Marmot ate my car (American Basin TH)

[seano]

There is no data to support ultrasonic waves repel rodents - or marmots - in situ. Circumstantial only.

Yeah, I don't believe in the ultrasonic woo-woo. I thought the device she mentioned was a loud alarm that would go off when something started crawling around your engine compartment, but maybe I misread?

[Boggy B]

Oof that sucks Veory!

My normal Plan A is for the varmints to go after all the newer, tastier vehicles at trailheads that are busy enough to attract them. I read (some?) newer cars use plant-based wiring/hoses that are an attractant. I'd guess keeping your vehicle dirty helps mask scents that would otherwise draw them, and that or other factors have mostly prevented my '08 from getting eaten despite millions of hours parked in the alpine. Over the years they made off with all the heat shielding on the firewall (good nest material?), and apart from that just a wheel speed sensor wire chewed through while parked several days up near Maxwell.

We've used mothballs at Beartown, though I never had anything chewed there with or without. Yesterday at YBB upper there was a 4-wheeler with chicken wire and a bunch of jeeps, but everyone was gone when we got back and the marmots were all up in my truck. Not a rare occurrence, but it's no worse off as far as I can tell.

Vehicle-eating marmots are probably poisoning their gene pool. Would be interesting to see a study on if/how it affects their behavior and lifecycle.

[cottonmountaineering]

Oof that sucks Veory!

My normal Plan A is for the varmints to go after all the newer, tastier vehicles at trailheads that are busy enough to attract them. I read (some?) newer cars use plant-based wiring/hoses that are an attractant. I'd guess keeping your vehicle dirty helps mask scents that would otherwise draw them, and that or other factors have mostly prevented my '08 from getting eaten despite millions of hours parked in the alpine. Over the years they made off with all the heat shielding on the firewall (good nest material?), and apart from that just a wheel speed sensor wire chewed through while parked several days up near Maxwell.

We've used mothballs at Beartown, though I never had anything chewed there with or without. Yesterday at YBB upper there was a 4-wheeler with chicken wire and a bunch of jeeps, but everyone was gone when we got back and the marmots were all up in my truck. Not a rare occurrence, but it's no worse off as far as I can tell.

Vehicle-eating marmots are probably poisoning their gene pool. Would be interesting to see a study on if/how it affects their behavior and lifecycle.

i think besides tasty wires the marmots have been attracted to road salts on the underside of vehicle, i dont even think we use actual salt here but some other salt alternative, so i would agree that the vehicle loving marmots may be too stupid to procreate. i have encountered a porcupine that liked my car but i think it might have just wanted to itch itself

[astranko]

I just want to add:

There is no evidence that soy-based-plastic wiring is more attractive to rodents. Animals have been chewing on car parts since as long as there have been cars. I spent some time looking for information about this and I can't find any information better sourced than, "Well my mechanic said..."

It's not like automotive suppliers are just jamming wires into soybeans. It's just a bioplastic. Bioplastics are all around you in the rest of your life and rodents seem to be able to resist those no problem.

[Boggy B]

i think besides tasty wires the marmots have been attracted to road salts on the underside of vehicle, i dont even think we use actual salt here but some other salt alternative, so i would agree that the vehicle loving marmots may be too stupid to procreate. i have encountered a porcupine that liked my car but i think it might have just wanted to itch itself

That'll be mag chloride, applied aggressively for dust control around here. Camp Bird has a thick coat up to the rockfall damage zone. Apparently it's less toxic to rodents than rock salt, unfortunately, and definitely not the ideal underside coating for varmint repellent. So maybe this is just a function of increasing dust control applications on roads to trailheads, more vehicles and normalization of them, and more newer than older vehicles.