apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I believe every bit of this ... years ago, squirrels ate the insulation from some of my engine wiring and I stalled 10 feet from my parking spot. $1000 worth of damage!

Mice ate the wiring inside the range in my first house -- came in through the dryer vent and ran amuck throughout the house before we discovered them -- so I totally believe this.

In the desert southwest, it's packrats that munch wiring - cars and houses. I'm not sure that mothballs would work on packrats.

My boyfriend and I walk along RSD at dusk several times a week, and numerous times I've seen rats running around under cars. I don't doubt this is true.

Same thing happened to my husband's car in Brooklyn, near the Navy Yard. The mechanic said he found a huge bone that they'd been gnawing on up there too. Yuck!

but... mothballs!? i used them to encourage a skunk to nest under someone else's porch. It worked. However, for months the smell (toxic?) of the mothballs affected me and my apartment neighbors because the porch is right next to the stairwell. I can't imagine what a hot engine is going to do to them, and you!

Mothballs (napthalene) are highly flammable, and produce toxic gases when heated. I suspect that strapping them to the engine of your car is a pretty dangerous move.

Maxwell, I strongly recommend that you either amend this post with a very serious warning, or remove it entirely.

My housemate couldn't get his Lexus started one morning. When he popped the hood, he found the source of the problem... which was still sitting in/on his engine after having munched through some wires. Rats are notoriously big-- and bad-- in Baltimore, and "flat rats" (road kill rats) earned the title of the city's worst eyesore in last year's Best of Baltimore Citypaper. *shudder*

Mothballs don't repel rats - they cause cancer in the females, and interrupt the breeding cycle. And as Anna pointed out above, this couldn't be a more dangerous bit of advice. More specifically, mothballs are often paradichlorobenzene, and the chlorine atoms can convert to hydrochloric acid. Hey, get rid of the middle man and just pour hydrochloric acid on your engine!

Next up, in the advice files - grease fire on the stove? Throw gasoline on it!

I didn't know this could happen but on February 10th of this year squirrels got into our attic and ate through the wiring and started a house fire. We had to move from the house we rented for almost 19 years. Would this prevent this in the attic of the house we moved into now?

this is a story the new york times has covered, in the winter rats climb onto the engines of cars down on riverside drive by the park for warmth. however, when the cars are started in the morning the rats get killed by the heat and some motorists were only aware of the situation when the awful smell wafted into the passenger area. yes, new york still has a gritty side gang.

Maybe, instead of driving with the mothballs in the engine (which sounds very dangerous and toxic) you could just make a mothball satchel, tie it up at night and (with a little reminder) take it off in the morning....Sounds like a hassel but worth the trouble if it keeps the mice from making home in your car and wreaking havoc....

The same thing happened to a friend of mine who parks on the street in our neighborhood (East Village) and his mechanic also recommended moth balls. Apparently that is a common suggestion, since we also came across it in an old NY Times article on this subject:
link
It didn't seem like a great idea to me for all the reasons mentioned by other commenters, but he tried it and it didn't work anyhow.

here in Switzerland, it is a member of the marten family -- an ugly nasty creature, and your insurance won't cover the damage... only thing to do is park inside...

I love the fact that in the middle of this article is an advert for pest control - in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK!! (a town of roundabouts!!)

I have heard crushed mint leaves repel rats. I have no idea if it's true, but it's safer than mothballs.

why dont they just put mothballs all over the city to eradicate rats then?

Mothballs are an old-fashioned toxic remedy (like cocaine*) as opposed to an non-toxic folk remedy (like lemon juice).

*just a point that just because something seems like kind of a "throwback" to a simpler era when people just used wholesome ingredients to solve major problems before the advent of chemiCOs and advertised brand names doesn't mean it wasn't chock full of hazard! Anyone who has ever whiffed a residual mothball on someone should be able to fathom that stuff ain't right. Nothing else smells like that!

I live on the Upper West Side but had never heard about rats in cars -- until I drove 1,500 miles this summer and found what I thought was some dirt or leaves wedged in near the engine when I was filling the window washing fluid. When I nudged it with a stone, I found it had tiny ears and then a tail! It was a small mouse (or rat). My friends here tell me it couldn't be local and that I probably brought it all the way from NYC!
Anne B