They also enjoy chewing on wires because it gives them some sort of mild high I understand, preventing wires from being chewed would be my main concern.

I just read that Cedar and Pine (including Pinesol) are also toxic to rats.

^omg i just googled that. sounds like a simple and clean solution. i rather not kill any rats, i wish to simply keep them away!

im gonna try this method, and move the mothballs or rattraps if that doesnt work.

thanks alot everyone for your helps~~!

EDIT: thought id share this too:

http://www.ehow.com/way_5183297_rat-...t-recipes.html

it recommends not using mothballs due to toxicity. im assuming towards humans otherwise who cares lol. so many methods... hope they work, im gonna start trying some soon (sometime next week). i'll post again if any method worked for me. thanks again everyone!

cayenne peppers have worked for me in the past.

We had that issue in our garage, and we used one of those ultrasonic things to keep the rats away, and it seems to have worked. I don't know if being outside would make it less effective.

Dollar stores are a good place to get them.

^oh, i saw them online at canadian tire for like 3 bucks each i think. ill check dollar stores too. thanks!

@roastpuff:
was just talking to a coworker about that. he mentioned he used those before to repel rats and it worked pretty well.

he says it being outdoor should be fine too. but i need to find ways to protect it from weather ;p

lotsa options available. going to go with the peppermint oil and cedar first. and move on to more drastic methods if those fail. thanks guys!

Keep in mind, if your car is parked out on the street where neighborhood pets could be you can not use poison, and I wouldn't suggest rat traps either. If Fluffy gets caught in one or eats the poison you will end up with best case your neighbor hating you, worst case, paying very very very expensive vet bills.

I'd highly recommend yeah sticking with peppermint, cayanne, cedar what have you first for sure.

OP i'd be worried as shit about the fuckers in the HOUSE rather than the car. Also anything that can physically injure someone or something is probably not a good idea at all. This isn't limited to neighbouring pets and animals. what if a kid (you never know where kids go these days) gets a broken finger? Who do you think they're gonna go after?

I had a small problem with rats in my engine bay.
I washed my engine bay and at night I would randomly set off my panic button a few times..
problem went way. worked for me...
not sure if it will work for you.

Had a similar problem cost 1200$ to repair a 06 gs300 trac and check engine
Lights where on

We stopped parking in the car ports

Strange part I had parked my is in same carport for a month in may and 1 week in august the gs got fucked up

We put sticky traps and posion they have not came back

yeah thanks guys for the warnings. i did mention that i wish to not resort to traps and poisons for those reasons. i am also not interested in harming animals, regardless how much i scream about killing these rats lol. will be trying the peppermint oil first, as i have read most articles about those working ;] also dont mind a minty fresh engine bay.

forunately, my house is rat free. its purely just the outside. i believe they are finding too much food around the driveway which is attacting them over. i'll also be going over the bushes to clear out any onions i find lol.

i'll keep you guys updated with the results, incase other people are in my situation and are needing to find clean methods for ridding of rats.

First off, grow a set of balls. We're talking rats here, not fluffy bunnies.

I caught this little character on thursday.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...e/b3b417ee.jpg

For the record, that's one of the big rat traps. That should give you an idea of the size of these things. I caught this guy on the path he would take from the bush that he lived in, to my truck where he made a nice little nest under my hood.

Honestly, deal with them swiftly, and without prejudice. Rats not only do physical damage to your home and car, but if he makes a nest in your HVAC system, he will spread disease too.

Bumping this thread!

My fkn neighbours has so much shit (useless crap collected)in their backyard, two old fkn old folks and there's rats/mice that's been coming into my backyard. They have been hiding in my dad's engine bay since it's warm at night when he comes home from work and there's like crap they bring into the engine bay.

I suggested to my dad that we get something to put a barrier to stop them from crawling through our side. The thing is that it's one of those cement brick walls that divides our house and their house and there is triangular gaps between each brick, which is allowing them to crawl through.

Any suggestions how I can get rid of these damn rats/mice.

Maybe try some chicken wire, although to be honest, they'll just crawl right over the fence rather than through the holes.

I'm tempted to get cement and cement every single damn hole on this stupid brick dividing fence LOL

Hi. since this thread is bumped, I thought I'd share the result.

So, with winter passed, the rats naturally went away. So I havent really bothered with other prevention methods. It also helped that I parked my car underground for a few weeks to force them to find new shelter. <--- I was told rats are very memory/habbit based. Remove their shelter for a while, and hope they dont come back.

I also cleaned the engine bay out to remove as much scent as possible.

For those interested in trying: Peppermint Oil

It DID NOT prevent them from coming back. I bought a TINY bottle for like 14 bucks (so expensive), and soaked some cotton pads with it. Placed them in the 3 areas in my engine bay where nutshells/poop was found.

At first it seemed like it worked, but eventually, I found more poop in other areas.

To conclude. It seems the rodents avoid the pads themselves as much as possible, but still didnt mind going into the engine bay to poop in new areas.

Hope that saves others from wasting 14 bucks on a tiny bottle ;p

If your neighbors house is really that bad, call the city.

My girlfriend's grandma's car had the rats living in her engine bay shitting everywhere and made her engine bay smell horrible.

The mechanic told me to put a piece of cardboard above your engine, close the hood on it. He claimed that the rats will not go there again because it'll realize that its home looks different or something. I didn't know if it'll work but it was worth a try.

My girlfriend's grandma then had placed a piece of cardboard and closing the hood on it when she parks, and takes it out when she's going out. No rats ever since!

glue traps are really cruel, they get desperate and will start gnawing off body parts, then you just have a blood sticky pad with a dismembered rodent on it.

.

You are doing it wrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...5o9YsJY#t=246s