03/12/2023
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Leave your hood open in Arizona parks!
Nanci DixonMarch 9, 2023
Photo Credit Nanci Dixon
This week we received an email from Allen S. He was wondering if any of us here at RVtravel.com knew what in the world these folks in Tucson, Arizona, were doing. Allen asked: “Why are people leaving their hoods open and lights on all night in the engine area of their tow vehicles while camping in the Tucson area? We come from Canada and are confused.”
I know why!
I quickly raised my hand. Pick me, pick me! I know! Short answer? Rats! Rats, rats, rats. The Desert Southwest is known for rats (not pesky mice) looking for a nice dark spot to hang out or even worse, nest. We have, unfortunately, had our share of rats.
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-325048" src="https://www.rvtravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2018-12-Dec-04-Pack-Rat-nest-Area-4-White-Tanks-485x273.jpg" alt="" width="498" height="280" />
They build huge nests both on the ground and in trees. And in the engine of our car, and hanging out on a wheel well near the engine in our motorhome. Chewing through the insulation by the generator, making a cozy family home in my husband’s pickup between the insulation and hood. We did not have any varmints until the motorhome next door did. As they left the RV park, a trail of baby rats followed mom and jumped ship as the RV rolled down the road.
Prevention
Lights! Rope lights under the RV, lights under the motorhome engine and generator, lights under the car and truck engines… We were lit up like Christmas! We were the people that other campers pointed their fingers at for light pollution. My husband pulled all hood insulation from the pickup and we installed fairly useless battery-operated “sonic” rat-repellent noise makers everywhere. We sprayed so much peppermint oil that along with the lights it really did seem like Christmas.
Traps
Still, they came. We thought about poison, but that is truly a no-no in a wildlife area. Two more choices: live traps or snap traps. I couldn’t imagine what we would do with a live rat, so snap trap it was. I knew they were hiding out behind the tires, so I laid a pathway to death for them with the biggest snap traps I have ever seen.
Snap, snap, snap! Of course, my husband was nowhere to be found when it was time to give them their last rites and burial. Left to my own devices, I shoveled the whole trap and Sidney the rat into a large garbage bag with a windshield snow broom. I had spent so much time looking at the first one contemplating what to do with him that he got named.
Ahhh, gone. All was well and rat-free… until we started the motorhome. The diesel engine in the back spewed out grass, dust, dirt and twigs. Before the rat’s demise, they had holed up next to the engine but thankfully did no damage. We were lucky.
Extensive damage
Rats and mice can do extensive damage to an RV. Dustin Simpson, from California RV Specialists, shared these videos. Part one of his “What’s in the Shop” series shows an RV that was literally totaled by rats, and part two of the video has ways to prevent rat and mice damage to your rig.
Like the folks in Tucson are doing, shine some lights and open the hood. Rats don’t like light, and they (supposedly) don’t like the smell of peppermint either.
[Note: This doesn’t happen just in the Desert Southwest. Diane’s neighbor’s car, an almost-new Hyundai Veloster, was totaled a couple of years ago when parked in the driveway (north of Seattle) because the rats loved the soy-based wiring. (Carsten hadn’t even paid off the car yet!) Luckily, Diane’s ’97 T-bird, parked 50′ from where the Veloster was eaten alive, was built before delicious soy-based wiring was used.]
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