Just noticed rat droppings under the hood of my wife's Pacifica Hybrid. Unfortunately, we are in a rental in Lake Charles and only have a carport, no garage.

Are there any preventative measures I can put under the hood to make this a less attractive place for them to congregate, eat, and poop? I've read the horror stories about the soy based wire sheathing and I'd like to avoid it at all costs.

I am not against poison or non-green solutions, we have a hybrid because Biden gave me 7500 to buy it not because I want to save the planet and all the furry creatures...

There is some stuff called"Botanical Rodent Repellant". It is sold at most Ace hardware stores. It is a scented bag that you put under your hood and keeps rats and mice out. I use it on my tractor with good results.
Just put it where it is not touching any heat sources.

Squirrels have eaten the wires in my F150.

My mechanic had me put mothballs and that has worked

Keeping the hood open when parked for extended periods also works.

We had some squirrel that started getting up in my son's car in the driveway as we found acorns basically stored up under the hood. High concentration peppermint oil on a few cotton balls wedged into a few holes on fender wells stopped them

Thank you all for the suggestions!

So my wife, who has quite the collection of oils said she has seen peppermint oil eat plastic. Anyone that tried spraying it had any issues. Knowing her love for oils I thought she would jump at this one, but she has some concerns.

She is wondering about cinnamon oil, thinking it is not as volatile I guess?

txyaloo said:

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Keeping the hood open when parked for extended periods also works.

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This. We did this for trucks at our deer lease. These would sit for weeks or months on end. No problem.

I've tried cayenne, cinnamon, oil, mothballs

Rat traps with peanut butter work the best

Ain't that the truth

Anyone tried any of these ultrasonic / strobe light snake oils?

https://www.amazon.com/Loraffe-Repeller-Ultrasound-Warehouse-Protection/dp/B07VKBHH15

lucabrasi said:

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Squirrels have eaten the wires in my F150.

My mechanic had me put mothballs and that has worked

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Yep, had a possum chew up my wiring in my F150. Put moth balls in a sock and wrap it up and that will work.

At the ranch we leave the hood of the ranch truck open. They leave the wires alone because they can't hide. Nothing else worked, but this does.

Thanks again for all the replies. I'm going to try several, starting with the moth balls maybe and the open hood. Trouble is the van is a plug-in hybrid that will not charge when the hood is open. I'm going to have to look for the hood close switch and rig it.

I had a problem with rats nesting in my cars a few years ago. I haven't found any chewed wires yet, so I may have escaped that hell. The rat problem has been fixed through some stuff I did to the cars and moving to a new house.

I used the homemade peppermint oil spray (with no damage to plastics), moved the cars weekly, and kept the hoods open when I couldn't move them around. This got good results.

The only things I'd add to the previous recommendations are:

• Remove nesting material, food debris, and the like from the engine. Wear gloves and a mask. Removing it will help move the rodents along and give you an indication if they are still living there if more debris appears.
• Get rid of food sources on your property, if possible. In my case I had two citrus trees and a bird feeder in my yard. I picked both trees clean, stopped putting out birdseed, and made sure all trash was in a can with a closed lid.
• If you have a dog that likes to chase things, let them hang out with your car if possible. The rats didn't hang out in the yard as much once one of their buddies spent some time being tossed around by my dog. (He's a good boy but hadn't figured out that you kill the varmints and play with the toys.)
• Just as a heads-up, my car was at the dealership for work for two weeks and wherever the mechanics stored it had a rat problem as there were new rat tracks on the engine cover. It might be a good thing to give the engine a good peppermint oil spray if the car is going to be sitting at a mechanic's shop for a while.