[hangover]

I've had stinking rats chewing up my battery cables and distributor wires. I tried chewing the cables myself but couldn't imagine why its irresistible to rats.

Now I find 2 methods which keep the rats away.

You need to buy tobacco leaves. These are about 1 feet long and any shop selling pooja eqpt. will have them. Each costs Rs. 8 to 12.

Just tie them to your Petrol pipe, battery cables, distributor cable and brake lines. It's too much effort to tie them to every single cable. I kept it for the ones without which the car can't start or move.

They should last about a couple of months.

I love the tobacco smell. But Rats can't stand this smell. And will avoid your car.

One more method is to put black pepper powder around your car park on the ground. Like a Lakshman Rekha. This would get blown away by the wind. So needs frequent refreshing.

Last method, if none of this works for YOUR rats, weld a close gap metal mesh to the bottom of the engine Bay.

[archat68]

just spray hit inside engine bay and around the car at night at 2-3 days interval. Rats will not come.

[Thad E Ginathom]

We have a new kitten. It seems to have become separated from its family, and was found by the otherwise fierce-and-fighting tom cat that resides in our side passage and relies on us for food. It is funny how such a fierce cat can be gentle towards a youngster!

Anyway, I opened the bonnet to replenish screen-wash water yesterday, and there was kitten sitting on top of the engine.

So now I must be very careful before starting the engine, but I am hoping that the upside will be that kitten (it is quite big, probably about 1/3rd to 1/2 grown) will be a good rat deterrent!

[hangover]

Originally Posted by archat68

just spray hit inside engine bay and around the car at night at 2-3 days interval. Rats will not come.

It will probably work. But it's too much effort every night. Even if I carry a can of it while parking elsewhere, I don't know if I'd have the motivation to do it every 2-3 days.

[archat68]

Originally Posted by hangover

It will probably work. But it's too much effort every night. Even if I carry a can of it while parking elsewhere, I don't know if I'd have the motivation to do it every 2-3 days.

You dont need it every night. Twice in a week will suffice. You can start with once in a week and see the result and then increase if required.

[vinjosep]

Originally Posted by archat68

just spray hit inside engine bay and around the car at night at 2-3 days interval. Rats will not come.

Will not that be a potential bio-hazard for the occupants of the car when the A/C is switched on, considering the air inlet would mostly be somewhere in the engine bay?

[archat68]

Originally Posted by vinjosep

Will not that be a potential bio-hazard for the occupants of the car when the A/C is switched on, considering the air inlet would mostly be somewhere in the engine bay?

AC fresh air inlet is below the windshield not in the engine bay. To be on the safer side I told to spray on the night before so in the morning it will mostly evaporate.

[arao]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

I don't know where you are getting your tobacco from, but I have tried tobacco from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Makes zero difference to the rat/ muskrat.
Tried cow's urine. No difference.
Tried phenol - No difference.
Naphthalene balls - No difference.

I tried Tufkote Rat Repellent - no use. The critters chewed through the thermal shield with a vengeance (XUV500).

There are mixed opinions about tobacco leaves, but will give it a try. It's difficult to immediately make out if it works, as the rats seem to appear only when it rains heavily.

Tx

[technofunky]

Past few weeks I have started to have a rat issue in my WagonR. The rat has managed to chew through 5-6 wires and now my wiper, wash wipe no longer function. There is a space above the right side wheel well and this guy lives there. I have tried to keep those rat poison cakes. I monitored this everyday and slowly all the cakes disappeared.

Our building watchman on sunday, saw 1 rat die in front of them, I was elated thinking I guess it was because of that rat poison. But there is always a but, I again kept more poison yesterday just to make sure this guy is dead and well today I check 1 cake is missing. I faceplamed, I now have bought more poison and have kept it. Reading through this thread I saw the spray some of the people have mentioned, will try that spray.

[hangover]

Try the tobacco leaves gentlemen.

It's called hoge soppu amongst other things. It only costs Rs. 5/- for a 2 foot one. Just tie it firmly to citical spots.

I've used it since a couple of weeks. And not had unwanted visitors.

Humans like the smell. But rats fear it.

Reg. the source of these vermin, it's dirt or garbage near your house.

Their first food stop is the community garbage can if yours is an apartment.

The one other remedy is lining the house compound with grease or old industrial oil. I know this works.

My mechanic has an open air shop. At any time there are 9-10 cars parked around the place. One would expect a plague quantity of rats.

But no. Zero rats there.

You also need to fear bandicoots. They are also wire eaters.

They are maybe 3-4 times bigger than rats.

They both live in holes in the ground. When it gets flooded, due to rains, many of them come out.

And cats are ineffective. Because they too prefer to get easy food by dumpster diving. Why chase and eat raw rats!

[Srikanthan]

Originally Posted by Srikanthan

Nevertheless, I have ordered SWE rat repellent and waiting for its delivery.

http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B018...ilpage_o00_s00

Let me share its result later.

I received the SWE Rat repellent a week back and immediately used it. After that, I do not see any further rat bites. In addition, I have tied 'country tobacco' (in tamil "Naattu Pogai Ilai") in the engine bay at few places.

Still keeping fingers crossed. I will keep updating this thread.

[Sangre]

I've tried the tobacco leaves trick and it has worked for me quite well. I think I picked up the trick on this thread itself sometime back

However, looking at the method some of you have described in the recent posts, I have a word of caution.

These tobacco leaf bundles are quite dry. They keep getting dry with use and of course keep losing their effectiveness too. I would be very wary of taping a bundle of dry tobacco leaves anywhere in the engine bay given the temperatures that can be reached. God forbid, what if it catches fire !(I'm paranoid ). These leaves are after all very good at burning up, just look inside any cigarette !

To get around this, every night I used to just place a bundle on either side of the engine bay, near the suspension stoppers. And remove them dutifully when taking out the car next. In fact, I used to think twice about placing them in the engine bay after a long drive when the ambient temperatures were still very high.

Of course, it is tedious, but I consider it a small price to pay for peace of mind.

[ankur_shar]

For about 20 days my Chevy Spark was parked in my house in verandah. When i tried to unlock the car using remote locking, i could not hear the buzzer sound but the car got unlocked. Since i was in a hurry i ignored that. Then one day my windshield was dirty, so i thought of cleaning it using windshield jet spray and wiper. To my consternation the wiper was not working either. I felt something fishy and opened the bonnet. I was shocked to see a thick wire housing many thin wires was cut badly by rat. Since there were lot of wires that got damaged, i did not take the risk of doing DIY and took the vehicle to service center.

They did the repairing and charged me Rs. 924. In which Rs. 100 was for part cost and Rs. 600 for service and rest as tax. However Service Advisor there told me that if rat cut the same wires again then i need to change the complete wiring harness which would cost me around 18000. The figure was large enough to make my passive body active and take necessary measures. I tried a few steps listed below

1. Every night i wash the floor under the car with phenyl water and make sure that no rat dropping is left there. Generally the smell of droppings attract the rats again to same place.
2. I made small bags of tobacco, camphor and napthale balls and tied 2-3 of them in the engine compartment, far from hot locations.
3. Place rat kill around the car.
4. Check the engine bay daily.

Still i am assessing the effect of the above measures. Will post you once fully satisfied by their results.

[whitewing]

Rats have started visiting again after a long break... They have chewed the bonnet insulation
mats. Thankfully, all wires are intact.
How need to start rat shooing experiments all over again :-( ...

Started with sprinkling pepper powder, no visits for the past fortnight.

[fuzail]

I have used the SWE rat repellent spray on my new Ertiga ZDi+. Till now very good result. No visits by rats. My colony is infected with rats. Try this spray