Everything you need to know about rodents, dangerous enemies of your car
The cold winter months can be a real test for your vehicle. In addition to frost and cold, the car has other dangerous enemies, for example, rodents. Squirrels, mice and rats often look for a warm and cozy place where they can wait out the cold and hide from large predatory animals. Unfortunately, they can choose your car as such a shelter.
Rodents usually hide under the hood of a car, because it is warm and dry there. In this case, the motor wires are particularly threatened. Small animals can simply gnaw them, which will cause a short circuit, and you will have to pay a fairly large amount for repairs.
Of course, the rodent will not eat the engine of your car, but it can adapt it to the nest. Small crevices are a great place for rodent cubs to hide and wait out the bad weather. If rodents bring dry leaves and grass, cardboard, and paper to their nest, there is a great danger that these materials will catch fire.
In addition, do not exclude the possibility that the animals will arrange a storage for food supplies in your car. In this case, you will constantly be haunted by the unpleasant smell of food residues. In addition, if you start the engine and scare a hiding rat or mouse, it can rush around the engine from fear, which threatens a fire or an accident.
How to protect your favorite car from dangerous pests? First, think about the most obvious and cheap solution to the problem. Everyone knows that beetles and rodents do not like mothballs very much. The smell of mothballs will not hurt a person, but it will scare away uninvited guests. We recommend that you regularly scatter mothballs near your parking space or in the garage.
If the smell of mothballs does not help, you can try to scare off rodents with the help of sound. Now you can find a fairly wide selection of different devices that reproduce ultrasound. The convenience lies in the fact that the human ear is not able to recognize such sounds, but it will scare away gophers or rats. You can install such devices both on the site near the house, and directly in the engine compartment of the vehicle. The only thing you should take care of is to find out whether such a device will be dangerous for your pets.
You can also listen to the advice of professionals and read expert articles that will recommend what other means can be used to repel rodents. Feel free to check blogs on such websites as VINinspect or VINGURUS to get more useful tips on how to protect your vehicle.
Do not forget that in addition to using special tools, it is also necessary to keep the vehicle clean. The same applies to the garage. If there are mountains of garbage, old clothes or even food remnants in your garage for a long time, rodents will not take long to wait.
Many motorists take lunch in the car and forget about it for a couple of days. Small children can leave crumbs from cookies or chips. Even small pieces of food can attract rats and other rodents.
If you think that rodents live on your site or in the garage, first try to prevent them from entering the engine compartment of the car. To do this, you can use a wire mesh that will protect the wiring from damage. This mesh will block the holes through which rodents can get close to the engine, while the air flow will pass freely.
If for some reason you do not drive a car for a long time, still do not leave it unattended. Cleaning and regular inspection will not take much time and effort, but you will avoid repair costs and other risks in the future.
If you choose a used car, make sure that it has not been damaged by rodents. Pay attention to the cleanliness of the interior and to the operation of the engine while driving. To avoid trouble, you can check the VIN of the vehicle on EpicVIN and find out if it has hidden damage.
Thus, do not treat small rodents too disparagingly. Small animals can cause serious accidents, and therefore you should regularly inspect the car in order to notice damage in time, especially if they concern the wires and the engine.