[vbalouzian]

Well I mean rats, I think that I keep my garage clean, but I guess with the recent cold weather they came in to the garage, and due to the fact that I have been out of town for the past 6 months and have not driven my GT500 in maybee 2 months, I guess they found a home on the engine block; and they seem to crave electrical wiring, I discovered that they had chewed through the protective tape and I could see bare copper wire. they were in 2 places where the wiring comes out of the harnnes and into the spark plug connector. I started the car and it started, I took it out and drove it and drove it hard I could not detect anything diffrent in the feel or the drive. now due to the fact that I could see bare copper is this dangerous and will it effect the performance of the car. I am sure it can and if so what are my options as far as replacing the wiring and is there an upgrade. comments would be appreciated.

[esc]

vbalouzian, on Nov 16 2009, 08:22 PM, said:

Well I mean rats, I think that I keep my garage clean, but I guess with the recent cold weather they came in to the garage, and due to the fact that I have been out of town for the past 6 months and have not driven my GT500 in maybee 2 months, I guess they found a home on the engine block; and they seem to crave electrical wiring, I discovered that they had chewed through the protective tape and I could see bare copper wire. they were in 2 places where the wiring comes out of the harnnes and into the spark plug connector. I started the car and it started, I took it out and drove it and drove it hard I could not detect anything diffrent in the feel or the drive. now due to the fact that I could see bare copper is this dangerous and will it effect the performance of the car. I am sure it can and if so what are my options as far as replacing the wiring and is there an upgrade. comments would be appreciated.

Sorry to hear about your rodent problem! For starters, take and post some pictures so that you can receive more accurate feed back! Then wrap the wires with electrical tape to protect them till you get them replaced.

[shelby001]

I would think you should re wrap the bare wires with tape. You willl eventually have problems if something metal comes in contact with the bare wires.

[68fastback]

Rodents like some viny wire insulation and most anything that has traces of salt (even just from perspiration or touching)

...I think eventually the bare wires will become a problem ...corrosion, etc over time ...possibly shorts ...might hurt the computer (depending on what shorts). I think you'll want to have the harness replaced. Probably not cheap but probably not too hard to replace either if it's an engine harness (separate piece).

If you take pics of the location(s) on the engine maybe someone with a shop manual can identify the parts for you ...or local Ford dealer parts guy should be able to help also.

Bad rodents, bad!

There are ultrasonic devices you can plug into a garage outlet that will keep rodents away when you're away ...they actually work quite well too. You can even put one on an extention cord and lay it under the car when you're away for extra protection, but just plugging a couple into wall outlets usually do the trick. My friend has an old farm house he only uses occasionally and rodents were a real problem until he got soe repellers. Try searching on "untrasonic rodent repellers" for some choices.

Good luck!!

-Dan

[DubbsFaris]

Do you know why they go after wiring? it turns out they use molasses in the process of making the rubber coating to give it the flexible quality.....have done it that way for decades....or so I have been told....

[68fastback]

That's interesting!!! Back in the '60s rodents used to wreak havoc under computer raised-floors eating the mainframe system channel cables. IBM eventually tracked the problem down to ingredients in the cable covering and the formula was changed, but I never knew what the ingredient was. Molasses?! Amazing!

[HARLEYDEALER]

DubbsFaris, on Nov 16 2009, 11:26 PM, said:

Do you know why they go after wiring? it turns out they use molasses in the process of making the rubber coating to give it the flexible quality.....have done it that way for decades....or so I have been told....

This reminds me of the three moles, one morning papa mole sticks his head out of the mole hole and tells momma, I can smell pan cakes, momma mole sticks her head out and says, I can smell bacon, little baby mole try's and try's to stick his head out and finally says "All I can smell is molasses"! Bill

[NordicShelby]

HARLEYDEALER, on Nov 16 2009, 10:07 PM, said:

This reminds me of the three moles, one morning papa mole sticks his head out of the mole hole and tells momma, I can smell pan cakes, momma mole sticks her head out and says, I can smell bacon, little baby mole try's and try's to stick his head out and finally says "All I can smell is molasses"! Bill

[JimC]

vbalouzian, on Nov 16 2009, 07:22 PM, said:

Well I mean rats, I think that I keep my garage clean, but I guess with the recent cold weather they came in to the garage, and due to the fact that I have been out of town for the past 6 months and have not driven my GT500 in maybee 2 months, I guess they found a home on the engine block; and they seem to crave electrical wiring, I discovered that they had chewed through the protective tape and I could see bare copper wire. they were in 2 places where the wiring comes out of the harnnes and into the spark plug connector. I started the car and it started, I took it out and drove it and drove it hard I could not detect anything diffrent in the feel or the drive. now due to the fact that I could see bare copper is this dangerous and will it effect the performance of the car. I am sure it can and if so what are my options as far as replacing the wiring and is there an upgrade. comments would be appreciated.

Sorry to here about the ratzs. Your problem now is baby ratzs and the fact that if you don't drive them out they will keep returning year after year.
First, check the A/C they like to get into the A/C and have their babies. That can be a real stinker when you turn the heater or A/C on.

Go to the store and get the cubed poison, and place it in the area they are chowing down on, also place the cube in any area you think they might be entering your garage from. Or any areas that look like they would be good nesting areas.
You may also want to create a nesting area as close to what may be there point of entry; for them to keep them away from your car behind boxes place some cotton, bunched up paper bag of lunch chips salted crackers (only a few crumbled up chips or crakers per bag) also place the poison there. use a pair of rubber gloves and crumble up the poison and sprinkle it in the chip, crackers and over the area.

Draw them away from the car and poison them at the same time. Use the poison that dehydrates them, they won't decay making a mess they will dry out from the inside out. No mess, pick um up and toss um out. After a few die the rest will leave but keep the poison in the garage for a while after that and do the same thing next rainy season just in case.

This post has been edited by JimC: 17 November 2009 - 06:12 AM

[trichie]

vbalouzian, on Nov 16 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

Well I mean rats, I think that I keep my garage clean, but I guess with the recent cold weather they came in to the garage, and due to the fact that I have been out of town for the past 6 months and have not driven my GT500 in maybee 2 months, I guess they found a home on the engine block; and they seem to crave electrical wiring, I discovered that they had chewed through the protective tape and I could see bare copper wire. they were in 2 places where the wiring comes out of the harnnes and into the spark plug connector. I started the car and it started, I took it out and drove it and drove it hard I could not detect anything diffrent in the feel or the drive. now due to the fact that I could see bare copper is this dangerous and will it effect the performance of the car. I am sure it can and if so what are my options as far as replacing the wiring and is there an upgrade. comments would be appreciated.

Also, for areas where you can't wrap with tape, there is liquid electrical tape that you just paint on. It works quite well.

[Blackfoot]

If you have any pet food in your garage, move that out too. They smell that and come in, then find the a nice place to call home.

Motorweek just had a clip on rodents. You can find it here.

[NICK82]

Rats LOVE Shelby's.

Here's what you need to do, first get your car to the Ford Dealership asap. Have them inspect the entire vehicle. There is already wiring that needs to be replaced and there may be more. If turns out to be big bucks call your insurance company. If it's just those wires then you should only be looking at a roughly $200 dollar bill.

Consider your garage a giant rats nest. You're going to have to carry everything out and inspect it, there may be more. You need to bleach the floor. Clean the shit out of your garage. DO NOT TOUCH THE RAT POOP. Rats carry lethal deseases and they can go airborne, you can breath this stuff in. Very dangerous. Next go to WalMart and pick up large sticky rat traps. You need to place these against the walls where the rats like to run. Also look for any entry or exit points (any 1 inch hole is good enough for a big rat to squeeze through)

Carpet bomb the SOB's. Sanitize your garage. Right now your garage is in no condition to hold a Shelby GT500. Once you have done this the Shelby can return, make sure to keep Sticky traps for a long period after this. The rats remember!

Trust me on this, been there.

[NICK82]

DubbsFaris, on Nov 16 2009, 08:26 PM, said:

Do you know why they go after wiring? it turns out they use molasses in the process of making the rubber coating to give it the flexible quality.....have done it that way for decades....or so I have been told....

They gnaw at any kind of rubber or soft material to sharpen their teeth.

[Bloomy63]

I wouldn't use the poison. The rodents will eat it and get into your wall. It will smell like death for a few weeks to a month.

[andrewnagle1964]

Cats....keep ratz away !!!



Good Luck
Andrew

[07SGT4578]

JimC, on Nov 17 2009, 09:03 AM, said:

Go to the store and get the cubed poison, and place it in the area they are chowing down on, also place the cube in any area you think they might be entering your garage from. Or any areas that look like they would be good nesting areas.
You may also want to create a nesting area as close to what may be there point of entry; for them to keep them away from your car behind boxes place some cotton, bunched up paper bag of lunch chips salted crackers (only a few crumbled up chips or crakers per bag) also place the poison there. use a pair of rubber gloves and crumble up the poison and sprinkle it in the chip, crackers and over the area.

Draw them away from the car and poison them at the same time. Use the poison that dehydrates them, they won't decay making a mess they will dry out from the inside out. No mess, pick um up and toss um out. After a few die the rest will leave but keep the poison in the garage for a while after that and do the same thing next rainy season just in case.

This is not a good idea if you have pets, they like to eat that crap too. trust me, I know, my Beagle is blind now. Luckily he did not die.

andrewnagle1964, on Nov 17 2009, 09:58 PM, said:

Cats....keep ratz away !!!



Good Luck
Andrew

+1


Chris

This post has been edited by 07SGT4578: 17 November 2009 - 07:10 PM

[JimC]

Bloomy63, on Nov 17 2009, 03:15 PM, said:

I wouldn't use the poison. The rodents will eat it and get into your wall. It will smell like death for a few weeks to a month.

As far as the smell, using the poison that dehydrates them dries them out from the inside out so the smell factor is not an issue.

Yes!
You must keep other pets out of the area, dog especially will sniff out the poison. Bad news if they get it.

I used this method Three” times in our old neighborhood to rid rodents from three neighbors (all in a roll) and didn’t have the smell issue. Maybe lucky don’t know but for sure we did keep the dogs and cats out of the garage for up to 3 weeks.

Here is the problem one neighbor attracts the vermin then chases them off, to the next house. My neighboors tried the sticky pads some times they work till the vermin get wise to them and avoid them, also if you don’t use the correct size pad they will work there their way free.
The posion is a food source they get hungry they eat.

I agree good advice, after we got ride of the pesky vermin we cleaned out their garages, put stored items in sealed plastic containers got rid of cardboard boxes and excees garbage.
The guilty neighbor had tons of garbage the other two were clean and very clean just lived next to the messy one.

You need to Kill as many as possible and know that some of the survivors, if any, will move to the next house, have more babies, that new generation may just move back into your house. It took cleaning out three houses in a role to completely eliminate them.
After they were gone and the neighors cleaned out their garages we seal every small hole we found and added door trim on the bottom of the garage doors to help keep the vermin out.

This post has been edited by JimC: 18 November 2009 - 11:31 AM

[NICK82]

I don't take rats lightly. This is the "security perimeter" I created before leaving for Afghanistan last year.

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[Blackfoot]

NICK82, on Nov 18 2009, 02:24 PM, said:

I don't take rats lightly. This is the "security perimeter" I created before leaving for Afghanistan last year.

I see a hole in your perimeter on the drivers side......

[NICK82]

Blackfoot, on Nov 18 2009, 03:55 PM, said:

I see a hole in your perimeter on the drivers side......

That's the guard gate.