Rubber eating critter but I cant find it

[leon]

Hi Guys,
The other day I was going to wash my windows with the normal procedure of press the button, wipers come on water comes out.

Bugger, must be out of water, checked that and it was basically full, so whilst the bonnet was up i tried again and water went everywhere and found this.

Some little critter has hitched a ride in the engine compartment and decided that rubber was good, but only the window washer tube.

Not a mark anywhere on any other tube wire etc

So what have we got here, plant plenty of bait for mice and rats while the car is idle at night, na, not interested, I replaced the small tube and bugger me dead the bloody thing went for that same tube again.

So what have we got here, some thing with very sharp teeth.no doubt but never a mouse or rat dropping, just sometimes one can see where it had a pee on top of the engine covering

Seriously can a small critter stand the heat of the engine bay after doing 400 kilometers

Leon

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Sorry I can't help with any identification but certainly looks like rodent teeth marks. Are they chewing through the rubber to get to the water, really bizarre , but rats and mice will chew through electrical cables too. Why is anybodies guess.

[brisen (Brian)]

The marks on the rubber certainly look like the dental imprints of a rodent of some description. I wonder if the hose is just the right size to get its teeth into to get started. I would expect they would go for the wiring as well though.

Brian

[gts055 (Mark)]

Hii Leon, thats mouse or rat damage. Had that experience years ago with anunderbonnet car wiring loom. Try a few types of bait, as rodents can be selective as to what appeals to their taste. Mark

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Rodents an be tough suckers to coax into taking a bait if there is other food sources around that they prefer.

One trick that is coating the cables in chilli oil or powder. To make the powder stick, a small smear if vaseline will do. Don't use crushed chillies as this is too course and will fall off too easily. I've used my home grown Carolina Reaper chillies that I dehydrated and pulverised - really dangerous stuff! You don't stuff around with this stuff.

Another trick is to smear a little peanut butter on the block of bait, with a little smeared on the wire/cable too. They will nibble on the peanut butter coated wire and then head for the bait...

Don't use a bait with the active ingredient being Warfarin as rats and mice have built a tolerance to it. More effective baits use Bromadiolone or Brodifacoum. Be careful with this stuff of course too, as it doesn't discriminate with native animals.

[leon]

Many thanks guys, for your suggestions, i will try some of your methods and see what will happen.
But why just that one small piece of rubber.

Leon

[sharpiel]

Originally Posted by mental4astro

Don't use a bait with the active ingredient being Warfarin as rats and mice have built a tolerance to it. More effective baits use Bromadiolone or Brodifacoum. Be careful with this stuff of course too, as it doesn't discriminate with native animals.

That's definitely rat damage. I've seen it many times. Rats, just like rabbits, need to constantly wear down their teeth by chewing as their teeth keep growing in length, unlike us. That's why they chew away electrical cables in houses.

Unfortunately the rat poisons you've recommend Alex are the absolute worst for the local wildlife. Any rat poison which claims to be instant kill is extremely poisonous. That's how they're so effective. Unfortunately this poison remains in the rat carcass. Imagine them being radioactive after death...

The rat consumes the poison and re enters the local environment to die. It's carcass is easy feed for local predators like snakes, magpies and crows, butcher birds etc etc.

Also the local cats and dogs. Maybe your neighbour's or yours.

Any animal that consumes the carcass consumes the high level of poisons as well. They die as a result.

Search secondary poisoning online for many references.

I know when my neighbour here used those poisons we didn't see any kookaburras or other carnivorous native birds until he left. They've all returned now he's gone.

Racumin is the only bait I'd advise. It is warfarin based. The treatment for poisoning for dogs is a simple vitamin k injection at the vet. Same for wild life.

It has much lower toxicity that the newer generation poisons. Safer all round.

Perhaps try rattraps... There are electrical kill traps available. My extensive experience with rats is that they are clever and learn to recognise and avoid danger after the first use of the traps.

The best preventative for vermin is to not have any food sources available around your home. Find out if they're feeding on scraps or pet food at your place. Restrict the food and they'll go elsewhere to eat and live.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Why? Two reasons: taste and it feels good when they gnaw on the cable. They can be very precise with their gnawing too.

I see this behaviour in my vegie patch too. They will eat a whole tomato and then just bite dozens of others just enough for their incisors to "pop" through the skin and then not even finish biting through. One season they just like eating the freash plump beans, gnawing through the pod, spitting out the bits of the pod and eating the bean, and biting exactly where the bean is! The next season they left the freash beans alone and just out the dried out beans that I was saving up for seed for the next year!!!

Flaming little blighters!

Thanks Les for your suggestions too! Thers is little by way of foraging natives whete I live, and I do try to be careful with birds as there are lots of native birds around. I also need to consider my vegie patch and chooks too and secondary poisoning as you say. For us it's the vegie patch that attrats rodents. Not practical to close it off to keep them out.

[xelasnave]

It happened to me Leon about four years ago but they got the fuel lines and wiring.
Lucky I smelt the petrol as the car could have caught fire and maybe hurt a y mice still around.
The mechanic sais he has seen much worse but recons it is the real young ones just e ercising their teeth so I guess you just have to be happy that you are contributing to their development.
And remember if another big rock hots the Earth it may be these guys who continue the line of mammmals that we are part of☺
It is them and us against the reptiles.
Alex

[GrahamL]

We used to lay dripper line just under the surface in multiple 300 m runs , foxes would hear the water running through the line at night sometimes and dig up the pipe and bite holes in it out of curiosity and then move down the row 50 m and do it again over a couple hundred acres or so this got pretty ordinary over the years.

[leon]

Thanks Guys, however Alex although I like all creatures as you do this little prick is dead, that is if i can find it.

My $50.000 4x4 is worth more than some mongrel mouse/rat.

Leon

[xelasnave]

I believe also they are attracted to the warmth of the motor ... we would open our bonets when arriving home to cool the as best we could...maybe put out a nice hot water bottle that could keep them warm and give them something to chew on☺
Alex

[leon]

Na death, if i come across it.

Leon

[RyanJones]

100% rodents Leon. I'm a mechanic and we see it all the time. If it's not the washer hoses, it's wiring. Can't say I've ever seen fuel lines but it wouldn't surprise me. Restraunt owners are the most common people to suffer from it with if you think beyond the car is a bit of a concern but I digress. Most rodent poisons make the rodent thirsty too. Generally his is so that once taken, the rodent then leaves the building to search for water before dying so they don't die in the cavities of your house. Rodent poison will therefore not stop what is happening to your car unless the poison kills all of the rodents rather than just the one. Each time a new one comes in, the same thing will happen to your hoses. Put a bowl of water either under or near your car. It of course won't kill the animal but it will save your hoses.

[leon]

Wow, Ryan, never even thought of that.

Alex will be so pleased

Yes I do expect it is after water as nothing else id touched, well not that I can see.

Ok we will leave some water around and see what happens.

Thank You indeed for your suggestion.

Leon

[xelasnave]

Hi Ryan
My mechanic said it was unusuak to have bit the fuel line..and it was in three places ..squirting out.
I had stopped the car to open the gate and smelt it and opened the bonnet and saw it cut the moter imediately and hoped it would evaporate before it went up. And the electric wires were chewed on the plastic not the wire which the mechanic said was strange..but he said he has had cars that had to be totally rewired.
The best way to deal with mice is to have a barrel with a beer bottled over hang it such that the opening, stuffed with peanut butter or what you have ...they try to get the bait and fall in the barrel.
You then arrest them and sentence them to life behind bars.
The main concern is if you have mice , in my environment, you will bring in snakes.
But they pee everywhere and I think that is how the snakes track them down.
I would spray around the shack with anything like bleach or disinfectant perfume...whatever you could use if you ran out down the line...in an effort to erase the snake aspect ...maybe I dont know.
But you cant have mice mainly for that and the car danage...heck you could continue this thread on the lines of damage to all sorts of stuff that mice damaged.
My 12 inch..my pride and joy...mouse pee on the mirror...
Ruined I have not looked but I will bet the glass may even be damaged...I am scared to look...I did see it..and it is reasonable the base did not get wet which was always possible....and no one tooj it..
Anyways we need a better mouse trap and a reason to catch mice and somehow respect their poor little lives☺
But a barrel like U suggest is a good way because there is no poison and if the dog gets at the bait he does not die.
I ate rat poison when a little kid I remember something about it but luckly the brain damage they thought would occurre seems to have been avoided in so far as I am as normal as anyone☺
I was lucky I got a little python when I first went up north and as he got bigger he would leave and I wouldnot see him for ages...but he comes and goes to this day I hope..myst check with the xurrent occupant...her dig got killed by a snake in the house just last month.. its been empty for so long...
Plus leave no food out ever no unwashed dish nothing not even a crumb on the floor
Plus the barrel idea tells you if their are mice..you dont get that information with poison
Alex