Edible Wiring

[F6Dave]

My wife's 2 year old Ford Escape has had critters (probably rabbits or squirrels) chew on the wiring for the second time.  The dealer said this has become common since manufacturers started using 'eco-friendly' soy based wiring insulation.  A friend said it happened multiple times to his wife's and daughter's Hondas, and my insurance agent had it happen to her car in the office parking lot.  I've also heard it happens often in the long term parking lots at Denver's airport.  These 'green' ideas are costing me a lot of green; last time the repair bill was over $500!

Has anyone else had this problem?  Have you found any solutions?

[Avanti]

The covering is biodegradable, so even if it survives feeding the critters, time kills it.
I have this problem on 1999 MB diesel car engine harness.   
New OE wiring harness or make one, both are bad scenarios.

[MAD6Gun]

 As a GM auto tech I ran into this problem alot. Especially if the owner lived in rural areas of Indiana. The most common places were inside the underhood fuse boxes and above the gas tanks. I had to remove the gas tank to fix chewed through fuel pump wires on a Malibu. After the repair we would wrap the harnesses in "rodent" tape. The tape is infused with capseicin pepper. Critters don't like it and won't eat it.  You can get it on Amazon for around $30 a roll. It's much more expensive then regular electrical tape but if it keeps them from chewing it again it might be worth it. Good luck.....

[Psychotic Bovine]

Could be worse:  Old East German Trabant body panels could be eaten.

[hubcapsc]

Has anyone else had this problem? 

During a several week long period of no riding a mouse made a little nest
in the under-seat void of my 1800. He ate all the insulation off the wire for
my heated gear. But none of the Honda wire. I guessed that the accessory
wire I had added was inferior, I didn't think that maybe it was delicious.

Have you found any solutions?

Put on another heated gear wire!

My 1500 has its own shed. In the last few days I have closed off all the
places at the eves and gable ends where squirrels and such could get in,
and yesterday I ordered two screen doors, soon it will be critter proof...



-Mike "currently it is merely dog proof, she carries away bolts and anything else she can grab"

[F6Dave]

As a GM auto tech I ran into this problem alot. Especially if the owner lived in rural areas of Indiana. The most common places were inside the underhood fuse boxes and above the gas tanks. I had to remove the gas tank to fix chewed through fuel pump wires on a Malibu. After the repair we would wrap the harnesses in "rodent" tape. The tape is infused with capseicin pepper. Critters don't like it and won't eat it.  You can get it on Amazon for around $30 a roll. It's much more expensive then regular electrical tape but if it keeps them from chewing it again it might be worth it. Good luck.....

Thanks for the info.  I did order a roll of that tape last Friday and will take it to the dealer so they can wrap the new wiring segment with the stuff.  It's good to hear that the tape appears to work.  I'm thinking (hoping) they attacked the same wires because the exact same warning lights came on this time.

[F6Dave]

Several years ago I went to change the air filter in my old (1988) BMW R100GS.  It uses a flat filter in a box similar to the Valkyrie's.  The top of the filter was full of those green D-Con pellets!  Obviously a mouse had chosen the location as a new home and was stocking up on provisions.

[RP#62]

My brother had it happen on his car.  Cost him a couple of grand to get it fixed.  He started leaving mothballs under the hood whenever the car is parked for more than a day.  No problems since.

-RP

[da prez]

 We had a three or four year old H.D. come in. Harley totaled the bike for wiring being eaten. They offered him pittance trade in value. I rewired the bike and soldered the connections , color matched the wiring where possible. I was not able to repair the radio as it was full of mouse piss. The bill was around $750.00. He collected from insurance , gave me a tip , did not care about the radio and kept the bike. I am sure he pocketed a few bucks.   Glad to learn about the rodent proof tape Mark.

                                              da prez

                       

[Alberta Patriot]

Homemade bait station.
The Bait:
https://www.circlecsupply.com/jaguar-31410-rodenticide-pail-bait-chunx.html
I made 15 of these for me and my neighbor. No sign of vermin around my house or yard anymore. I had mouse droppings various places around the house..no more!!
These are mouse/vole sized bait stations so for rats you probably have to upsize them by half.
5 Gallon Bucket Trap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI

[Rams]

As a GM auto tech I ran into this problem alot. Especially if the owner lived in rural areas of Indiana. The most common places were inside the underhood fuse boxes and above the gas tanks. I had to remove the gas tank to fix chewed through fuel pump wires on a Malibu. After the repair we would wrap the harnesses in "rodent" tape. The tape is infused with capseicin pepper. Critters don't like it and won't eat it.  You can get it on Amazon for around $30 a roll. It's much more expensive then regular electrical tape but if it keeps them from chewing it again it might be worth it. Good luck.....

I wish I had known this last year.  Rodents chewed up my daughter's RAV4.  Cost a bundle to have the wiring replaced and I'm betting they did not apply that tape.  Grrrr....   
But I will check the next time we're together.

Rams

[Psychotic Bovine]

Homemade bait station.
The Bait:
https://www.circlecsupply.com/jaguar-31410-rodenticide-pail-bait-chunx.html
I made 15 of these for me and my neighbor. No sign of vermin around my house or yard anymore. I had mouse droppings various places around the house..no more!!
These are mouse/vole sized bait stations so for rats you probably have to upsize them by half.
5 Gallon Bucket Trap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI

Shawn Woods has an awesome channel.  He really knows what works and what doesn't.

[Jess from VA]

After the mice got in my house two years ago, after I found and plugged the hole, and caught them, I just started putting down decon in all the places around my house and sheds they could live and be.  Bags and bags of it, every two months or so.  I wish there were bags of it like the huge dog food bags (with a price break).

I'd like to use the shotgun on them (for sporting fun), but it's hard to find them, and the neighbors and police would get all upset about it.

I also wished it killed squirrels (who are just bigger destructive rodents).

I like to be at one with nature and everything, but when nature encroaches on my life and expensive home and vehicles, I kill nature without regret.    

[MarkT]

I regularly get mice that are dying so they hide somewhere and stink.  The wife wants to poison them rather than use traps.  Because she doesn't want to see or deal with their bodies.  So the rotting is better?  NO!  Whenever I see evidence of mice I set traps and catch them that night.  But I love this bucket trap.  Gonna set that up TODAY!

I've not heard about the capsaicin tape.  Seems like an idea - but what are you going to do, find all the wires a mouse can find and wrap them?  Impractical seems to me.  And we have several motorcycles and late model SUV's and a Kubota.  I'm gonna wipe out the mice with this bucket trap, in the bike barn and the shop!  Hopefully our SUV's outside are used enough that they won't become nests.

[Jess from VA]

It's been a while since I did the reading, but doesn't Decon make mice thirsty and run for water, and then the water kill them quickly?   After my first efforts at poison, I found a couple down near the bottom of my yard.  No water there, but not all tucked up under my ground level deck (attached to the house, where they had gotten in the house).

I've never smelled a dead mouse, except the one who moved into the wife's bike air cleaner, who got cooked on spring start up.  That stunk real bad, but was outside, and gone by the next day. 

[recman25]

  Living in southern arizona, we have pack rats that also love the wiring. I recently bought a used pick up and noticed a bar of Irish Spring soap in the engine compartment. I asked the owner about it, and he told me the rats hate the smell. I havent had any problems with them, so I guess it must work!

[Jess from VA]

 Living in southern Arizona, we have pack rats that also love the wiring. I recently bought a used pick up and noticed a bar of Irish Spring soap in the engine compartment. I asked the owner about it, and he told me the rats hate the smell. I haven't had any problems with them, so I guess it must work!

So pack rats are protestant?  Who knew.  

I don't want them repelled, I want them deceased and eradicated.

[MarkT]

I have a bike barn which is unheated.  This time of year water in the bucket will freeze.  I'm thinkin maybe put an inch of antifreeze in the bottom - mice will drink the sweet antifreeze and thus croak quickly?

[mark81]

I have a bike barn which is unheated.  This time of year water in the bucket will freeze.  I'm thinkin maybe put an inch of antifreeze in the bottom - mice will drink the sweet antifreeze and thus croak quickly?

Why just drown them when you can poison them too.

[MarkT]

I have a bike barn which is unheated.  This time of year water in the bucket will freeze.  I'm thinkin maybe put an inch of antifreeze in the bottom - mice will drink the sweet antifreeze and thus croak quickly?

Why just drown them when you can poison them too.

I was looking to solve the other problem of the ice freezing and them jumping out.  Actually I don't have any sympathy for the vandalous squatters and maybe poisoning them ends their misery faster.

[JimC]

Mark,
My whole family have RV's, and it used to be a constant battle to keep mice out of them during the winter.
 
I started using the bucket device a couple years ago, and it works fantastic. My son trapped 7 in his motorhome the first few days he used it. Just think of the damage 7 of those critters can make when they get hungry.

One thing that I did was to place RV or automotive antifreeze in the bucket to keep the water from freezing,.

Happy hunting

Jim

[Jess from VA]

You could always live trap them, then drive them to some safe haven.  


The antifreeze may be a good plan, so long as no beast you care about can get to it.

My only concern would be: 1) might it attract more in than planned, and 2) it's going to work pretty fast, so would they crawl into some hole in there and die/rot/stink where it's tough to get to them (and more than planned)?

This might be something you do one dish of, then let the experiment unfold on a small scale first.

When I was live trapping squirrels (followed by quick drowning) (hundreds, for months), I noticed a curious phenomenon; older squirrels began occasionally swatting/chasing younger ones away from the baited live traps.

Ahhh.... they learned.  Maybe mice don't learn, dunno.

PS: When 6-7 got into my house, I went to Utube for help.  They said to leave them alone and don't move food or clean or anything.  Get a selection of all kinds of traps, and go after them all at once (overnight) (they mostly travel along the baseboards - walls).  I did that, and got them all in one night.  Of all the traps I used (including electronic $), I got all but one of them in the glue traps, which are about the cheapest ones to buy (like in 6-pacs).

People don't like them because the mouse is not dead, but stuck, and will bite you if you let them.  But it's a sure way to catch them and dispose of them without having them crawl into some hole and rot and stink.  What I did, was take empty coffee cans and swat the trap and mouse into the can.  And I left the mouse alive in the glue trap in the can (standing up), because the scurrying around in the can attracted the rest to the noise (and more glue traps). (they were all dead by 10 am)

I even thought about yanking them out of the glue trap to reuse them, but frugality crosses into insanity at some point.  

Maybe a couple glue traps near each dish of antifreeze?    JFYI

[MarkT]

I wasn't talking about putting out a dish of antifreeze.  But putting antifreeze in the bucket trap.  They can't get out to hide and die and stink and the water won't freeze.  We don't have cats or dogs here.  Have a parrot.  Not interested in relocating them somewhere but killing them.  I'm not a tree hugger and rodents are as valued to me as mosquitos and wasps.

[F6Dave]

It's not only mice.  Apparently rabbits are a very big part of the problem.  There are plenty of articles on the net about rabbit damage to cars in the long term parking lots at Denver's airport.

[F6Dave]

I posted this back in February, after my wife's Foord Escape had critters chew up a wiring harness for the second time.  I recently changed the oil and made a discovery that may be related.

The Escape uses a large tray under the engine and front drive train area.  These have become common, probably to smooth out the airflow and improve fuel mileage by a tiny amount.  I found quite a bit of what appeared to be rabbit hair all over the top of the tray.  Apparently the tray gives the critters a nice protected perch to wander around on.  It might give them easier access to wiring, hoses, or whatever they want to chew on.  I'm sure the vehicle will run just fine with out it so I'm thinking of removing it permanently.  Do any of you auto service guys have thoughts about this?

[Deerslayer]

Peppermint oil works as a deterrent.

Soak cotton balls in peppermint oil.
Stuff the cotton balls in a soda or beer can.
Poke some holes in the can.
Place the can under the hood of your car
No more critters

Replace every 4-6 months

..Slayer

[sheets]

ditto; the mothballs, D-con bait containers and the Irish Spring bars of soap placed in strategic places. And, if straight pipes on bikes I've heard of steel wool stuffed in the exhaust pipes. An "outdoor" barn cat, or two, can help mitigate the mouse population - as long as they don't bring their prize into the garage of shop space. A pampered well fed indoor cat offers no help.   

[Hook#3287]

A few years ago my neighbors then new Lincoln SUV stated doing all kinds of weird things like the avoidance system going off for no reason.

They had it back to the dealer multiple times and I think they actually replaced some computer hardware & software.

They were just about to file under the lemon law when the dealer discovered wire harness mice damage.

I believe they got it covered under insurance.

I can see it as I type and it's a really nice vehicle.

I've used the rodent "bait bars" for years now and would find dead mice in and around my garage. So I started using those and peanut butter baited traps and that system seems to work good.

Over the 30 years of living here I've cleared mice nests out of countless vehicles.

One work truck that sat over winter had 5 generations of nests in the air box.  After one mouse would die from the poison bait, another would move in and build its nest over it.  Man, did that truck smell in the spring when I fired up the a/c.

HVAC Fan box on my maxima was a popular nest site.

I took galvi screen and made barriers out of it in the air scoops and that seemed to do it.

You ain't gonna wipe em out, you can only control em.

I didn't use my grill for a month or so and one moved in there.

[Jess from VA]

That reminds me... one Spring, I fired up my grill for the first time (gas/automatic starter), and it was like abandon ship, every mouse for himself.

I cooked that steak in the stove.
 

I buy those giant bundles of Costco paper towels, and store them under the sink, 3-deep, all the way to the wall (lasts me several years).  Last month, I finally got to the last two in back, and son of a gun if they weren't all chewed up from the mice that got in my house over two years ago.  Made me worry about hantavirus but there were no droppings.

After the house break-in (through basement cement block chinking), I realized they had been under my back yard deck (on the ground), so I've been dosing that with Decon right and regular ever since.  Haven't found any deceased ones for a long time, but I still do it anyway.

My ex, the put-down-5-pounds-of-bird-seed-a-day-lady, was the cause of mice, racoon, possum, stray animal invasions.  No food whatsoever for 10 years has made a dramatic improvement.   I have yet to find any starved to death birds.

I've also gone to town on the local ant populations with great success.  You don't do it in the house, you go outside after them.  No more yellow jackets either. 

I am one with nature.... kill them all if they bug you.