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We have horses and you will NOT believe this but check out this photo. Rats were getting ready for winter I guess, totally blew my Mind!!

I’ve heard of mice and rats chewing electrical wiring under the hood, but I’ve never seen a rat nest that big under there! What kind of vehicle is that and where was it parked?

And was it parked for a long time?

equin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 11:27 pm I’ve heard of mice and rats chewing electrical wiring under the hood, but I’ve never seen a rat nest that big under there! What kind of vehicle is that and where was it parked?

Park it about 40yds from the horse stalls, the horses are free roaming around the cabin in about only a 150 acre pasture fenced off from the rest of the ranch.

I still can not believe it! It's a 2003 dodge 3500 5.9 2wd, flat bed just drove it to take in Trash to the dump two days ago. My wife said she heard rats or that sound they make just the other night but never thought to look under the hood until going to change oil. Just looked around the vehicle, its a clear area mainly that sandy type soil and with it being dry there's not much grass.

I would understand if the truck was abandoned or in a field of tall grass. Surprised it didn't catch fire while driving it that far to town.

Just about 5 years ago had a electrical fire under the hood, took about 2 years of working on it to get it running again. The insurance totaled it and paid up but let me keep the truck but with a salvage title. Had to get it re-inspected, the whole nine yards to get the truck back on the road with a regular title. Never have I ever seen a rat nest that big so soon!

Probably 4 months ago was the last time the oil had been changed but randomly I check under the hood. This happened probably within a Month!

At first I thought maybe someone was playing a bad prank but it was just a ton of rats.

equin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 11:27 pm And was it parked for a long time?

Not at all its a extra vehicle to ride around the ranch and go get feed in, its a good all around vehicle.

If you look at the underside of the hood and near where the windshield wipers are you can see the fire from before. "Luckily" running fine still

Over a three day weekend a rodent(s) set up camp in the engine space of my Lincoln. It started on Tuesday morn but ran rough. Popped the hood to check and found big pile of nut shells and ignition snd other wires chewed up. $500 to fix.

Hard to tell from the photo, but are those horse apples that the rats were using to build their nests?

Im glad you caught it in time! Thanks for sharing!

I took a lesson from the farmers around me leave the hoods open on anything that gets parked for more than a day or two. I also invested in a couple of cats. Before we had cats, cotton rats and mice where a continuous problem. No matter how tight I got the house, mice would still find a way in. After we got a couple of outside cats, no mice in the house and no rats in the outbuildings. I'm not much of a cat person but they are worth having around.

n5wmk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 7:24 am Hard to tell from the photo, but are those horse apples that the rats were using to build their nests?

Yep sure are and a ton of them. Must of been some Big Rats!

troglodyte wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 8:04 am I took a lesson from the farmers around me leave the hoods open on anything that gets parked for more than a day or two. I also invested in a couple of cats. Before we had cats, cotton rats and mice where a continuous problem. No matter how tight I got the house, mice would still find a way in. After we got a couple of outside cats, no mice in the house and no rats in the outbuildings. I'm not much of a cat person but they are worth having around.

We use to have a bunch of wild cats but there no where to be found anymore.( Rats Ate Them? ) lol Good idea on the cats planning on buying a few and keep them in that barn where the horse stalls are connected to. They should have plenty of food to eat.

We have a old ford truck thats just parked about 125yds from the barn thats been broke down for 18 years id say and you can open the hood and its just grass nests, nothing like this!

Years ago I had a mouse in the dashboard, it was in the blower for the heater. One day I put the switch on and turned the key, got it, heard something in the blower. A few days later it started to stink, I couldn't figure out how to get to it. For months my car stunk, I couldn't give anyone a ride because it smelled so bad.

narcissist wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 9:40 am
They should have plenty of food to eat.

Some people say that you shouldn't feed your mouser cats but ours have food out during the day and it hasn't slowed them down. I figure if I feed them they have the energy they need to catch the mice and they know where the food is so they stay home instead of wandering.

There are some adoption groups that have "barn cats". You might call the city or Petco or Operation Kindness to see if they know which groups adopt out barn cats.