Keep rats out of your car with moth balls.

Living in a rural area has it's charms such as seeing deer grazing on the lawn on frosty winter mornings or staring up at the milky way on cloudless nights without the light pollution of big cities. Rats, however are not among those charms.
Every winter the rats seek shelter in the walls and attic of my home and, for whatever reason, this year has been worse than it has been for a long time.
Normally they don't pose much of a problem but now there are so many of them that they need to take shelter anywhere they can, including inside the engine compartments of our cars.
First up was the BMW about two months ago with a blinker going out and the check engine light coming on so we took it to the shop and nearly $3000 later all the wires the rats had chewed up were repaired.
Since that car had been in the garage I assumed that was the reason the rats had gotten up into it for further protection from the cold.
Well you know what they say about people who ass.u.me things... So a couple weeks later the light comes on in the Explorer and a few days later it starts running really rough and gets a trip to the dealer. Thankfully, that one was only $700 in damage.
So before the Accord became the next victim I decided to try to do something about it.
 

Step 1 Plan of attack.

Poison or traps didn't really seem like a viable option since two of the cars are outside, and I had heard from several sources that dryer sheets under the hood would help deter them, but that seemed kind of sketchy as well. How do you attach them under the hood so they dont fly away? How long do they last? How many do you need to use? I have no idea, so I turned to the trusty ol' internet in search of alternatives and it seems that aside from dryer sheets many people believe in the use of moth balls for the same purpose.
So I went out and got some, now how to stick 'em in the car so  that they stay...

Comments

[BestaNesta99]

I can tell you from first hand experience of working in my family's pest control company that has been in business for 60+ years that moth balls have no effect on rats. If you want to try to keep mice away use mint oil on a cotton ball and replace it every 2-4 weeks. Not sure if rats will avoid the smell of mint. This is only a deterrent! If it always worked or if moth balls worked we would have been out of business a while ago. (P.S. I'm not saying its impossible for a rat to dislike the smell but on the whole don't count on this to work).

[siamonsez]

Thanks for the input. After posting I found out that moth balls last an extremely short amount of time, and I have since switched to dryer sheets, but you are definitely right about anything only being a deterrent. I will try the mint idea next, if I can find it, as I am still finding evidence of the presence of rats in my engine compartment.
I think the concept still holds though, it anyone wants to try putting something in the engine bay of their car it should be secured so it won't get loose and cause damage.

[BestaNesta99]

NP. If your are looking for a physical barrier try copper mesh for a small area. Steel wool won't do anything but copper mesh will as it doesn't rust and they don't even like the taste. Try the Rat Zapper 2000 if you are looking for a reliable, effective and humane trap (it stuns and kills RATS in about 2 minutes, mice are instantly killed). Also don't keep any food around or give them a reason to be there. GL.

[wierdguy03]

They may work for engine compartments, but i can tell you now that they absolutely do NOT work in the attic. I dunno maybe the heat from the engine has something to do with it.

[Rick Suddes]

Also, you can spray Rataway Fragrance non-toxc & non-poisonous to protect car engines and wiring. Use to protect cars, trucks, farm machinery, homes, business,etc... safe around pets & children

[ebergh]

Very nice instructable! We had a mouse get into the engine of our RV this fall, $1500 in repairs later, I also decided to try mothballs! My wife suggested using the plastic mesh bags that fruit comes in (like melons, etc). Other than that, we pretty much did the same as you... I hung my bags from hooks made from wire ties that come on bags of sandwich bread. I ended up with four bags around the compartment - that used up a box of moth balls.

We did notice that when we removed the bags to drive somewhere, that they were pretty strong smelling. I tried putting them into a ziplock bag, but we could STILL smell them! I think they will eventually get a mayonnaise jar for storage when not in the engine compartment.

Good job!