Global Automotive Technology :: A Complete B2B, Media Portal for Automotive Industry

When the weather turns cold, roof rats are among the animals that look for a warm place to hole up.

Unfortunately for vehicle owners, that place is often under the warm hood of a car or truck, whether it is parked indoors or out. While there, the rodents chew on everything, including electrical wiring and hoses.

Dennis Miller, service manager for Hyundai, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Mazda at the Antioch Auto Mall, said he works on several vehicles every year that have damage caused by rats. About a month ago, a Chrysler sedan owner came in twice within a seven-day span.

After it was fixed, rats again crawled underneath and caused more damage to the car and the owner's pocketbook.

"Getting rid of the rodent problem is important," Miller said. "Otherwise, they will come back and you have the same thing."

Roof rats are one of two prevalent species in the Bay Area, said Deborah Bass of the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District.¿ They have tails that are longer than the combined length of their torsos and heads. Roof rats typically nest in trees, and on roofs and other aboveground spaces.

The other type is Norway rats, which are more stocky with a flat nose. They prefer to live in sewers or dig into the ground to build a nest.

Roof rats are the species typically found inside homes or in vehicles.

"They liked to live up high," Bass said. "The population is pretty steady, but we see an explosion in the spring and summer because of fallen fruit from fruit trees. The cold will bring them indoors, where they will try to find a home."

At the end of winter in 2008, Judy Bank left her Lexus sedan parked in the same carport spot near her condominium in Rossmoor for two weeks while she was ill.

When she finally started the car and turned on the air conditioning, "it smelled like something had died in there," Bank said.

When she took the car to the dealership, mechanics lifted the hood and discovered rat droppings and major damage to wires.

"Looking at the hoses, I could see everything was chewed up," she said. "Even the engine harness was damaged."

Rats had caused about $10,000 worth of damage, which was picked up by her insurance.

After learning from the vector control district that rats leave chemical traces that attract other rats, she also paid $600 to have the engine steam-cleaned.

Bank, who said she and her neighbors have had consistent problems with rats in her community, no longer leaves her car parked in the same place for more than two nights.

Bass said there is no way to track the regional rodent population accurately but that the district received 729 calls for service for rodent problems in 2010, compared with 543 the previous year. The vast majority of these calls were for problems in dwellings and not vehicles, she said.

For no additional cost -- it's funded by taxes -- the vector control district goes out to homes or businesses where rat infestations are apparent and determine what kind of rats are nesting nearby, Bass said. It does not have a rodent-removal service, however.

The district's technicians also offer advice on avoiding further problems.

"Rats are looking for food, water and shelter," she said. "Bird seed is gourmet food to any rat."

Other suggestions include not leaving pet food outside -- even dry dog food has enough moisture to sustain rats -- picking up fallen fruit from the ground and trimming trees at least four feet away from buildings.

"They can jump and get on your roof that way," Bass said.

Comments

RSS

All rights reserved."