Rats are some of the craftiest pests around—able to eat almost anything and live anywhere, including your car engine.
If the idea of finding a rat under your hood sounds horrifying, just imagine the damage they could do.
But don’t worry! In this guide, we’ll share our top field-tested techniques to help you eliminate rats from your engine for good.
Key Takeaways
- To get rid of rats in your car engine, you can clean and sanitize the engine, remove nests and waste, use rodent repellent spray, set traps around your property, and maintain a clean yard to deter them.
- Rats will seek shelter and warmth in car engines, especially if the car doesn’t get driven much or is parked in a rodent-infested area.
- Never use a power washer to remove rodents from your car engine, as the force of the water could spread nest material and contaminate urine and feces everywhere.
- If the rodents are living in an area of the engine you can’t see or reach, you may need to contact a professional pest management company for help.
What Damage do Rats Cause to Cars?
Rats will pack the cavities of your car’s engine with nesting materials like shredded paper, organic materials, and sticks.
Over time, this can block critical engine components or create fire hazards.
Once they’ve created a cozy home in your engine, rats will gnaw on the wires and hoses surrounding them.
They don’t chew wires because they’re hungry:
They do it to gather more nesting material or to keep their ever-growing teeth trimmed.
Unfortunately, all that gnawing can blow fuses, start fires, or even destroy your car’s engine.
“We once had a customer show us their $2800 bill from the mechanic after taking their Ford pickup in for repairs.
The rats had eaten so much insulation off the wires, there were short circuits causing the vehicle to be inoperable.” – Zachary Smith, “The Pest Dude’
Don’t let this happen to your car!
Moreover, if rats die in your engine, their decomposing bodies will create a stench that travels into your car’s cabin through the HVAC system, making your heating and air conditioning impossible or unpleasant to use.
Before You Get Started
Before you begin, gather these supplies:
1. Full Face Respirator
Rats carry hantavirus, which can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in humans who encounter infected rat feces or urine.
As such, it’s critical to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) when getting rid of rats.
A full-face respirator will protect you from inhaling airborne viruses and other rat-borne irritants.
2. Gloves
Wear gloves like these to protect your hands from injury and avoid contact with rat feces, urine, or nesting material during removal.
3. Rodent Repellent Spray
This outdoor rodent repellent spray is 100% natural and designed to keep rats from re-entering your car engine once you’ve cleaned it out.
4. Weighted Car Cover
Create a rodent-proof barrier around your car with a weighted car cover.
The cover sits flush with the ground to create a rodent-resistant barrier that rats can’t penetrate.
5. T Rex Snap Traps
Setting rat traps around your yard, garage, and property will reduce rat populations and prevent re-infestation.
Zachary Smith, the owner of Pest Dude and a licensed pest removal professional, relies on these T-Rex plastic rat traps for two reasons.
First, they’re easy to set, and second, they have a superior design that allows them to be easily triggered by foraging rats.
We recommend baiting them with peanut butter, Snickers bars, beef jerky, cheese whiz, or bacon for best results.
If you want to try a different trap, check out our guide on the best rat traps.
5 Steps to Get Rid of Rats in Your Car Engine Quickly
1. Air Out Your Car
Open the car’s hood, doors, and trunk to let the vehicle air out for about 20 minutes before you begin.
This helps clear out dangerous airborne contaminants and reduces your chance of encountering hantavirus.
2. Inspect Your Engine for Rats
Before evicting rats and their nests, you must figure out where they live.
As such, the next step is to conduct a thorough inspection of the vehicle’s interior and engine.
Remove the cables from the battery to avoid shock before inspecting the engine, including all air intakes and filters.
Identify and make a note of all nests and areas of rat activity.
3. Disinfect the Engine
Once you’ve pinpointed living or dead rodents, nesting materials, and rodent waste, gather your cleaning supplies to clean and disinfect the engine.
Here’s the process the CDC recommends:
- Spray all affected areas with a CDC-approved disinfectant until they’re thoroughly soaked. Allow the disinfectant to sit for 5 minutes.
- Wearing rubber or plastic gloves, use a paper towel to pick up and remove all nesting materials. Dispose of them in a sealed plastic bag. If nesting materials are present in the air intake system, remove the air filter and the nesting materials. Discard both in the garbage before inserting a clean replacement filter and closing the air intake unit.
- Once you’ve sprayed disinfectant on the affected areas, you can use a shop vac to remove rodent urine, droppings, and nest material.
- Once you’ve removed all the nesting materials, clean the rest of the affected area with additional disinfectant.
- Allow the area to dry thoroughly for 60-90 minutes.
- Once the engine is dry, reconnect the battery.
- When you’ve finished disinfecting the area, wash your gloved hands with hot, soapy water. Remove the clean gloves and wash your bare hands with hot, soapy water.
4. Apply a Non-Flammable Repellent
Once you’ve disinfected your engine and removed all nesting materials, spray the engine with a non-flammable rodent repellent like this one or apply a repellent gel (we like this one).
The repellent will make your engine unattractive to rodents and help deter them from returning.
5. Clean Up the Yard
Next, turn your attention to the space around your car.
We recommend cleaning up your yard to make it unattractive to rodents.
Here are a few tips:
- Clean up all debris piles and anything that could provide shelter to rats, including piles of recycling or cardboard boxes, old appliances, and wood piles.
- Remove rat food sources, including fruits, nuts, acorns, pet food, and human scraps. If you have snails in your yard, consider investing in a professional snail treatment since these mollusks are a rat’s favorite food.
- Introduce natural predators to your yard by building an owl box or letting pet dogs and cats out into the yard more frequently.
Here’s another tip from the Pest Dude:
“Apply heavy and repeated repellent spray to the engine bay, as well as trapping and baiting all around the property to reduce the rats.
Leave the hood open to let more daylight in. Rats hate daylight!
The problem will go away with regular preventative repellent spray and population reduction.” – Zachary Smith, “The Pest Dude”
Methods to Avoid
Whatever you do, stay away from these unproven methods:
Mothballs
Sure, they might seem like a quick fix, but mothballs are toxic, and the fumes they emit can be harmful to you and your passengers.
Placing Poison Near Your Engine
Poison might seem like a solution, but it’s dangerous for pets and wildlife and can create a hazard for your family and kids.
Sticky Traps
Sticky traps might catch more than you bargained for—like pets or non-target species.
Spraying Water in the Engine
Spraying water to flush out rats or debris will likely damage sensitive engine components, leading to expensive repairs.
Flammable Repellents
Flammable sprays or repellents are just a terrible idea around a hot engine.
The risk of starting a fire just isn’t worth it!
Catching Rats by Hand
Catching a rat by hand is dangerous and unsafe.
Rats can bite and carry diseases—so it’s definitely not worth the risk.
Used Cat Litter
Used cat litter might sound clever, but it often attracts other pests and leaves your car smelling awful.
Blocking Ventilation Holes
Blocking ventilation holes might seem like a way to keep rats out, but this can cause your engine to overheat, leading to bigger problems.
Household Cleaners
Household cleaners aren’t made for engine components and can cause damage.
Stick to products specifically designed for cars.
Ultrasonic Devices
These devices claim to repel rodents using sound, but they rarely work.
Tips to Prevent Rats From Coming Back
Now that you’ve dealt with your rat infestation, keep the pests from coming back with these tips:
- Keep your car covered with a weighted cover like this one, especially if you won’t be using it for an extended period.
- Maintain your vehicle correctly – remember that rats can easily enter your vehicle’s cabin through ducts, rusted areas, and cable conduits. Have any potential access points patched or sealed by a mechanic.
- Do not leave any kind of food or drinks in the car since they can attract rodents.
- Re-apply rodent repellent every three months.
- Avoid parking your car in areas known to attract rodents, like alleys near trash bins or near natural food sources, like vegetable gardens.
- Keep your car in a closed garage whenever possible.
- Never leave your car’s doors or windows open when the car is not in use.
- Move parked cars regularly to deter rodent activity.
When to Call in the Pros
Sometimes, a rat problem is just too big for DIY fixes.
If you’ve tried everything and the rodents are still hanging around, it might be time to call the experts.
Here are some signs it’s time to get help:
- Constant scratching or scurrying sounds
- Finding multiple nests or lots of droppings
- Spotting chewed wires and damage to your car’s engine
Pros have the right tools and know-how to handle the problem safely and effectively.
Plus, they can help you rodent-proof your space to keep the rats from coming back.
Looking for an Exterminator? We Can Help!
You don’t have to live with rats in your car engine forever. Our experienced team is here to help!
If your DIY rat removal attempts have failed, or you’ve run out of options, it’s best to contact a reputable, local pest control company in your area.
Fortunately, we have a broad network of reputable partners in your area.
Get a Free Quote
Give us a call today to receive your free, no-obligation pest control quote.
FAQs
If you can find the dead rat, carefully remove it while wearing heavy-duty rubber gloves. Dispose of the rat carcass in a sealed plastic bag and place it in a trash can that gets emptied regularly. If you can’t find the rat, you may need to take your car to a mechanic for further assistance.
If rats have damaged your engine, unfortunately, the only option is to take your car to a local mechanic. They’ll be able to evaluate the extent of the damage and make repair recommendations to keep your car safe.
Depending on where in your engine rats are nesting, they may be able to stay there while you’re driving. Alternatively, they can enter the cabin of the vehicle, making for an unwelcome surprise for the driver! The best way to prevent this is to deal with rat infestations promptly and completely, which will prevent damage to your engine and prevent them from entering the cabin with you while you drive.
Here are the two main things that attract rats to your car’s engine:
1. Warmth
When rats enter a car engine, they’re usually looking for a safe, warm place to build a nest. Fortunately for them, car engines offer both shelter and warmth.
Rats like to live in dark, enclosed places where they can breed, nest, and raise their babies without being bothered.
As such, these pests are most likely to seek out rarely used engines. We tend to find them in cars that have been parked for long periods or cars that are parked in rat-infested areas.
2. Water
Rats need moisture to survive, and car engines are a rich source of it. Between the electrolysis component, wires, and battery, there’s a surprising amount of moisture within a car’s engine.
Additionally, the soy-based wiring used in modern cars may represent a food and moisture source for rats looking for sustenance.
Thanks for the clear instructions on how to tackle this problem. Now if I can get some cooperation from the property manager! I live in senior housing!