Pack Rats
We will be traveling out to the west coast and then going north thru CA, OR, WA, ID, MT and then back east to home. I read about these pack rats and the damage they can do. My question is should I ins...
Forum Discussion
NMDriver wrote:
If you move the vehicles frequently and are in urban areas mostly at night you will likely be ok. The desert and mountain campsites will be the likely areas where you will need to leave the hood open and try to park away from bushes and other ground cover.
Those electronic devices, mothballs, poison have not helped in my experience. The One Bite poison does kill them but does not stop the nest building and wire chewing immediately like a snap trap does. Plus you must wire it in place or they will haul it off for winter/later usage and still chew the wires.
I use large RAT snap traps and even so have had to finish off the pack rat about 1/4th of the time. You will have to check the trap each day and deal with the remains or half dead pack rat.
I am currently experimenting with coyote urine. We will see how it works vs snap traps over the next weeks.
IF you do need to remove a nest or clean up after any rodent, wear disposable gloves and a P95 face mask (hanta virus kills). Read up on hanta virus
BTW: I keep my 5er in a remote mountain site in summer that is overrun with pack rats, mice, squirrels, etc. I keep the RV pretty well sealed but they still nest and chew wires outside and on the vehicle if I do not drive it each day.
X2 Excellent advice. Unfortunately there are not many WARNING - PACK RAT AREA AHEAD signs. Of the many "solutions" listed on Internet searches, the only ones that appear to work so far are large, powerful snap traps, (glue traps caught one for us but others had evidence of escape) and light.
A solar powered led motion sensor light underneath appears to have great success and is easily placed and removed under the RV. A smaller battery operated motion LED light on top of the engine also appears to be successful, and is also convenient.
