Rodents have their purpose in the web of life, but that doesn't mean you want them in your vehicle for any reason. Once they take up residence in the engine block of your truck (or car), rodents are incredibly difficult to remove, and worse still, they can cause hundreds to thousands of dollars of internal damage. They can even find ways to squeeze into the interior/cab of your truck to get to the stuffing of the seats and any food or snacks you leave there.
To make sure this is not an ongoing problem, you could deal with these pests by using a rat poison. However, rat poison is not a good idea if you have dogs or children, since the poison can kill them just as easily as it kills the rodents. Your best bets are to avoid a mouse or rat infestation from the get-go, and then use non-toxic rat traps and pet- and child-safe methods of getting rid of these pests. Tips for both avoiding an infestation and getting rid of the pests without dangerous poisons are as follows.
Preventive Measures
Drive the Truck
You probably have any number of reasons for not driving your truck (e.g., it's a gas guzzling machine, you don't need to drive the truck every day, you have another vehicle you drive more often, etc.). Whatever your reasons for not driving the truck are going to be the causes of why mice and rats move into the engine block and begin chewing on wires and other non-metal components. Thankfully, this is a preventive method that is extremely effective and easy enough to do.
All you have to do is go out and drive the truck once a day. It doesn't have to go far; the corner gas station or pharmacy is enough to keep rodents from deciding that your truck is the perfect place in which to build a nest. A vehicle that is loud, hot, noisy and in motion regularly deters mice and rats even better than a house cat.
Cats
While we don't support keeping cats outdoors for ecology reasons, it goes without saying that the reason why so many farmers keep "farm cats". They are a good rodent deterrent. Any mice or rats that come onto your property and make a move toward the truck, house, or garage will be met with your outdoor feline friend's claws and teeth. Enclosing your yard so that the cat can only wander around inside the fenced-in property and near your truck would be preferable and would also help protect local bird populations.
Park Inside
If you have a garage and you are not parking any other vehicle in it regularly, park your truck there. Keep the garage closed as often as possible since this will prevent mice and rats from trying to enter your garage and get into your truck. If your garage is infested, consider using other non-toxic mice and rat traps. A non-toxic rat trap avoids the dangers of poisons and some such as the A24 dispatches these animals quickly.
Getting Rid of the Rodents That Have Already Taken up Residence in Your Truck
Remove All Sources of Food
Never leave food or snacks, not even crumbs, in your truck. Rodents can smell that from great distances and will come running. They will do everything possible to get into the truck or get closer to that food source. Since rats and mice are actually pretty clever creatures, they will eventually find a way around the various preventive measures you might currently be using. If your truck is nowhere near garbage cans, compost piles, and there is no food in the cab, the mice and rats will move on to someplace with more food for their needs.
Repair/Replace Chewed Wiring and Then Wrap the New Wires with "Rat Tape"
If you already have a mouse or rat infestation in your truck's engine block, the first thing you need to do is inspect all of the wiring inside the truck's engine block. This will require some time and effort, but it will help you locate any chewing damage the pests have already created. Replace the chewed wires and then wrap them with rat tape.
Rats and mice chew the plastic off of these wires to use it as nesting material. If you wrap the new wires with rat tape, the pests will find an unpleasant surprise the next time they try to bite down on the new wires. Rat tape is treated with capsaicin, the stuff in hot peppers that makes you cry. Rats and mice absolutely aren't too fond of capsaicin, which is why this will get the pests to move out of your vehicle. They will not want to chew the wires and therefore will be at a loss for nesting materials inside the engine block.
Purchase and Install the A24 Rat and Mouse Trap Kits for Home Trapping
Another type of non-toxic rat trap is the A24 Rat and Mouse trap. These traps entice the pests with a non-toxic lure bait that encourages the rats and mice to step into the trap chamber. Once inside, a CO2- loaded hammer mechanism delivers a kill blow that is quick kill. You can install these devices easily into the open spaces under the hood of your truck and even place them on the ground near the tires. Every CO2 container in each trap kit can deliver up to 24 strikes, thereby killing up to 24 rats and mice and preventing them from calling your truck's engine block home. The A24 is quick-kill, and safe around children and pets.
If this kind of trap kit sounds like something you really need or want to try, contact Automatic Trap via their website, www.automatictrap.com today. They will be happy to answer any more questions you may have about rodent removal and helpful suggestions for use of our products.
