Team-BHP - Rat damage to cars | Protection, solutions & advice

I think i need to share my experience here which will help many of you guys i am sure

Even in my society rats come out in the night for the hunt to eat something but end up chewing wires of the cars and bikes parked.
Wires of my XUV 500 had been eaten up atleast 4-5 times and everytime the car had to be taken to the service center on a flatbed, Once the car went through a complete wiring change of the car which costed me around 24k! Similar thing has happend with my previous cars VW polo and Sx4.

Had tried everything from tobacco, Medicines for rat, Devices which makes sound and is supposed to scare the rats away, but in the end none of it worked.

Finally my dad decided to give a call to one of his really old mechanic, and well here is the best solution.

Solution : Tar brush, Available at hardware stores, now you need to fix it at crucial places from where the rat can get inside your engine compartment or anywhere else, for instance its fixed near the engine above and below in my xuv 500, and its been almost a year now and i have no issues, even though i can see around 4 huge rats almost everynight roaming freely in the society.

Will post pics if anyone would like to see how is it installed.

Regards,
Tanveer

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tanveer_2558 (Post 3721519)

I think i need to share my experience here which will help many of you guys i am sure

Solution : Tar brush, Available at hardware stores, now you need to fix it at crucial places from where the rat can get inside your engine compartment or anywhere else, for instance its fixed near the engine above and below in my xuv 500, and its been almost a year now and i have no issues, even though i can see around 4 huge rats almost everynight roaming freely in the society.

Will post pics if anyone would like to see how is it installed.

Thanks Tanveer. What exactly is the tar brush? Does this solution work because of the smell? Pic will be appreciated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat (Post 3721523)

Thanks Tanveer. What exactly is the tar brush? Does this solution work because of the smell? Pic will be appreciated.

Its just like a normal brush, the one you comb your hair with, the only difference is the black soft part is replaced with sharp thin nails which can really give a painfull treatment to the rats even if its touched slightly.

Edit: Will post a few pics tomorrow.

Rats made maintaining my vehicle a difficult job. Every night rats enter my car and chop every single wire. From light wire to the music system. I've been to workshop this month thrice. Now today morning my subwoofer is not working. Can you guys give me some advices? I've tried everything from blocking every single whole in the car to rat kills. Every month I've to clean my air conditioning and I refill the gas. And not to mention, they hate my neighbor's car and profoundly in love with my car.

Kind of :OT for the main topic of protecting cars from rats but this is still related to rats.
This has got to be the weirdest thing I heard just today.
I saw a guy with a little bird cage having couple of white rats and he was heading towards a local grocery store. I asked him about it and he said, he was going to hand them over to the shopkeeper...to protect the store from the regular rats and mice :Shockked:
He went on to say that these rats don't attack/feed on any of the stuff inside the store (I can't believe this at all as the shop stocks all kinds of rice, pulses, junk food packets like chips and the like) if they're kept well fed by the shopkeeper and they are extremely loyal and will not allow any other rats/mice to enter the store.
This was just too much to believe, so just putting it out there to get views from anyone who may have some insights.

To (mis)quote Rudyard Kipling:

White Rat's Burden ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPV (Post 3741084)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nl5zERfvKl0

Have a look at this ingenious garage solution!

I happened to chance upon this video on Facebook and instantly thought about this thread and how it could be useful to keep the little buggers away.

Although I suspect that they will find a way to sneak inside it. That gap at the bottom is large enough for even decent sized rats to creep into the space. It can be temporarily sealed though, I'm sure.

I usually use my nano amt for city drives and the daily office commute. The i20 CRDi is used for out of state trips and the occasional highway miling. I take it out for a short spin every weekend to keep the battery charged and the a/c lubricated. The last week I had checked the engine bay and it was evenly dusty giving me no signs of any rodents. This week I noticed a few tiny paw prints on top of the battery, the ECU next to it and on the air filter intake pipe. Also on the plastic engine cover. It seems these rats do have sharp claws as there were scratches too on the plastic. Also noticed a few shreds of foam strewn around the engine. I got the shock of my life seeing this. Tried starting the car and thankfully it started right up. Everything was working too. Now tried to find out where these foam pieces came from. After a lot of poking around I discovered that the rat had sat atop the battery and feasted on the black foam box covering the battery. One side was almost a quarter in tatters. AND after it got tired of this taste it had moved towards the firewall and tried gnawing through the insulation and made two holes in it.:Frustrati None of the wires were touched though. I decided that I could not afford to have a rat with destructive mentality running around in my engine. Placed a trap that night below the car. Caught the little bugger with his pants down the same night. Its been one week since this has happened and the trap has not triggered again since this episode. I can rest until the next one finds out how delicious my engine tastes!

Just discovered a rat repellent spray on ebay. Does someone have any experience using this? I just want these rodents to have fun elsewhere and keep away from my car. Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.

What i do is fill the small plastic bottles with cotton dipped in little eucalyptus oil and hang that bottle in engine bay. puncture few holes in the plastic bottles on all sides. Hang one on each sides (secure with zip ties if needed) and trust me guys, it works like a charm. Make sure the eucalyptus oil you use is strong enough. Peppermint oil also works. Hope this help you guys.:thumbs up