So every night for quite some time, I’ve finished my day by putting a rat trap on top of the Jeep’s engine. I caught a bird, I actually attracted a mouse, but I never caught a rat or even saw any evidence that any rat had been up there since I started setting the traps.
Last night I forgot to set the trap.
You know what’s coming, right?
For the benefit of latecomers, pack rats have declared war on the Jeep and/or on me. A rat chewed through one of my fuel injector pigtails and I passed it off as the cost of doing business. Then it or another rat chewed through the crank sensor harness and cost me a great deal of work towing the Jeep to town, to say nothing of hundreds of dollars that had been budgeted for tires. (BTW, only today – nearly six weeks later – have I finally caught up with the shit-shoveling that literally piled up because I didn’t have the Jeep)
THEN a rat brought a bunch of rocks to the top of the engine, one got stuck in the throttle linkage, the engine got stuck WOT at a very bad time and the Jeep tried to do a Thelma and Louise.
And that’s when I declared jihad on pack rats. I’ve killed half a dozen since then (none on the engine) and they left the engine alone.
Until last night.
Again with the rocks. I climbed into the Jeep, fired it up, and headed for the substantial upgrade in my driveway that gets me up the ridge. I’ve actually won bets with people who didn’t believe the Jeep could climb this grade, it’s that steep. You must be in 4X4, and you must put the hammer down. A running start helps, but not too much because the grade is preceded by a sharp right turn.
So I got a good rolling start, yanked the wheel right, and stomped the pedal. Which did not move further than it already had. Having just committed to the grade, I had very little pedal travel. So I got halfway up the steep, narrow grade (Did I mention the junipers?) and then had to stop and back all the way down.
It was a rock in the throttle linkage. Last night we had some lovely freezing rain, and somebody decided that would be a lovely place to build a quite elaborate nest. On the one night I didn’t set the trap.
Oh, it’s on now. 
You do lead a very interesting life, Joel. 🙂 It’s great to read about it… and I’m looking forward to the pictures of the dead rat (s)! Rodents are pretty much in the same category as flies to me… one of nature’s little boo boos…
Perhaps your trap is somehow serving as a packrat repellent?
I know!!! Bait the trap with some of the old chewed up wire. The rat likes wire, right? Could work.
“Bait the trap with some of the old chewed up wire.” Or with a nice rock.
In my days as an Exterminator I often baited traps with nesting material to attract female Mice/Rats who were pregnant and looking for nesting material. Piece of cotton often worked. One time in NYC I used shreds of plastic bags, a favorite nest material for city rats. Sometimes baiting traps works when you think outside the box. Get one of the old fashioned rat traps with expanded trigger and place a rock near the center where the arm hooks into the part that trips the trap. Try to make the rat step on the expanded trigger to get the rock.
Or as we used to say The early bird might get the worm, but the second rat gets the cheese!
Think I might have to figure out how to chicken wire over the trottle linkage or some thing
A scorched earth policy is the only way. Can Ian get his hands on any surplus tactical nukes?
Until the ultimate solution is found, it would appear that you should perform a “pre-flight walkaround” prior to each use of the Jeep . . . particularly in view of the repeated compromise of the carb linkage.
Couldn’t hurt.
Whooeeee!!! Joel so glad to read you are beginning to reconsider your tolerant, benevolent, cheerful, friendly, laissez-faire rodent policy before your rodents cause serious, more or less permanent physical damage to you and/or the Jeep or give you some difficult and expensive to treat viral disease with an interesting name you can’t pronounce. Your latest life-endangering rodent caused adventure is rather horrifying. We would all miss you. Just a thought, but perhaps in spring you’d consider building the anti-rodent vehicle parking platform surrounded by a tall metal border that is described on the Internet. And as where you are is rodent heaven (choices of shelter and yummy food and lots of it) for the forseeable future, until Ian brings home a tactical nuke, how about building a driveway with a different grade and some switchbacks???? I’ve often thought that when you all moved into The Gulch every rodent within 500 miles smelled the food, got the message and headed there. Lots of useful suggestions from your readers above for a higher elimination rate. BTW do you have night vision goggles? or a motion triggered night vision camera connected to your computer?
Can I send you a box or two of traps? lol
I leave the hood open, no concealment for rats equals no rats