[theexperthand]

My choice will be the Honda Accord type box, but instead of the white metal sheet, I will go for smooth Tin or Aluminium sheets and will fence it at about 3-4 feet high.

Will it be possible for you to post 1 or 2 actual photos of your garage? It may help to understand the problem better.

Another (slightly crazy) idea is to install scissor lifts and lift up your car after parking (and of course cover the scissor arms with smooth tin or aluminium sheets).

--Anoop

[sukhoi30]

Best bet is to get a few cats, breed them and let them loose in the society. Make sure there are no stray dogs around else they will drive away the cats. Rodents steer clear of cats as they are their natural enemies. Even the scent of a cat is enough to put them off.

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by GTO

Questions:

1. Which one of the above would you choose & why?

2. If chicken net, how tall should it be? Trust me, we have BIG rats in our building.

3. Given the material texture of the chicken net, won't rats be able to easily climb over it?

4. I'm becoming increasingly keen on the white fence (Honda Accord pictures above). I thought of placing (foldable) transparent acrylic panels around the car. Since the material is smooth, rats won't be able to climb over the sheets. Plus, transparent acrylic / plastic sheets will be aesthetically pleasing. What height should these panels be?

5. Any alternate fencing solutions you might suggest?

6. Any other tips, advice or things to keep in mind?

the only fool-proof way is to make a "box" around the car. If money is not a constraint, this is what i would do -

• Erect 4 poles at each corner of parking slot. The pole height can be say 6 feet.
• Purchase the finest chicken mesh possible (as close knit as possible) and install to a height of 6 feet. Cover the roof with the Honda accord type sheet shown above.
• Keep a simple mechanism to open / close the chicken mesh on the "entry" side of the slot.
• Wrap two rounds of fine barbed wire to act as a deterrent for the rat to climb.

Chicken Mesh - just because it is metal, supposedly harder to chew than plastic.
I would say as tall as the car itself
This is where he barbed wire comes into play
Cat is a very good suggestion - but we need to take into account the maintenance cost of a cat

[hserus]

Big rats as in bandicoots? You're stuck with exterminating the nests is all. Cats will take care of the small to medium sized ones no issues.

More to the point, make sure your building and neighbouring buildings don't dump trash / filth anywhere near your place, and that bbmp or someone regularly carts it away. That will attract rats far more efficiently than cars do.

[ram_hyundai]

Originally Posted by Grand Drive

Put a car cover, choose the chicken net accompanied with a cat. The reasons for me to choose the chicken net over other options are as follows :

• It's very cheap.

• It hardly takes few minutes to put the net post parking.

• Rats won't dare to climb the net or even come near your compound because of cats.

• Cats cannot enter the engine bay because of the net.

Cats do enter the engine bay. We had a case were the mother cat and 2 young ones were in the engine room and the owner never knew of it. Suddenly he heard some noise and drove straight to the service center. On inspection the mother cat was tangled in the belts and passed away but surprisingly both the young ones survived.

[hserus]

I was lucky that I saw the kitten walk in, when that happened to my amaze - a stick rattled around there couldnt dislodge it (was careful not to touch the thing). Then had to start the engine and gun it a little. Luckily the kitten ran away after hearing the noise.

Though as Grand Drive says - "they won't enter because of the net". Presumably your car, like mine, didn't have a chicken net around it.

[babu.sundaram]

I had this problem at my home. After trying tobacco, napthalene and poisons I found that not only these were notwhere close to effective, the rats were taking them for snack!

Two things have kept them at bay, so far..
1. Spraying diesel in the tyres/undersides from where rat can climb into the car and also on the floor.
2. My parking has a dry drain below, covered with stone slabs. Once a while I dump waste papers in it and burn, so no garbage below (only a smoky smelling drain!).

And yes, no foods/waste material left in car / nearby.

[Grand Drive]

Originally Posted by babu.sundaram

Two things have kept them at bay, so far..
1. Spraying diesel in the tyres/undersides from where rat can climb into the car and also on the floor.
2. My parking has a dry drain below, covered with stone slabs. Once a while I dump waste papers in it and burn, so no garbage below (only a smoky smelling drain!).

Please reconsider your actions as in order to prevent the rat menace, you are inviting a fire hazard.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by babu.sundaram

1. Spraying diesel in the tyres/undersides from where rat can climb into the car and also on the floor.
2. My parking has a dry drain below, covered with stone slabs. Once a while I dump waste papers in it and burn, so no garbage below (only a smoky smelling drain!).

And yes, no foods/waste material left in car / nearby.

Originally Posted by Grand Drive

Please reconsider your actions as in order to prevent the rat menace, you are inviting a fire hazard.

Dear Sundaram,
Apart from the fire hazard, you are actually deteriorating the tires by spraying diesel on the rubber. I strongly advice against this practice. The rubber will lose its integrity sooner and a sidewall failure while driving can result in a serious accident.

Regards.

[low_rider]

Another idea, although a costly one is to install a car parking lift. This is used to stack one car upon another. You can just use the upper deck for staying out of reach of rats. I have seen these installed in few buildings in Mumbai, but its primary purpose is to increase the parking space.

Some manufacturer's details are listed here .

[Thilak29]

I faced this problem chronically when I bought Brio, I tried naphthalene balls to gutka packs but what came to my rescue was an adorable cat. No incidents whatsoever since then.

[sourav9385]

Umm...Here's something that I've personally tried and tested, and can confirm that it works brilliantly!

It's a piece of cardboard which is covered with super sticky glue that you can lay out on the floor.

The best way to get rats to stick on to it, is by placing a small item of food in the middle of it.

Here's how the stuck rat looks like:



Then you simply pick up the board, and cast it away!

You should be able to find such a rat glue board thing at your local convenience store. Or, if you're that desperate, order a few off eBay

I had a rat menace in our apartment & near our car a few months ago, and we used these instead of the conventional barbaric rat traps.

These worked great, and within 2 days, we were able to get rid of the few who were frequenting our apartment.

Although, the rats we caught were small in size. Much like the size visible in the image above.

The glue board should work with bigger rats. But in case you're hesitant to try it out, or if the glue board is unavailable, try a cat like tsk has mentioned earlier

[thoma]

Rats can climb any height. They climb our coconut tree easily and jump off to the neighbors a/c through the long leaves. After many an incident, they installed a mesh covering the a/c fully.

I would suggest to install a skeleton (as in a cricket net, pic 1) using rectangular sections to fix meshes as bellow (pic 2, 3), covering the car in fully, i.e, you cannot afford the space of a shuttered garage. Twin door gate using the same mesh can be used as entrance, to save space.

Disclaimer: May be I'm stupid!







Image credits and rights rests with respective owners.

[babu.sundaram]

Originally Posted by Grand Drive

Please reconsider your actions as in order to prevent the rat menace, you are inviting a fire hazard.

Not really, they both are needed only once in 3 months or so (and almost never together). I should have mentioned that!

Originally Posted by saket77

Dear Sundaram,
Apart from the fire hazard, you are actually deteriorating the tires by spraying diesel on the rubber. I strongly advice against this practice. The rubber will lose its integrity sooner and a sidewall failure while driving can result in a serious accident.

Regards.

Didn't know this! Good info.

[Captain Slow]

I had the same problem, found a very simple and cost effective solution.

Strong Pesticides! Spray this around your car and under your car once in 7-10 days and nothing will go near your car.

This works out cheaper than anything else and this is very easy to do it yourself. A Large pesticide can lasts me 3-4 months. At Rs - 200-250 Per can, this works well for me.