Squirrels eat underhood wiring

[ledslinger]

I normally work on boats but a friend calls me that his cars won't run when he returns from 2 weeks of vacation. I pop the hood on his 850 Volvo and see a bunch of leaves. I start clearing them out and go for a scoop of leaves and feel something warm and squirmy. A nest of about 5 baby squirrels about 2-3 inches long not including tails.

I'd never seen baby squirrels and they are really cute. I look at the wiring around the nest behind the right headlight and see ends of wires.

He says his Suburban runs but very rough. I scan and codes indicate a misfire and injector circuit codes. Three injectors had wires eaten off.

 

[OilNerd]

Most insurers will cover it as a comprehensive loss, if he has such coverage.

Any photos of the baby squirrels?

 

[JT1]

I suppose that;s better than finding a nest of baby rats!

My dad found a baby-squirrel abandoned by it's parents once, so we took it home and raised him into adulthood. He made a pretty good house-pet, and a real good conversation starter for our house-guests.

 

[bdcardinal]

Really common to see rodents eating wiring. We had something eat up an entire engine harness on a Fusion while the owner was on vacation. When our tech called Ford Hotline they said something about using soy based insulation, and the rodents absolutely love it.

 

[Chris142]

Ya they are a terrer here too. I've been zapping them with my RatZapper before they can eat my wires.

 

[oilboy123]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
When our tech called Ford Hotline they said something about using soy based insulation, and the rodents absolutely love it.


That is funny.....

 

[cryption]

You need a mongoose. He'll get those squirrels out of there

 

[cbear]

A coworker went hiking in the mountains for a week. When he got back to his car, it wouldn't start. Squirrels ate his wiring harness. He managed to get it spliced enough to run, then he traded it in.

 

[Trav]

Over in Germany we are plagued with marders that love wiring and hoses.
These nasty buggers are related to wolverines.We put high voltage plates under the hood,it doesn't kill them but they sure get riled up good.
The real fun begins if you forget to turn the system off
when you go to check the oil and get blasted with high voltage or a PO Marder is lurking under the hood.

http://www.mardersicher.de/index.htm

 

[onion]

Originally Posted By: JT1
I suppose that;s better than finding a nest of baby rats!

My dad found a baby-squirrel abandoned by it's parents once, so we took it home and raised him into adulthood. He made a pretty good house-pet, and a real good conversation starter for our house-guests.


How do you house-break a squirrel?

 

[Kestas]

You raise them from baby. I had one as a pet. When I found it, its eyes weren't yet open. It was orphaned around this time of year. He was a lot of fun to have around. I kept it through winter until it could fend for itself in the outdoors.

 

[onion]

Well do they use a litter-box? Or wear a diaper? Or do you follow 'em around with a little shovel?

 

[Kestas]

I gave him a room to stay in. The house was undergoing renovation and needed new carpeting, so that "problem" was manageable. No shovel needed - just a vacuum cleaner.

 

[mechtech2]

Critters love under hood areas as nests.
Snakes, cats, rodents, etc. are common in vehicles that have been sitting for more than a few weeks.
The first thing we do with any garage queen is to check under the hood . Nests , poopies, critters, are common.

 

[onion]

Here in kansas the problem is packrats. If you have a vehicle that sits a while, they can build a HUGE nest... filling up half of the under-hood area sometimes. And they love injector wires. We had one that distributed a gallon or more of dry dogfood throughout a Chevy Tahoe's engine compartment.

One built a nest under the hood of the inlaws' tractor a couple weeks ago. I dug it all out, but never found the rat... 'til I started the engine the next day. Somehow he ended up in the fan and was slung out in a couple of chunks.

I distributed some poison grain around under various hoods. We've used mothballs in the past, but they don't seem to work all that well.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: cryption
You need a mongoose. He'll get those squirrels out of there


Then you need something to keep the mongoose in check, and then something to keep that in check. Pretty soon you have to hire a hunter to track down your lost lion.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Over in Germany we are plagued with marders that love wiring and hoses.
These nasty buggers are related to wolverines.We put high voltage plates under the hood,it doesn't kill them but they sure get riled up good.
The real fun begins if you forget to turn the system off
when you go to check the oil and get blasted with high voltage or a PO Marder is lurking under the hood.

http://www.mardersicher.de/index.htm


Those things look NASTY!!

Kind of like a large, livid, ferret on steroids!