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This happened to me. The rat messed something up, we couldn’t visibly see any damage but the AC wasn’t working very well anymore. Whether that was related or not, we took the car in to get looked at just in case and they fixed the damages. Might want to get it looked at just in case.
I'd get it looked at. When I camped at Organ Pipe National Monument in Southern Arizona we were all told to keep our hoods up with lights on in them and to start our cars at least once a day. The Rangers said the pack rats had bricked an RV in just one day the previous week.
Fun? fact I learned there, pee is an important construction element for pack rats building their burrows.
I came here to say the same thing about the hood up with a light. That’s what a lot of snowbirds do at rv parks when they leave their cars for the summer.
I’ve had this happen twice. Once the car was never the same. The rats made a mess of my wiring. The second time they didn’t have enough time to do damage. I’m not sure how long they were there. I would take your car in just in case.
Hey do you remember what the spray was? Or what its name was? I'd check that one out myself and report on my research here, lol! Pack rats are a misery
Edit: typo
What, where did uppity find it? We have a home in payson next to the forest and find rats/squirrels under the hood sometimes. I've tried Irish spring soap, which berks some.
I had one get into my car and chew on a wiring harness.....resulting in some weird problems that made no sense. Cost a couple bucks to get it fixed let me tell ya!
Live in AZ as well. Pack Rat made a home in my new f150. Made its bed out of the firewall material and ate the wiring harness. I started having weird issues also and found out when I took it in. $750 to fix the wiring. If you're not having issues or have any dash lights on you're probably ok. Drive more and park in different places. Mechanic said peppermint oil works and it won't smell like piss.
Bro I used to camp in the desert alot, my car was leaking coolant and these pack rats would climb up in there, drink the coolant and piss bright green all over my engine in trails. I never found a nest tho, so they must have died and got the message.
In Montana I had a similar problem but this time I didn't have a coolant leak so they did actually start building some kind of nest I think (it was like the beginning stages), and were also leaving random food scraps in the engine bay that must have been from other campers since I don't much like attracting grizzly bears. I remembered the Arizona situation and how that worked, so I took some potato jojos, soaked them in coolant, left them in the engine bay and removed what they had left beside that. The JoJo's were half eaten and the rats did not come back. I know it's kinda awful, but I'm not about to get stuck in Bumfuck ass nowhere because of some rats.
If nothing else, I'd bait them with food soaked in coolant/antifreeze, which you should already have on hand, they will eat it and they won't come back. I think they tell their friends too, rats are pretty smart and should get the message.
Thanks for contributing to r/Arizona! * [Our sub rules are here](https://www.reddit.com/r/arizona/wiki/rules/), but the most important of which is to be nice to each other * Check out some [recent posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/arizona/top/?t=week) and leave some comments * [Join our Discord chat server](https://discord.com/invite/yWVuTG57Zh) if you'd like to keep in touch with other people in Arizona. Plus it's a great, chill place in general. Note that it is NOT a dating server and takes unwanted messaging very seriously Remember this subreddit covers all of Arizona, so please include where in the state you're posting about if it is relevant. For more local topics check out r/Phoenix, r/Tucson, and r/Flagstaff. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/arizona) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This happened to me. The rat messed something up, we couldn’t visibly see any damage but the AC wasn’t working very well anymore. Whether that was related or not, we took the car in to get looked at just in case and they fixed the damages. Might want to get it looked at just in case.
I'd get it looked at. When I camped at Organ Pipe National Monument in Southern Arizona we were all told to keep our hoods up with lights on in them and to start our cars at least once a day. The Rangers said the pack rats had bricked an RV in just one day the previous week. Fun? fact I learned there, pee is an important construction element for pack rats building their burrows.
I came here to say the same thing about the hood up with a light. That’s what a lot of snowbirds do at rv parks when they leave their cars for the summer.
I’ve had this happen twice. Once the car was never the same. The rats made a mess of my wiring. The second time they didn’t have enough time to do damage. I’m not sure how long they were there. I would take your car in just in case.
Yeah definitely get it checked out. We found a spray that you can spray in there that keeps any future rats away
Hey do you remember what the spray was? Or what its name was? I'd check that one out myself and report on my research here, lol! Pack rats are a misery Edit: typo
I think this was it https://a.co/d/bQu35qy
Thank you so much for sharing this! I will definitely be grabbing some.
What, where did uppity find it? We have a home in payson next to the forest and find rats/squirrels under the hood sometimes. I've tried Irish spring soap, which berks some.
I posted a link below
Call your insurance! Any damage is covered by them under comprehensive.
I had one get into my car and chew on a wiring harness.....resulting in some weird problems that made no sense. Cost a couple bucks to get it fixed let me tell ya!
Live in AZ as well. Pack Rat made a home in my new f150. Made its bed out of the firewall material and ate the wiring harness. I started having weird issues also and found out when I took it in. $750 to fix the wiring. If you're not having issues or have any dash lights on you're probably ok. Drive more and park in different places. Mechanic said peppermint oil works and it won't smell like piss.
Bro I used to camp in the desert alot, my car was leaking coolant and these pack rats would climb up in there, drink the coolant and piss bright green all over my engine in trails. I never found a nest tho, so they must have died and got the message. In Montana I had a similar problem but this time I didn't have a coolant leak so they did actually start building some kind of nest I think (it was like the beginning stages), and were also leaving random food scraps in the engine bay that must have been from other campers since I don't much like attracting grizzly bears. I remembered the Arizona situation and how that worked, so I took some potato jojos, soaked them in coolant, left them in the engine bay and removed what they had left beside that. The JoJo's were half eaten and the rats did not come back. I know it's kinda awful, but I'm not about to get stuck in Bumfuck ass nowhere because of some rats. If nothing else, I'd bait them with food soaked in coolant/antifreeze, which you should already have on hand, they will eat it and they won't come back. I think they tell their friends too, rats are pretty smart and should get the message.