Posted on 01/09/2020 6:16:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
A Colorado man said squirrels have squeezed into the inner workings of his vehicle three times and caused about $700 worth of damage.
Gary Seago of Windsor said the trouble began in late November, when his Jeep was making unusual noises and mechanics discovered an animal, likely a squirrel, had chewed a fuel injector plug in half.
Mechanics said squirrels and other animals are sometimes drawn to the engine compartments of vehicles because they consider the soy-based tubes and wires to be a food source.
Seago said repairs were made, but the same part was again destroyed by a suspected squirrel the next day.
He said the squirrels returned for a third time a few weeks later and destroyed another, more expensive part in the engine compartment.
Seago said he is now trying to keep the squirrels away with deterrents including moth balls, strobe lights and high-pitched noises.
A Pittsburgh woman encountered a different sort of squirrel-related car trouble in October when one of the animals stashed grass and more than 200 walnuts under her hood. Holly Persic said the squirrel had apparently been using her vehicle as walnut storage for weeks.
Can he get a restraining order?
Strobe light.
Pellet rifle.
Story sounds kinda squirrely to me.
“they consider the soy-based tubes and wires to be a food source.”
That sounds like a great plan: let’s make our cars out of food.
“...because they consider the soy-based tubes and wires to be a food source. ..”
Out-sourced to China by Jeep.
How about a garage?
D-Con was invented for times like these.
It’s not ‘nice’, but it is affective against small pests.
Just resist the temptation to blab all about it on Social Media.
I had a squirrel do $1200.00 damage to my Oldsmobile.
Never left it outside again.
I kniwwzhat he’s going thru. My garage got mice. As a result, they git into the dash board on my sports car. It was massively [relatively]to have the dash removed.
That explains why the squirrels keep coming back. You eat a Jeep made of Chinese parts, an hour later you're hungry again.
Squirrels go squirrelly. At Farmers we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.
Woodpecker cost me 7 grand plus with damage to my roof and water damage inside the house which had to be repaired. Taught me to use a good pellet rifle though ...
You just have to make friends with them. I have them in once every week or two to watch a game and eat peanuts. Works like a charm.
Where did he drive it?
Ha ha, chewed up the wires and hoses, I had left the car outside while using the garage space for a project.
Learned the hard way that cars are delicious to squirrels.
That’s a good idea, but squirrels have a way of squirrel-ing into the most impossible little spaces. There’s no way to keep them out - they are our Overlords.
(I bought one of those ‘squirrel-proof’ bird feeders. Squirrel found his way in, gorged himself, and was trapped in there. I took it down and let him out. No sense in killing him - you can pick them off all you want, but there are scores of reinforcements coming behind, just waiting for Their Own Chance.)
Squirrels ruined the wiring on a friend’s Honda twice. Since he lives in a townhouse without a garage, he sold the vehicle to avoid maintaining “an attractive nuisance”.
I recall a few years ago we had a run on rodent-chewed wiring harnesses in the Bay Area. Had a lot of rain in a short period of time, and the hairy rats were taking refuge in the underbellies of cars. And, rodents being rodents, they did what rodents naturally do, chew everything in sight.
Luckily for me, the car dealer where I brought my car to be repaired told me that this might come under my comprehensive auto insurance, which it did. So, a $1,500 bill (labor included) became a $250 deductible payment.
This time it’s personal.
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