Ooops Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 I've just discovered that I've got a rat problem! I moved house about a year back and long story short due too a mixture of chores and idleness the vehicles have sat unmoved in various states of disrepair for the entire time. This week I decided it was high time to get the fleet back on the road so armed with a power washer I popped the bonnets for a quick spruce up. I was met with total and utter devastation. Five motors trashed, every piece of rubber with the exception of the large radiator & turbo hoses had been chewed. In places there were several inches at a time missing. That prompted me to look at my daily driver and they'd started on that as well albeit to a much lesser degree. Mousers aren't an option, there are more than enough feral cats roaming the place and they clearly can't keep up with things. So my question is what can I do about it? Are hoses available that are made from something they find repellant? TIA Olly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 A lot of rat poison and a lot of traps, and move the traps around every time you catch one because rats as a population have a memory for danger. I think you are barking up the wrong tree trying to stop them eating stuff, you need to tackle the problem at source. Also, dogs don't like rats much and after a rat has been chewed by a dog it is usually quite broken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
errol209 Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 I think you are barking up the wrong tree trying to stop them eating stuff, you need to tackle the problem at source. I'd go with that. We (British Rail) had some telephone cable made with Bitrex in the outer cover, to try and stop mice and rats eating one of our safety systems, but alas no. Letting the local Ferret and Terrier fanciers on did 100 times more good, and didn't cost us. Rats will gnaw through stainless steel armoured wire, 400 bar hydraulic hoses (bang), plastic gas pipes (bang) and 415V three-phase cables (fizz and rat kebab). The key reason they've eaten your pipework is there are too many of them and they're hungry: 2 rats can become 500 rats in a matter of months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweety Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Your hoses will have made nice beds for the baby rats Sorry to hear the news but I don't know of any hoses that are rat proof as a rat can chew a steel drain pipe & mice are almost as bad. When I worked for Rover had many a car from Rovers storage fields & had to replace seats, dash's, wiring harnesses etc due to the damage done by mice even caught a few running around inside cars TBH I would poss get an air riffle & put bait out & wait for the horrid things to turn up, failling that get someone with Terriers & let them have a good sniff around your property as they find the rat dwellings & nests the reason I say this is I used to have 3 Jack Russell's & if a rat was about they just went nuts only got 1 now but he still checks out the property every day & around the rabbit run Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Rodents chewing the guts of your motor is getting quite common. I recently worked on an 05 plate Transit that had the wiring wrecked by rats, and a Pug that had a mouses nest in the air box after the vehicle had been laid up for 2-months. The mouse didn't survive the engine being started, but the nest and babies did Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooops Posted December 12, 2009 Author Share Posted December 12, 2009 Sorry for the delay & thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I can see that I'm going to be employing a combination of all of these things. Wish me luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I live in a 300yr old cottage with thick rubble stone walls,its in a fairly remote location - lots of wildlife around.Despite having 2 good cats when it gets cold the mice start to find their way in - can never find where ! I've finally stopped them,B+Q sell 4 packs of those plug in noise things - works a treat ! I dont know if you can get industrial strength ones for large buildings,but it certainly cleared my cottage overnight. BTW,Bogmonster,a customer of mine served on the Falklands,he reckoned there were rats out there nearly the size of cats,is that true ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pw8757 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Sorry to hear about the damage., The local Environment Health Officer from your council will come and get rid of them for free......................! I live in an old farm house in a rural area and we have rats all the time - the old story that you're never more than 5 metres from a rat is true - when they get too uppity we phone the Council, Rat Man comes, gets rid of rats. Job done. In our business premises, we use the noise devices at night.............we assume they work, although they might also be scaring off elephants as well, we NEVER see any of them.......! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooops Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Sorry to hear about the damage., The local Environment Health Officer from your council will come and get rid of them for free......................! I live in an old farm house in a rural area and we have rats all the time - the old story that you're never more than 5 metres from a rat is true - when they get too uppity we phone the Council, Rat Man comes, gets rid of rats. Job done. In our business premises, we use the noise devices at night.............we assume they work, although they might also be scaring off elephants as well, we NEVER see any of them.......! Despite the dog and several feral cats these things seem to prosper yet I never see them, only the evidence. The noise devices sound interesting but I've never heard of them could you let me have a bit more info. Elephants ........ ROTFLMAO too funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooops Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 I live in a 300yr old cottage with thick rubble stone walls,its in a fairly remote location - lots of wildlife around.Despite having 2 good cats when it gets cold the mice start to find their way in - can never find where ! I've finally stopped them,B+Q sell 4 packs of those plug in noise things - works a treat ! I dont know if you can get industrial strength ones for large buildings,but it certainly cleared my cottage overnight. BTW,Bogmonster,a customer of mine served on the Falklands,he reckoned there were rats out there nearly the size of cats,is that true ? Are these the ones? http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9426527&fh_view_size=10&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=rat&fh_eds=ß&fh_refview=search&ts=1260840906940&isSearch=true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco_al Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 In our business premises, we use the noise devices at night.............we assume they work, although they might also be scaring off elephants as well, we NEVER see any of them.......! They are just big mice at the end of the day with really long noses, you know when you've got an elephant problem, because you can never find any damn peanuts...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 I thought elephants left footprints in the butter.... The link to the B+Q site does not show the same ones that I have,and when I did a search on there it did not come up with them,dont know what thats all about.It was only a couple of months ago I bought them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pw8757 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 See hereand take your pick......................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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