How to Protect Your Car Engine From Rats or Mice

When it comes to rats, nowhere is safe — not your room, kitchen, bathroom or even the engine of your car. It’s why it’s imperative to learn how to protect your car engine from rats and mice.

Those little critters are very annoying and can be quite destructive. In all fairness, it’s not like they mean to, they just can’t help it.

If you are dealing with a rat infestation in your car engine, it’s easier to let professionals deal with these creatures. However, it’s better to prevent rodents from nesting in your engine in the first place. Although, that’s easier said than done with these evasive, nimble and cunning animals. They are the ultimate masters of the game of hide and seek.

Therefore, keeping rats and rodents out of your area, especially your car engine will not be easy. If you find yourself in an environment where rats or mice thrive, prepare yourself for war.

These are animals that will consistently besiege your properties. It’s up to you to protect your car engine from rats no matter what it takes.

Why You May Have Rats In Your Car Engine

We’re about to discuss how to keep the mice out and prevent rodent damage to your car engine. But before we do that, let’s consider some reasons why you may have rats in your car.

To keep the mice out of your car engine, you need to know how and why they are in there.

Full of mischief

Rats go around in groups people call mischief. So, wherever you find one rat, others are near. Rats may often walk alone but they do not live alone. If you find a rats’ nest, be ready to deal with a lot of rats.

The main problem, however, is that these animals are full of mischief and surprises. They will chew through anything they can get their teeth through.

As such, they can cause significant damage to your properties and appliances. And in your car engine, they can bite through wires, and do unpleasant things to its components.

One thing is certain, the presence of rats and mice in your car engine will end up costing you a lot of money. So, you need to do everything you can to protect your car engine from rats. Or they’re going to ruin things for you.

They like the darkness

Rats are nocturnal, meaning they look for their food at night or in the dark. They don’t want you to discover them. Therefore, they only move when and where you won’t see them.

The darkness is the perfect cover for their activities. Plus, rats can see clearly in the dark, so they’re comfortable in the darkness.

There are so many dark places in your car that will make the perfect nesting place for rats. The engine area under the hood is one of them.

For one, it’s dark and has a lot of crevices. It also has a lot of wires and ready materials for making a nest. It’s pretty much a comfy environment for a rat to raise its babies.

How To Protect Your Car From Rats

Time to get rid of the vermins threatening to cause damages worth thousands of dollars to your car. Beware, they are as tenacious as they are annoying, so you should prepare to try hard.

Below are proven tips to protect your car engine from rats and mice.

Don’t park your car around garbage dumps

The one place you’re certain to find a rat infestation is a garbage dump. It is almost impossible to find a dump full of garbage without rats. This shouldn’t be surprising as dumps are pretty much a food haven for rats.

It is easier for them to get their food there. Most times, their only competition is the birds and there’s often enough for everyone.

Therefore, you want to avoid such places if you’re looking to protect your car engine from rats. Apart from garbage dumps, avoid parking your car anywhere you think may have a rat infestation.

Avoid bush sides, sewer outlets and manholes. It only takes one rat to find its way into your car. Once this happens, others will follow suit.

Repel rats and mice with mothballs

You can let mothballs and other pest repellers do the dirty-rat-cleanup job for you. Rats hate mothballs. Humans don’t like them either but at least, they’re not harmful to us.

Rats, rodents, pests and bugs, however, are at the mercy of this chemical. So, that’s your advantage against these critters.

Simply sprinkle/spray your car engine area with mothballs to keep rats out. Mothballs are cheap, easy to get and work fast.

If you hate mothballs as much as rats do, you can opt for alternative pest repellants. There are many different products out there that can take care of this issue.

Try using ultrasonic soundwaves

Ultrasonic waves are sounds that travel at frequencies human ears cannot pick. However, some groups of animals can pick up these frequencies. Rats and most other rodents belong to the group of such animals.

Rats can hear varying frequencies of ultrasonic sounds and they hate it. Mostly, these sound waves will frighten rats and rodents thereby making the immediate environment uncomfortable.

Thankfully, you can harness this power with gadgets that emit varying wavelengths of ultrasonic sounds. Depending on the type of gadget you get, you should be able to easily install it near your car engine.

You may want to keep the device away from your pet dogs and cats because they can also hear the sounds.

Block the tiny apertures in your car with a mesh

Rats can’t get in the engine of your car if you block all the entryways up. You don’t have to completely seal up all the apertures in the hood, as they are there for a reason.

Rather, you can use a wire mesh which will leave enough air space in the aperture and block illegal entry of rodents into the engine block.

Need help with that? In addition to fixing interior damage due to rodents, auto detailing services can also help put preventive measures like this in place.

It will cost you some money, but not as much as extensive rat damage will cost you.

Leave the hood up

Rats love dark places and a closed car hood just happens to be a perfect example. To nullify this comfort, leave the engine area in full display by leaving the car hood open.

However, do not attempt this if you do not have a secure garage. You stand the risk of losing your car engine to thieves if your garage does not have adequate security. Car engines are worth a lot of money, so it’s good business for a thief.

Fire up the car engine frequently

This doesn’t need a lot of explanation to understand. If you’ve ever opened the hood of your car immediately after using it, you’ll understand this.

Car engines can get very hot very fast and no living thing can ever be comfortable with that amount of heat. If your car engine gets hot regularly, it will serve as a deterrent to rats, mice and other rodents.

Use mouse traps

Mousetraps are the classic maneuver to win the war against rats. Even today, this method works quite well. However, we only recommend it for people who are ready to risk killing rats to get rid of them.

Then again, there are mouse traps that can capture rats without killing them. But there’s always the risk of the rats dying in the process if it involves traps. Nonetheless, it’s always better to trap ’em’ before they ruin stuff.

If you don’t mind, get a cat

The historical enemy of the rat. Before mouse traps were invented, people got rid of mice with cats. That method is still as effective nowadays. A cat in your garage can protect your car engine from rodents and save you expensive repairs.

Not to mention, cats are adorable pets too. If you’re a cat person, you’ll love them. So it’s a win-win situation, you get an adorable pet and keep rats out at the same time. What’s better than that?

Call the professionals

This should be your last call when you can’t take care of the situation by yourself. You can book an appointment with car detailing and car care professionals to ratproof your car.

Protect Your Car Engine from Rats ASAP

If you find yourself in an area with lots of rats, spare no effort to protect your car engine from rats. If even one of these critters finds its way into your car engine, it can cause a lot of damage. And you will have to spend a lot of money on repairs.

You can easily ratproof your car with efficient detailing. Car detailing is affordable, doesn’t require a lot of work and offers immense benefits to your car.

Do well to check out our car detailing services at Auto Boss Vaughan if you need help rat-proofing your car. Let’s help you keep the critters out!