Hope not lost in battle to evict rodents from vehicles

Mechanic Les Irving has plenty of horror stories to tell about rodent-damaged cars coming into his shop. But not all hope is lost with these two solutions.

Southside Service Centre, South Grafton mechanic and owner Les Irving.

Mechanic Les Irving has plenty of horror stories to tell about rodent-damaged cars coming into his shop.

“We had a Mitsubishi Pajero come in about two weeks ago where the mice had chewed a lot of vacuum lines, a lot of stuff, so we repaired all that, and then they came back a week later because they’d chewed all the heater hoses and all that as well,” he said.

“We also had a brand new Ford Ranger turn up here the other day with fault codes and when we opened it up, mice had chewed through the whole wiring harness. They’d chewed right through it, so the main components were losing electrical power.”

Mr Irving, who runs Southside Service Centre in South Grafton, NSW said the past two months had seen a significant increase in vehicles ravaged by ravenous rodents.

“We’re seeing around two-to-three a week because they’re creating that much carnage at the moment,” he said.

“It’s been getting that bad that they’re actually making nests inside the air boxes and making nests inside the air cleaners as well. I’ve seen where they’ve actually chewed a hole straight through the whole air cleaner.

“One heater box that was inside a car, when you actually opened it up you could see that they’d almost gone through the thing. There were massive claw marks and bite marks throughout.”

Mr Irving said their popular choice for rodents to take up residence was the spot behind the glovebox.

“We’ve had some where we’ve pulled out the cabin filter (located behind the glovebox) and there’s a full on nest in there. There was one we had one day that had three little babies in there, and it didn’t smell pleasant.”

However, Mr Irving said not all hope was lost in the battle to evict rodents from vehicles.

“If you put your car on ‘recycle’ before you turn it off, that shuts off all the vents to the outside, preventing them from getting in,” he said.

“You’re also better off getting rat baits or poison blocks with the hole in the centre and, with zipties, tying them everywhere inside the engine bay.”

Using the air recirculation button prior to switching off your car will prevent mice and rats from getting inside your vehicle.