Hi Charles,
I recently experienced a similar problem, when rats ate through my brand new
tonneau and turned my car into a condo. They also ate all the insulation off
the under dash wires. I went immediately to the feed stoe and bought a truck
load of Just One Bite, and put it in appropriate areas in the garage. Rats run
along the walls, so if you put the bait bars next to the wall, and lean
something over them creating a tunnel, your dog should not be able to reach
them. Our dogs have never shown any interest in them at all. The rats will not
die in your engine compartment. They go in search of water when they are
poisened. Even if your dog should find and eat a dead rat, you should have no
problems. I checked with my vet who told me not to worry unless dead rats were
being consumed by the
hundreds of pounds. While rat bars are definitely not recommended for human
consumption, the reason they kill rats is because the rat cannot vomit, while a
human can. If you want to try a somewhat smelly method of keeping vermin out,
you might try moth balls. These also are highly toxic, but the smell
discourages most critters from sampling the taste. You can get small Have a
Heart traps, and kill or release the rats at another locatiion, but rats are
VERY intelligent, and once a rat has been trapped, you will probably never
catch another. If you want to try this method, use peanut butter for bait.
Good luck!
Kate
cdsorkin@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> Hey folks:
>
> Since its starting to get a bit warmer around here, I decided to start
>cleaning up the Midget for Springtime, and noticed that under the master
>cylinders and on the other side near the coil there were the tell-tale signs
>of a rodent's nest. Nothing that the shop-vac couldn't handle, and knowing
>not what else to do, I sprayed some WD-40 in the area (not harmful to paint)
>hoping that the odor would be unpleasant to a small animal, but this morning,
>I noticed that the animal had returned. I'd get a cat, but then instead of a
>mouse/rat problem, I'd have a cat problem. Any ideas, that would not involve
>chemicals (I have a dog, and soon a small child) or snap traps? Frankly, I
>don't want to trap anything in the engine bay, because it would tend to
>rot/smell, or eat through wiring.
>
> Also, while checking my brake fluid levels, I noticed that the master
>cylinder cap indicated to use DOT-3 fluid only. Hmmm... Is there any wat to
>tell whether or not I have a non original sort of brake system? Or has
>someone just replaced the cap. In the 18 months since I've owned the car, I
>haven't needed to do any brake maintenance, so I really don't know its
>history. Is there an easy way to tell DOT-3 fluid from DOT-4 just by looking
>at it?
>
> Regards,
>
> Charles
> '74 Midget
> '68 Sprite
> cdsorkin@cdsorkin.com
> Bloomfield, NJ
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