Team-BHP - Rat-proof Fencing as a solution for the rodent menace?

It is a clash of races!! ;)
We know from the folklore that rats are quite intelligent, very persistent and creatures of habit. I have a simple solution which I implemented with some success at my farm. (They were playing havoc with nursery and growing veges)

Trying to understand their psyche I watched quite a few episodes of mickey mouse, then devised my devious strategy which I share with you in confidence.:D

Take jaggery or wheat flour or ladoos, add a pinch of desi ghee or mustard oil or coconut oil to it, leave them in the affected area at night, repeat the exercise after a day. You have now habituated them or one could say programmed them. After a day's break mix the laddoos or jaggery with rat poison and leave it overnight, get up early next day to watch the sight of writhing imbeciles, take up a broom and finish the job wherever required.

Some precautions, do not mix too much rat poison, as the smart ones may observe the change, secondly do announce your exercise in the vicinity as locals especially kids may not pick up laddoos and start relishing them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar (Post 3722535)

Tanveer,

Do the brushes rattle when the car goes on top of pot holes etc. Also how are they fixed inside the engine bay ? Are the glued to the sides or just stuck inside. If they are stuck don't they fall off ?

thanks

Hello, no it does not rattle and wont fall off, its securely fitted with the help of a strap, save the 1st pic i have posted and zoom it, you can see the strap which has turned yellow over time from white.

I don't use my car daily. Sometimes, I take out the car once in a fortnight or even a month.

Once, I caught the culprit red-handed inside my erstwhile Linea, when it was parked on the open portico. :Frustrati

The rat made a mess of Linea's air filter cover.

I started the engine and startled the rodent, risking splashing all its interiors on Linea's interiors. It jumped out and ran out of my house. No damages were noticed. Later, I cleaned the engine bay. Afterwards, the rats didn't visit the portico!

I followed multi pronged strategy to discourage entry of rats into Linea and XUV500 both at Bangalore and Chennai:

1. Placing tobacco sticks in the engine bay [very effective]

2. Sprinkling phenol-mixed water every night all round the vehicle at night [not so effective]

3. Keeping a mouse-trap with burnt coconut as the bait [useful to catch mouse only and not suitable for big rats/bandicoots]

4. Keeping rat poison mixed with Bengal gram flour at places frequented by the rodents [very effective]

5. Idling my XUV500 for a few minutes inside the garage twice in a week [very effective]

6. Neighbourhood/street/pet cats [effective only in case of mice, useless in case of bandicoots]

7. Making the garage rodent-proof by plugging all gaps/entry points [the best option]

After buying my XUV 500, I DIY'ed rodent-proofing the garage in Bangalore by fixing PVC sheets using self-tapping screws and BOSCH drilling machine. Similarly, in Chennai, I got a new rodent-proof garage constructed costing ₹ 50 k in place of an open car shelter. After the rodent-proof garages at Bangalore and Chennai, the rodents don't mess with my XUV500! :D

The old car shelter in Chennai home:

The new rodent-proof garage in Chennai home:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tanveer_2558 (Post 3722102)

Also this is was fixed more than a year back and since then i have no rat issues, what this does is it hurts the skin of the rat really badly, but does not kill them but its soo painfull for the rats that they just dont ever come back!:)

Many thanks for sharing the pics! My mechanic has been recommending the same thing here. Just got to make sure that they are fitted with precision. One going loose at high speed can cause a lot of damage under the hood.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPV (Post 3721840)

Would it possible to install 2 of these on either sides of your driveway ?

No man. The driveway is open (no roof), thus it'll be pointless. Nice option for the garage though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarNerd (Post 3722199)

I found these on Amazon, Don't know how effective they are.:)

Currently trying out one (the Varna Suraksha I refer to in my opening post).

Quote:

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller (Post 3722530)

Check the entry points i.e. drain openings, and secure them this way. Then make wooden frames that fit around the tyres. Fix steel wool (or steel scrubbing brushes as has been shown by Tanveer_2558) on these frames, and place them around the tyres of your long-term parked cars. No more rat entry.

Will try to post a diagram of the frame design at end of week - am travelling without laptop. Please bear with me till then.

Thanks! Please share the diagram once back, didn't understand this entirely.

I have perhaps been lucky in that I nor my family (Dad's car) have ever had any problem with the rat menace till date. Though that has not stopped me from taking certain precautions - especially when I bought my own beloved car!! :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3720990)

Questions:

1. Which one of the above would you choose & why?
....
6. Any other tips, advice or things to keep in mind?

Ok, I have never used any fencing of any type and other than the 3 and / or 4th option, rest all precautions seem to be pretty flimsy to me - only IMHO.

What I do is:
- Keep the car interiors and engine bay clean. Strictly no food crumbs, garbage or waste inside the car.
- Since, I have a open and common parking area in our society (with dedicated slots), I keep my parking space as clean and dry as possible. Remove garbage, of any kind, well away from my car - even if it is not mine.
- Make sure to start my car / bike regularly, even if I am not using it!
- During winter months and if I have to leave the car parked for several days I spray a insect and rodent spray (Mortein etc) into the engine bay, near the boot, around the lights, all around the wheel wells and on the wheels itself as well. I empty almost half a can doing so!

Not sure - if the above has helped, but as I said earlier my car has been safe from the Rodent menace till now!!

Had a very bitter experience on rat menace. My Fiat Grande Punto Diesel emotion pack was suddenly attacked .(no problem of rats for 5 years). Found that my diesel line was gnawed through. Fiat mobile service replaced the entire lines as they come in a set only and this set me back by about 4000. Within 3 days attack no 2. Same diesel line attacked. Again down by about 3500. Another 6 days and attack no 3 same diesel line. This time I went to GP Road Chennai and got a diesel line made and it came enclosed in a spring covering. Cost Rs 800. Problem stopped. Of course I did place rat poison tablets and found them consumed. Leaf tobacco which come in long strips tied inside bonnet at three or four places. Glad to inform that no more complaints of rat attacks.

During a recent visit to Nandi Toyota, the Service Adviser showed me what appeared to be rat 'footprints' in the engine bay and advised me to install an all aluminium rat fence to prevent rats from entering into the console/dashboard area from the engine bay. I got it installed and it costed me around 4K, if I remember correctly. Not sure of the capability of this fence, but since I didn't want to go through the trouble of some console wire cut and resulting cost to fix it, went ahead with this.

Anybody has experience with such a stuff for Altis or for any other cars?

Regards
Rex

Quote:

Originally Posted by hserus (Post 3721582)

Big bandicoots burrowing underground actually caused subsidence of tiles in my previous building's parking lot, and we had to spend around 40K to get the ground resurfaced and new RCC cement block tiles relaid. When we relaid the ground we mixed broken beer bottles and old nails into the mud before we did - and the rats seem to have kept away.

I exactly have this issue going on in my house and fortunately my car is untouched till now! I plugged a burrow in one corner of the house with broken bottles & concrete and now I have it in another corner :Frustrati

My mason is coming tomorrow morning to start his work and I will feel light on my purse pretty soon :eek:

I have to soon get a feline member in the family!

Seeing some pictures above, I'm wondering whether keeping these dried tobacco sticks or leaves in the engine bay is a good option. Aren't those inflammable?

I have a cat at my premises but it has destroyed my bike seats many times and given scratches on the Micra's bonnet climbing over it chasing lizards. And it just runs away from bigger sized rodents.

A wonderful thread. I was also on the look out of a practical solution for this rat menace. My linea is one which is attacked quite frequently. The most practical solution I've found is rat traps.
Regarding cats, we also supported cats initially in the same logic " cats eat rats". At a point we even had 9 cats. But, the major problem I faced was, the kittens either for playing or for security enter the engine bay through the space between engine shield and tyre well. It became a headache for me to check every time before I start the engine. Some times, these kittens are so adamant that they fail to come out. I've felt, they are more inclined to enter the Linea than alto, which is parked in the same garage.Occasionally I had to take alto because of this kitten problem. Also, some untrained ( potty trained) kittens make a mess in engine bay. How gross. Hence it became a bigger mess than rats.
Also, cats never attack bigger ones. Also I'm against keeping poison because I have a pet dog in my home. Recently, my neighbour kept poison and three cats in our neighbourhood was killed. Mostly they might have eaten the dead rat or so.
So finally I'm left only with rat traps even though its quite tiring.