Squirrel/Rat Deterrent.

[lllluke1 328]

Might be the wrong section, but does anyone know of a deterrent for squirrels/rats apart from the obvious 12 gauge?

Basically, the farmer where I have my main permission has a problem with something chewing hoses and the soundproofing on his cars.  Where he parks is next to a small wood and something has been chewing the cars.  So far he has had soundproofing chewed on 2 cars, main diesel feed rubber hose on another and last night he broke down after losing power steering.  Found the leak, took off the pipe to find it had been chewed.  

We put plenty of rat poison under all his round bales when we offload them and are fairly rat free as best as we can tell.  He doesn't like putting the poison down because we have lots of owls nesting but needs must.  He has got lots of squirrels in the woods next to where he parks the cars.

I'm going to set up trail cam tomorrow so we can find out definitely what is doing the damage, but without setting up a feeding station and culling the squirrels or lots more rat bait/traps, is there anything else that could be done?

 

Thanks in advance Luke 

Edited October 28, 2019 by lllluke1

[Torquemada 288]

There is a rat deterrent spray available from LODI which looks quite good and is designed for use on wires and hoses etc. Have a look on the LODI website.

Unless he or you has the Safe Use of Rodenticides certificate he or you are probably breaking the COPR guidelines putting bait down around bales of straw. I would have a look at the labels on the rodenticide you are using. Not a criticism, just an observation.

[lllluke1 328]

Caught what looks like to me to be a field mouse on camera last night, so will keep camera down for a couple more days to see what else I find

[lllluke1 328]

[DIDO.1 20,802]

Can you proof the building? 

I wonder if you could put some of the electric shock tracks down what they use for bird proofing?

[DIDO.1 20,802]

Can you proof the building? 

I wonder if you could put some of the electric shock tracks down what they use for bird proofing?

[gnipper 5,944]

Could you spray the stuff getting chewed with something that tastes bad like the stuff they paint stable doors with to stop nags eating them? 

[lllluke1 328]

22 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

Can you proof the building? 

I wonder if you could put some of the electric shock tracks down what they use for bird proofing?

Cars kept outside so  unfortunately not

 

6 minutes ago, gnipper said:

Could you spray the stuff getting chewed with something that tastes bad like the stuff they paint stable doors with to stop nags eating them? 

Reading up, peppermint oil apparently works so looking at trying to source some of that to spray over the engine bay and underneath.  If not, will try looking for something similar

[lllluke1 328]

12 hours ago, Torquemada said:

There is a rat deterrent spray available from LODI which looks quite good and is designed for use on wires and hoses etc. Have a look on the LODI website.

Unless he or you has the Safe Use of Rodenticides certificate he or you are probably breaking the COPR guidelines putting bait down around bales of straw. I would have a look at the labels on the rodenticide you are using. Not a criticism, just an observation.

Will look into that

[PLEDGEY 493]

I use a victor electric trap in my garage. It'll only kill one at time but I was getting one a day for ages. Now I just put it out when I see signs of activity. You can only use them inside or under cover. The other problem I found with it was when it gets cold you get condensation build up and I think that was causing it to short out and run the batteries down. I bought mine years ago and it cost £50ish quid. Get looky likeys for under £20 now on Ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=electric+mose+rat+trap&_sacat=0

 

[Deker 3,450]

On 30/10/2019 at 19:40, lllluke1 said:

Reading up, peppermint oil apparently works so looking at trying to source some of that to spray over the engine bay and underneath.  If not, will try looking for something similar

I'm getting a bit confused here, rats/mice have no taste bubs but do have a great nose.

I have no experience of Peppermint oil and if it works I have no idea why, perhaps its something to do with oil itself rather than the peppermint, I don't know why a peppermint odour would put them off, but hey, who knows?????