Psycho Dad

I've started getting minor to extreme vehicle wiring damage from what I thought were perhaps mice. I'm not pretty certain that this damage is coming from squirrels. In fact I'd go as far as to say I'm positive.

These critters have destroyed two sets of spark plug wires on my car. That was when I assumed that they were mice as this is a car that I rarely drive and is usually kept a hundred feet or so away from the house. Recently my wife's agency vehicle had $1300 of damage that her agency maintenance man attributed to mice. At that time I began to suspect the tree rats.

Even more recently the AC on my truck quit working, then the windshield washer. This morning I went out to take my dad his meds and a squirrel was peeking out at me from beneath the wheel well. Popped the hood and there was all the evidence I need.

My wife, who is usually the voice of reason in these matters, is ready to kill them by any means necessary. I'd be content with simply making my vehicles less attractive to them as I still have two cars yet unmolested.

Right now I am putting moth balls under the hood. From what I’ve researched on the ‘net, this is temporary and I really hate the smell myself. Have any TFPers humanely solved this problem? Not that I am dead set against a lethal solution but poisons and such are definitely my last and least attractive option for obvious reasons.

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JStrider

you gotta make an example of one... sit in your car till ones under the hood and then fire it up... then take its body and hang it from your radio antenna... should get the point across...

ok ok maybe dont do that... if you google squirrel repellent there are a good number of results... poke around i'm sure you can find something

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Psycho Dad

Most of the items I googled up seem to be temporary at best. Although the pepper spray idea sound like it may be a good one. My wife was gone when I came home this evening. I just know she is going to come home with rat poison.

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JStrider

rat poisions not a good idea if you or your neighbers have dogs or cats that might occasionally catch the squirrels...

maybe you should get a dog or cat if you dont have one... might help limit the squirrel population...

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flat5

Under hood alarm?

iamnormal

How about useing a squirrel snare?

macmanmike6100

you could put some sort of liquid poison on the items that they're chewing on...that would work, i think

Psycho Dad

My wife's van was parked ten feet from the dog house.

Interesting. And possible. Although the McGuyver in me would turn it into some sort of squirrely electrocution device.

My wife came home with rat poison last night. She's serious about this one.

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timalkin

Just shoot the little fucks with a pellet gun. It'll be quiet, inexpensive, and very deadly. Squirrels don't reproduce fast enough to cause problems if you kill enough of them.

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Psycho Dad

Found out today that mothballs don't do a damn thing. And of course it was her van that got ate the most and it was "my fault" obviously for not putting out poison to kill the bastards.

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nickker

Put a glue tray under the hood where it won't get too hot. You may have to tape or wire it to something.

Crack

then make a lap around the block, and solve the entire neighborhood's squirrel problems!

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Willravel

Have you ever seen home alone? Make the squirrels mad, and then they'll make a mistake.

Psycho Dad

Found the begginings of a nest under one of the hoods. This makes me believe the problem isn't squirrels. I don't think they would nest that low.

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cj2112

rats are nasty little fuckers too.

flat5

Just had an idea. Set up an ultrasonic oscillator under the hood.
Loud enough to really bother an animal there but not strong enough to overly annoy the neighbor's dog or cat.

Psycho Dad

I've thought about getting some of those ultrasonic pest ridding devices and adapting them to run off the vehicles 12 vdc battery power. That is depending on how much battery drain they would require. Dead batteries would be better than massive amounts of wiring damage but still a pain in the ass.

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dksuddeth

this won't do any good. I've got 4 dogs in the back yard and unless they are bored and wanting to attack, they will sit there and watch the squirrels and birds eat all of their dog food. I'm damn tired of feeding the squirrels and birds.

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flat5

A one watt 30khz oscillator outputting maybe 700 millawatts into a tweeter won't drain a car battery. Even better would be a pulsed osc. The duty cycle would be much less - saving battery power.

Might be too much power. I really have no idea. It should be fun to build if you like that sort of thing. If not, you may know someone who does :-)

I'm thinking a dual 555 timer - one for ultra sonic osc. one for pulsing it(turning it on & off).
A driver transistor following the osc. to an ultrasonic transducer.

cellophanedeity

The old man that used to live across the street from me used to catch the squirrels in cages, and let them go free in parks away from his house.

I don't know what he baited them with, but if you're feeling patient enough, it's worth a shot to try.

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Plaid13

Just as a totaly off the wall idea. find a motion sensor activated sprinkler system. they are normaly used to keep rabits and dogs and other assorted furry critters away from gardens and stuff. might work for what you need to scare away the squirrels. Only thing is the squirrels might run into the truck to get out of the water. if they do you could always pop the hood or angle the sprinkler so it sprays up under the thing. dunno really how well it would work but they seem to work real well to keep animals away from other stuff. At the very least you have a new toy to mess with johova whitnesses and other annoying door to door type people if you want.

http://www.nixalite.com/scarecrow.aspx Just one of many links i found on google for them.

SteelyLoins

As long as the squirrels haven't seen Caddyshack.

What about getting a pepper spray cannister and spraying your wiring with it? I have to admit I don't know if that leaves a smell, and I imagine you'd have to exert some care in the process.

Othewise, something with the motion detector idea sounds kind of cool.

Captain Pike

Back when I lived on the farm, we kept deer away from our gardens in the summer by peeing around the fenceline. Apparently when we eat meat, there is some residue in human urine which identifies us as predators. Soo..... you have rodents.... Feline urine or scent. Introduce the smell of a large predator, and they should go away. It won't work if the cat or predator is on a vegetarian diet though.

I have no idea where you would find the stuff, the only places I could think of, would be vet clinics, or possibly some hunting supply place for animal scent like bobcat or musk of some type.

And yes I am serious about the information, as strange as it sounds, it works.

When all else fails, call animal control, the zoo, or vet clinic for some tips.

Psycho Dad

The mothballs have been bad enough. Cat piss is something that I'll not want coming at me in the AC vents this summer.

What has been working (or so it seems) is parking my wife's van somewhere else. It seems familiarity is a factor here. If the van is parked in the same spot, the little bastards (whatever they may be) return to the scene of the crime.

Damn... As I write this, it occurs to me my wife left my Expedition where she used to park the van.

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Plaid13

swell you just upgraded the squirrels to a luxery house.

Captain Pike

Any luck so far? If familiarity is the behaviour that they are going for, you won't have to scent down the vehicle, but around the area. Just a suggestion....

Psycho Dad

So far there hasn't been any further damage. Two of my vehicles still smell so strongly of moth balls that my eyes water at times, but it is getting better.

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newtx

Sounds like you are on the right track changing the parking spot but I am afraid the varmits may have won since the moth ball smell is getting to you.
I once forced a crop of baby snakes from under my house using moth balls. (must work better on snakes than rat-squirrels) But the smell was terrible in the house.

madp

Suddenly, I have a song involuntarily playing in my head, over and over. . .

"There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. . ."

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Average_Joe

Get rid of the nut behind the wheel...

bah..dumm...dumm