COMET CENTRAL

I hate rats, I hate everything about rats, the only good rat is a dead rat! If you haven't figured it out yet I have had another run in with the pesky rodents. I went out yesterday, jumped in my truck to go to town , hit the key and nothing, the radio still worked all the dash lights were lit, etc. I put the truck in neutral, nothing, so I pushed it back in the garage a few feet because I was too far forward to open the hood, when I popped the hood there was rat standing on top of the intake staring at me with his beady rat eyes, I wish I had been prepared for that with a weapon of some sort after the evil scurried off the first thing I noticed was a piece of wire about 2" long and a similar piece vacuum hose lying on top of the radiator, I thought, "That can't be good" the next I see is leaves, newspaper various other little treasures, like the cap off the WD40 all stuffed up on top of the engine way back against the firewall along with bunches of my hood insulation.

So now I started looking for where the damage was, there was a few wires with nicks in them and a ground wire behind the battery that had been chewed off that was the same black with white stripe as the piece lying on the radiator, also the windshield washer hose was chewed off in the same spot that matched the remnant, the only other thing I saw was a larger vacuum hose chewed off and didn't know where the other end went.

I set about removing the battery and tray, spliced a piece of wire on the ground and replaced the washer hose with a new part I had in the drawer, starting cleaning out as much of the leaves and trash as I could to try and find the other line and discovered it was a tee off the brake booster that runs all the way across the firewall to a box attached to the back of the battery tray (no idea what it is for???) scrounged around and found some scrap hose that fit and spliced it in, put all the related battery stuff back in and low and behold the truck started right up. I went ahead and went to town, stopped and picked up enough vacuum line to replace the spliced one, ran my errands and came back home.

I only pulled part way in the shed and raised the hood, it smelled of burning leaves I left the hood open over night and today I went out with the air blower and tried to get as much of the stuff like acorns etc blown out of there and replaced the hose.

Anyway when I got all done I felt kinda bad that I had cleaned the rats winter store of food, so in the spirit of the season I left him something to eat, I even put it on a nice presentation platter, I hope he likes it and accepts my good will offering and stops destroying my vehicles.



BTW, I had read dryer sheets keep rats away if you put them under the hood of vehicles that are parked, last night when I got home I put 4 under my hood, one I poked down behind the battery where he had been chewing, this morning it had been removed and was back on top of the intake where I had cleaned the leaves etc out, so much for that theory, maybe they need to be a name brand and not cheap WM dryer sheets?

See Ya,
Mike

Yea I guess I need to feed mine.

Alberta (next province west) claims to be rat free. They even have rat control officers.

Maybe you need a terrier dog.

Keeping with the spirit of the season, maybe you should leave him some punch. Some nice, sweet anti-freeze in a jar lid on top of the manifold. Of course, he'll probably crawl into some inaccessible place in the engine compartment to decompose.
Jim

Jims65cyclone wrote:Keeping with the spirit of the season, maybe you should leave him some punch. Some nice, sweet anti-freeze in a jar lid on top of the manifold. Of course, he'll probably crawl into some inaccessible place in the engine compartment to decompose.
Jim

Thought about it, I got some granola bars today for him, he licked all the peanut butter off and never triggered anything, a sly one he is, so I reloaded and reset and added more, punch will probably come next.

The whole engine compartment is pretty un-accesable, you see something like a wrench you dropped, won't fall all the way out to the ground, but about an inch from reaching it and the hole is too small for your arm/hand to go any farther.

See Ya,
Mike

Time to set quietly in the garage with with a loaded rifle and a plastic spoon with peanut on it. Pellet rifle should do it, a Barret M82A is appropriate for the crime.

I shot rats all winter 2 years ago with a 22, can really mess them up I think they all got smart and moved into he shed where it is hard to shoot them, he took my poison/bait and ran off with it, I hope he enjoys it.

Still leaving my hood open for now.

See Ya,
Mike

The poison isn't as fun as to find ole victor with a death clamp on him.probably not as rewarding as shooting them but still fun. Sometimes the look on their trapped faces are like cartoons. last year I had one in a trap & the bar caught him right between the eyes & they were folded up around the bar & touching each other. then the next one almost got away but the lever that holds the trap set had swung back over with enough force to stab him in side & he had his front hands holding it like he was trying to pull it out, & his mouth looked like it was saying OOOH!

I'm glad I don't have a rat problem, but I do get the field mice running through my shed every winter. I just gave them a smorgasbord of Decon.
A few years ago I had a unopened bag of cheese popcorn sitting on the roof of my Galaxie. I went back out a couple days later and found the empty bag on the floor. I looked around and didn't see 1 piece of popcorn. I started up the galaxie and moved it outside. When I went back in there was all kinds of popcorn on the floor. I guess they were up in the exhaust pipe and muffler.

All my rat granola bars have now been taken away, both out of the shed and I had one on the battery tray of the Comet, nothing but a few crumbs left. Actually there is one left inside the Comet (I don't think rats can get in there) but it has been nibbled on, last time I opened the trunk lid there was a nest stuffed up next to the lock and a mouse peeking out of the hole near the front of the trunk lid bracing (I slammed the lid hard so he would have a nice trip) I did not stick my head in the car to see if there was an odor

Just not sure if raccoons or chipmunks or rats carried off the others but I guess whoever did will probably not do so again, been leaving the hood open on the truck still and have not had anymore nest building there.

See Ya,
Mike

On a side note, my folks have a 2010 Mercury Milan and a mouse got up somewhere in it and died. It has taken months and near complete interior disassembly looking for a carcass to get rid of and trying to get rid of the smell and the pieces of nest that seem to be up in the vents. Be thankful that if one died in our Comets we'd be able to find it pretty quickly. Probably by just putting a cat in the car.

Groover wrote:It has taken months and near complete interior disassembly looking for a carcass to get rid of and trying to get rid of the smell and the pieces of nest that seem to be up in the vents.

Well true, no interior in my Comet already but I know there is/was a big nest up behind the instrument cluster, I kinda poked it all out of there when I was trying to get my windshield wiper arms back up through the cowl.

See Ya,
Mike

We had them in the house couple years ago. Got them cleared out. I've removed two nests in the shed. Each time I found some missing tools. Sockets, screwdrivers, and more. I'm still missing some tools. I had some car cassette and CD units on a shelf that rats chewed off the connectors. I leave a light on over the shelf 24/7 and they have not returned.
I opened the hood on the Maverick and there was a female sitting on the air cleaner. Had a couple of babies hanging on to her teats. Shut the hood, picked up a stick. She was between the radiator and grill. Got it on the ground and our little dog grabbed it.
I use a Hav-a-Heart trap to catch them, but I dunk the trap in an old ice chest filled with water.
Tim