Bad New's! Rat in my Prius

REALLY BIG sticky traps. That's how they get rid of mice where I am and I imagine they make rat versions. They're non-poisonous but you still don't want pets near them or anything.

 

That’s not a rat its the new PRIUS alternative boost system. The dog food can be listed as an alternative fuel source (this is a green renewable source), the new rating will be MPK (Mile Per Kibble). :mrgreen:

 

Here are some potentially useful Car Talk columns on rat and mice prevention/cleanup methods:

• Rat Detection
  [*]Rat Prevention
  [*]Mice clean-up
  [*]Mice prevention

 

I've only dealt with mice but I'm sure the same applies.

Did the dog food come from your premises? You'll need to secure it. I used to use a small metal trash can with a tight lid. And make sure you don't spill any and that the dog eats it all. This will also eliminate any pidgeon problems you might have as well.

First, I'll assume the poison you're using are the little green pellets, like from Home Depot, that are designed to thin their blood until they hemorrage to death. (Sorry to those easily grossed out.) It takes a few days for this to happen. Maybe up to a week. But it will work. You may or may not know if it worked. Either you'll cease to see signs of occupation and visitation or....you'll sense (or scents) that he's no longer of this world. Hopefully if the latter you can find and dispose of the earthly remains.

You can also lay traps. I use the small cheap wooden traps as a first resort and the poison as a second as you can never predict where they'll take their last breath. For bait I've had the best results with pepperoni. While they like peanutbutter they get so good at evading traps they can eat all of the bait without setting off the trap. I like to attach bait to the trigger really well so when they try to take it a good tug will set it off. Personally I think the quickness of the traps is more humane than the slowness of the poison.

 

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HA HA HA!!

macreative -

After extensive testing, I have found that rats like the Prius because the HV system is really hot even after hours of non-operation.
If you can ever catch them, they might look like this:

 

I’m quite surprised we have yet to see a cat avatar along with a reply of something along the lines of:

OH BOY! The Super Sized tasty toys!!!! PURRrrrrrrrrrrr

 

If he DOES chew wires, hope it's the HT leads...

 

Please reconsider your use of poisons. Have you considered installing a hamster wheel tied into the propolusion system? A kibble-fired car could get 99.9 MPG. When life gives you lemons...

 

Be VERY careful when you clean up the rat droppings and other residue. I found snail shells on the ICE where the rats had been bringing them in to eat.

My car is a 05 with about 3000 miles.

I washed off the ICE with reasonably high pressure water (to get the droppings and stuff that was stuck or I couldn't reach)

About 6 weeks later the car started missing and the check engine light came on. Took car to Toyota dealer, and a few hours later they called me and said that there was still water in the spark plug/spark coil tubes which they had to dry out and remove corrosion. Considering all the work they had to do on the ignition system I thot my dealer (Kearny Mesa Toyota in San Diego) was very fair about the price ($188)

The next day the check engine light came on again and this time they replaced the spark plugs (under warrantee) and everything has been fine since.

About the rat problem:
called my pest control company and they brought me some rat traps - plastic boxes that I put the poison in. The boxes have a small hole that the rats can go in, but it keep pets and other animals safe.

Also pest control company said that rats are creatures of habit, and be parking the car in different locations (as little as five feet different) the rats will probably not find they comfortable location.

 

Check your air cleaner! A couple of months ago I took my Prius in for the normal oil change. When they inspected the air cleaner it was about 3 inches deep in dog food. The mouse or rat was storing it in there. It didn't seem to hurt the engine or performance.

 

There's a gizmo called a Rat Zapper (a Google search will turn up sources). It is an enclosed box with one open end. If a rat or mouse walks in to get the bait it gets zapped. It's quick compared to poison and less messy than a regular spring loaded trap, and the rat doesn't go off into the walls of your garage to die. The Rat Zapper runs on flashlight batteries and uses dog food or whatever else you like for bait.
-Roland

 

We had at least one rat over at the train club. It ate all the foam foilage off all the scenic trees on the N scale layout, and damaged some houses and a pretty neat graveyard in the church yard also on the layout. Tried the sticky trap, rat seemed to walk right over it. Did the poison, no more rat. We are now in the process of replacing the trees.

 

I can see the marquee now: THE RAT THAT ATE TRAINTOWN!

 

LOL! I gotta tell the club members that one. Wish we took pictures. That would have been a great caption!

 

If you had video....you could have created a sequel to "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". Mix some 1:1 scale with the rat in Traintown and you'd have a real winner.

 

I can relate to this one. My wife's Corvette gets visited every year by mice. It cost $1,400 to fix the computer one year. I start with a dozen traps in the fall and catch as many as 6 or 8 a day for awhile. I also put out a lot of poison.

 

Besides checking the ice air filter, check the cabin air filter. I had some rats who deceided to stuff the intake full of fibreglass batting, seeds, and droppings. I can't imagine the mess without the filter.