Rodent Damage: Something to think about..

Thanks.

 

Interesting thread; all the cars I have ever owned have been outside and I never had a rodent problem with any of them, I live in the country as well. My parents have a garage and for the first time they are having mouse problems with one of their vehicles just this winter. I think that what we are seeing is the simple the fact that our cars are becoming more electronic. Rodents love warm compartments with lots of wiring. As a broadcast engineer I was always doing battle with rodents getting into the transmitters, especially in the winter. They love them because they are warm and there are all those yummy chewy wires to gnaw on. Someone mentioned that their teeth constantly grow and need to be constantly worn down; this is true and the wiring probably helps them do that. Just like the transmitters the Prius, or any other car’s engine compartment for that matter, is warm and full of those yummy chewy wires, so no surprise that folks have trouble with this. It is not Toyota’s fault or anyone else’s fault. Blaming the manufacturer helps no one. They didn’t undercoat the car with cheese or peanut butter; they didn’t do anything to purposely cause rodents to attack your car. It’s like blaming the company that made your house when it gets buried by a volcano; “they should have known that a volcano might erupt in the back yard and done something about it”, I mean it’s just silly. Folks wonder why cars cost so much, well this constant blame the manufacturer for everything game is part of it. We the owners, have to assume some of the responsibility for the things that we buy. It happens to all kinds of vehicles, as can be seen from the previous posts in this thread (my parents don’t own a Prius and a mouse got in this winter too). Any car that is warm and has a lot of electronics, cabling, and nest building materials will attract rodents, so here are a few suggestions from someone that used to be on the front lines in my old job.

1) Get a cat. If you live in a rural area and can own one or more cats, this will do more than just about anything else. Just the scent of a cat will deter mice from invading things. My grandparent’s farm house was full of mice and when I moved in to help care for them after my grandfather’s stroke. I brought my cats in and gave them free reign of the house and within a couple of weeks the mice were gone.
2) Don’t leave food in your car. Keep it clean and clean up any spills right away. This will reduce the scents that will draw them in. Don’t leave things that they can use as nesting materials in the car either.
3) Don’t put bait boxes or traps in the car, unless the mice are already in the vehicle. All you’re doing is attracting them to the car where they will certainly do damage before they die. Place the traps and boxes in areas nearby to kill them off, but not in such a way so as to draw attention to the vehicle.
4) Try moth balls. This is an old fashioned deterrent that has worked in the past. If your car is going to sit for an extended period, you can put them in and around your vehicle to drive them out. Of course you won’t want to put them in the cabin if you are driving the car every day, because of the gas they release, but you may be able to find a way to tuck them in the engine and battery compartments to protect them.
5) Install one of the sonic deterrent units near the vehicle. I have experienced mixed results with these; however they do work sometimes and if they work for you that’s all that matters.
6) Do a regular check under the hood and around the car for any signs of invasion. The earlier you catch them the less damage they can do and the less it will cost to repair.
7) Lastly, look around your vehicle and the area where you park it. Think like a mouse or squirrel; do you see anything that would attract you? If so, remove as many of those things as you can so the area around your vehicle holds as little temptation for them as possible, and best of luck to everyone with this problem.

 

Here's what I believe, from a site I found last night, and also from 30 years of experience trying to keep various kinds of critters from various places whether it be the kitchen, the garden, or the car.

UnExCo's Squirrel Page - How to handle your squirrel problem (About squirrels, but really applies to any rodents).

Getting an outdoor cat is a non-starter.

Loose cats are a menace to indigenous bird life and a vector for disease, not to mention illegal in many municipalities.

I TRAP feral cats and deliver them to animal control to be destroyed.

We do not have food in the cars, nor do we eat in the car. We certainly don't store nesting materials in the car, nor do I believe other people routinely do so apart from the sage advice to keep a blanket or two in there in the winter to help you survive in an emergency.

Regular engine checks always a good idea for a number of reasons, but getting one's vehicle selected by rodents for a nesting spot isn't something that people realistically have much control over.

The damage we experienced in the RAV4 was unique to the lifetimes of me and my husband, and certainly not the result of anything we did to attract chewing rodents (apart from running a heat-generating engine).

Running a heat-generating engine is unavoidable for any person who owns and uses a car powered with an engine.

It's like the lottery.

No reason to psyche people into thinking they have reasonable control.

 

Some vehicles are harder than others for rodents to find an interesting, safe place to nest. We have a Honda Odyssey and a Ford Ranger pickup that sit outside year round in our rural home. In the past 13 yrs neither vehicle has had a rodent invasion. But our Prius has had two full attacks. The reason is access. Our Odyssey has a screened air intake for the ventilation system. The Prius appears to be unscreened and behind upper firewall. This permits unfettered access to the hvac system. Our cabin filter and the hvac blower have become nesting grounds twice now in 6 yrs. There is no food in the car, no blankets. And we have a great hunter of a cat. None are going to help. This is simply a case of easy, protected and safe access for the vermin. I call poor design because this is preventable.

 

I am sorry to hear about your difficulties. It is always easy to say that it is a bad design, but we don’t know what the ventilation requirements were for this opening. The Prius is a technological marvel and I doubt most of us could design one. That said, it sounds like you have found the access point. I would check with your service center and see if it would be OK to install a screen over the opening to block the rodent’s access without harming the needed airflow. Is there anything where you live that would lead to a high rodent population? My grandparent’s house was next door to a grain drying operation, which needless to say brought in the rodents like crazy. Infestation problems are always difficult to deal with and I wish you the best of luck in dealing with your problem.

 

I was actually getting my oil changed last week. While there an older lady was told that she should look into a rental because it seemed like a squirrel or rat had torn up her wiring. They also suggested she call her insurance as it wasnt going to be cheap. They said it would take more than a few days to fix it. I felt bad for her and immediately thought of this thread.

 

One rat can and has done expensive damage on our Toyota cars in one day on 3 occasions, in which I was able to kill the rat involved in one day. Every year in the winter when the weather turns cold, I have to act fast, placing poison blocks in the engine compartment and placing them in other safe places where other animals can not be harmed. These rats come into the engine compartment, not the vent system. My sons Mustang has never been touched even though it sits outside all the time.

 

Does the Mustang sit outside unstarted all (or most) of the time?

The warmth of a recently-run engine seems to be a powerful draw. Both our damage incidents happened in the winter on a vehicle used daily.

 

Problem only when cold. Our Tundra and the Mustang are run the same frequency. Some times run every day and some times they sit idle for several days. The poison blocks fastened in the engine compartments are eaten on in the first day of rat entry and kill them in that one day, but they do a lot of damage in that one day and are attracted to electrical connectors, rubber and insulation in the Tundra but do not touch the Mustang. Prevously when our son drove our old BMW M3 the under the same conditions for 5 yrs rats never touched it. Once while parked in our garage un driven years ago a rat chewed a wire in the engine compartment in our BMW 750IL which we owned for 10 yrs. Much worse odds in Toyotas from our experience.

 

The reason I say bad design is because you can physically see how this problem can be circumvented by looking at other cars intakes. A comparative example like the Prius would the the Lexus ct200h which has screened intakes. This is not rocket science, it's a chassis design oversight and somewhat understandable if you live in a urban area where the car only see cement and asphalt underneath it. But it is a serious issue in rural areas. We don't live near any major source of grain, just out in the country where there a lots of field mice.

 

get ford involved too, mice got my ford van

 

I am going to take responsibility by not buying another Toyota. The fact that headlights cost me about five hundred bucks has been another contributing factor. Poor design is how I now think of Toyota.

 

I'm sure you will have no problem finding another brand of car that has zero design flaws

 

Go with Chevrolet, I hear they have the most reliable transmissions. lol

 

As a matter of fact it was Chevy that made me switch to Toyota. My prior car was a Cobalt, hated it.

 

Same here, about 2 weeks ago. I had a 2012 Chevy Equinox that had transmission issues. Decided to get a Highlander instead of another Chevy. Grew up in a Chevrolet household, but never again.

 

I have 3 prius cars! ALL HAVE HAD MOUSE DAMAGE! I have had many cars over the last 30 years and this is the ONLY CAR THAT has this problem! I have a camry and it does not have this problem. I have a truck and it does not have this problem. I have had a Honda CRV and it does not have this problem! ONLY THE PRIUS! It has cost my a lot of money and I AM TIRE OF THIS! All three have had rodent damage and the dealership said I was "lucky" others have had to have the entire wiring systems replace from mouse damage! This is utterly ridiculous! AND TOYOTA SAYS THAT NO ONE HAS EVER COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS! BS! Here is my reference number if you go to complain! 1305152169 Make sure they know you have the SAME PROBLEM!