside the car I have (touch wood) had no rodent problems since. Apparently it's not uncommon for rat/mice to get inside the car out here in the campo.
Regards

Bob

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spanish_lad
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Re: Rodents

Postby spanish_lad » Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:33 pm

its a campo thing that nobody likes to talk about :lol:
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Gasman
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Re: Rodents

Postby Gasman » Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:27 pm

They love my Land Rover, there's a nice cosy little space in between the turbo and the exhaust manifold, it's always full of acorn husks and poo. Touch wood everything seems to work, but you never know on a Defender. The only thing that does have a problem I suspect due to rodent attack is the radio but you can't here that anyway and the ariel broke off a long while ago.


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