Rodent protection?

Will do.. do rats have a scent trail they follow or remember? I will take the cover off and give it a rinse.. Thank You (new here.. to respond to someone's comment is there a way to do that?)

 

That's one advantage of a TRD intake, or the aftermarket versions of that (if you can stand the extra noise) - it eliminates the resonator that sits right over the passenger side of the engine, hiding all that wiring. When I spray that side's wiring, it requires removing the intake and resonator in order to get access to those wires.

 

Try peanut butter mixed with baking powder & baking soda. Won't hurt dogs or cats.

 

Rats and mice pee frequently leaving trails wherever they go. It would be good to try to clean wherever they’ve been. Maybe with a detergent like Simple Green. Try searching the forum for engine cleaning techniques and cautions.

 

Switched to Swiss cheese, a little more pungent, 1st night trying got two.

 

I live next to a field and get lots of field mice. We started to tie a string on the trap and then rub peanut butter on the string. The string gets caught in their teeth and they set the trap off. It always works for us. When Denver dropped to -40 a few weeks ago, we got 4 in the garage in 2 days. That said, this is what it looks like!

 

Biologists trrick for catching shrews (Might work for rodents?). Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of water, suspend a string above it and bait the string (cheese?? Bacon??) The prey will jump to the string, eventually fall into the bucket and drown.

 

That stuff did NOTHING for me. I'd been religiously hosing down my engine bay with it since rodents did $9K+ in damage to the wiring of my 4R last year.

They got me again a few weeks ago. I cleaned up the area under the hood, and hosed down the area where the most recent damage occurred. Less than 24 hours later there was a new nest right where the chewed wires and tons of Mighty Mint had been sprayed.

 

Whoa! Is this your daily driver, or does it usually sit for several days?

 

We use bucket traps at the farm. Easy to make. Piece of scrap wood for a ramp, could use a shorter bucket but 5 gal are always easy to find. I usually use a pop bottle but I guess a can would work. Use antifreeze in the bottom of the bucket to keep the mice from stinking.

He's a picture I found online.

Or if you're worried about pets getting into the antifreeze us water and empty it frequently...

 

Wow!! Well that bums me out I did have a device installed to the battery too yeaterday .. traps going up tomorrow as well.. aaaand going to check to see if I can get out of my new lease cuz this is just stupid .. had a 2018 4runner previously and lived in Tahoe and didn't have these kind of issues.. but some drunk ass hit me at 60 while I was in the movie theater last Dec and they totalled that truck with a bent frame .. which of course was almost paid off with very low miles.. Ugh

 

I drive it pretty regularly, but it might sit for 2 or 3 days here and there.

Oddly, I owned a 2006 Tacoma that was parked outside for 12 years, in the same spot as my 4Runner now does. I never had a rodent issue with it.

 

I found a mouse hole under my hood up in the padding. They nibbled through it and and made a nest up there . Took it off and is shredded. I checked my air/cabin filters and they were clean.

 

Another option to add the various countermeasures is open your hood and put a light in there. When at our ranch, we leave our hoods up and use either a magnetic tube light attached under the hood or literally string a strand of Christmas lights through the engine bay. Since doing that we haven’t had any chewed up wires. If you live on a corner and don’t want your hood up, use the Christmas lights and lower the hood by hand until it touches the extension cord.

 

Well, besides the cats I have and mentioned on page one of this thread, I also purchased a Mouse blocker Pro as my 4runner is now parked out back, under the carport, and next to my shed which is 20 feet from the woods. I mounted the mouse blocker pro on the wall next to 4runner, so far no issues and it has sat for as long as 5 days without being moved. I brought a new Mercedes Metris van, so it now gets the garage where the cats eat and sleep.

https://mouseblocker.com/

 

Wife was driving it last week and started sounding funny. Luckily the shop we use is close as she made it with check engine and other lights came on. Our guy hooked it up to his reader, "Rot roh this isn't good!" He opened the hood and a squirrel made a hasty exit. We have squirrels in our hood, but never any issues in 19 years. However, we did treat ourselves to having our vehicles detailed last month. Mechanic wondered out loud if something in the spray shine they use in engine compartment?? I have trapped nine so far since Saturday....

 

Try using mouse bait around the house. Eliminate the threat from outside first. Not sure i have mouse outside. But still take that precaution. Under trash cans especially.

 

If you do use bait make sure to use a generation 2 bait if you dont need to worry about household pets getting to it.
Gen 1 bait requires the mouse or rat to eat it multiple times before it kills them. Gen 2 usually only requires 1 eating session to kill them.
Most of the stuff you get from the local hardware store is gen1. You can get gen 2 from Amazon and pest control websites. Also make sure to use a bait station to keep larger animals like dogs away from it.

 

I use peppermint oil- can't find the video of the guy that test all the different types of repellant and pepermint oil was the only one that sent them scurrying. I dill holes in empty prescription bottles add cotton balls with pepermint oil and tie off with paracord to the inside engin cabin and one in the main passanger compartment. My college age daughter now hates the smell of candy canes and anything else peppermint, but the highlander she parks outside between cornfields at college remains rodent free so far. I have to sneak refills on the inside passanger bottle when she's home, but it's worth it...

 

I use the regular TomCat Green mouse bait. Something/whatever does eat it under the trash can. Not sure about Gen1 vs Gen2 types.
We have no pets roaming around the houses.

 

That Tom Cat bait I think is gen1 at least the last time I looked at it. As long as they eat it multiple times it will kill them

 

A problem with baits that kill is that they are indiscriminate. Even if no other animals are interested in the bait, a bird, cat, raccoon, dog, etc. may be interested in the dead or dying rat/mouse.

 

Missed so many replies here thanks to the software not notifying me

 

I tried Irish spring soap (see photo) The little critters are chewing the soap. WTF

 

Ha!

 

Check out the goodnature traps and clean things up. These are pricey but used regularly should help keep things under control.

 

My local Toyota dealer wants $12,500 to replace my wiring harness, so I'm following this thread closely!