Tractor potential destruction

I've had the wiring harness on my p/u severely damaged twice
within the last 2 years. I started parking it in my shop and my
tractor sits outside. I built a bait station under the tractor and
filled it with peanut butter flavored Tomcat rat and mouse
poison. It works on the blood not the nervous system. I raised
the hood. We'll see.

I have had 2 of these square baits, about 1.5" long disappear
from under my truck in the shop which has a gap under the door
large enough for a squirrel. In both instances there are crumbs
in an area of about 8" diam where the bait used to be. This
happens at night as I am in the shop most of the day.

I have seen squirrels eat pecans and they sit in one spot and
make crumbs. However, the bait was under the truck and not
enough head room for the squirrel to sit upright and eat.

Any body have any history of squirrels being the consumer and if
so, will this bait get them too? Squirrels are cute and all that but
at a $250 tag already plus being without the only means of
transport, the squirrels have to go if that's what it is.

The post below about squirrels getting run over triggered this
question.

Thanks,
Mark

Squirrels are just larger rats that happen to live in trees. Serious bad news when they move in. Lots of things they can damage in short order.

Hot lead injection in 22 caliber doses is quite effective. .410 if there's danger of the other over-reaching.

Pick up a hav a hart live trap, squirrel size. Bait it with half a slice of bread, smear peanut butter on the bread, stick 3 or 4 salted in the shell peanuts in the peanut butter and sprinkle some sunflower seeds on it. Set it in the shop and see what you catch.

Is there anyway you can close up the gap under the door?

I bought a property with an abondoned house on it. Sitting open to the critters for 2+ years. We gutted it swept it all out and still had lots of droppings every morning. I started putting out Tomcat and finally got all the rat &mouse crap from reappearing.
BUT
The bait kept disappearing, whole pitch packs just gone. Finally figured out it was squirells carrying it off. I fed about 40 lbs of poison till it stopped disappearing. Sure a lot less squirrels. That's ok as I have upwards of 100 pecan trees and they had eaten through the siding of the house and set up camp in the attic. I never found any dead ones.

A good dog and several cats is still hard to beat.

We used to have problems with Mouse/Rat damage to the wiring of cars and trucks. We now have 10 barn-Cats and we always prop open the hood of all vehicles. We have not had any damage in the past two years.
prop open the hood and the mice/rats do not have a warm closed place to hide in. The 10 barn cats eat a 30 lb bag of co-op cat food each month, that is way cheaper then fixing the wiring and vacuum lines of the car and trucks.
Andrew

I dont think squirrels opperate at night, if you are loosing bait at night, it likely aint them. In any case, traps hunt for you 24/7, keep that in mind. While Im sure you would love to patrol and shoot anything that moves, $50 in traps will out hunt you every day of the week. That and they will last for years and years.

6 Tomcat rat traps and a bag of peanuts will cost $30.99. You should be getting at least a squirrel a day with that setup. Chum the waters (throw out some peanuts away from the traps) for about a week and after that they will be seeking out the free meal. Most of them will be gone in a couple weeks, the last hold outs will come in a few weeks after that. Then, since damage is expensive and a pain, you may want to keep a trap or 2 out forever just to catch the ones that move in to take the place of the others.

The hole under the garage door is begging for a plywood strip leaving only 1 opening for a conibear 110. Thats if its squirrels, if its rats or something else, skip the conibear.

I dont like poison, I hate smelling the dead so I go with traps and dispose of things away from the house.

Squirrels will eat rat bait. So will rabbits. I have trouble with packrats. They love wire insulation. I'm guessing that whatever was eating your wires is taking the bait. I'd let him have it

I was getting mouse damage in my travel trailer, and a little to some insulation in my P/U a few years back. On advice from this forum I got and put on some oil of peppermint and have found it to be effective.

Sorta figured they were rats with fluffy tails that flew through the trees.

I used to put it under the truck and tractor both of which were under the 15' roof extension that runs the length of my shop and every morning it would be gone. I do have a pretty good rabbit population and have seen them in the area under the covering when I come out in the morning. Since rabbits are another form of rat and are nocturnal this surely makes sense. I have also found corpses in the yard.

This year I have the bait box I built putting it under the tractor (neighbors moved in with loose dogs) and moved the truck inside as mentioned. I put 4 cubes of Tomcat on a wire inside the box and need to check it to see if it's getting any customers.

I hate the smell of dead critters also but traps just don't get them at my place. The peanut butter flavor of the Tomcat apparently is the right flavor.

My building was settling after drought and being 10 years old so I sawed off the bottom of the doors so that they would move before I figured out how to raise the building which I am current half through the process. That and the sloping, cracked concrete made for the big gap.

DBF yesterday I took 2 pieces of purlin and cut to fit and laid them across the opening. I have slots at the door supports for the ends and the center anchor for the two sliding doors makes for a great center anchor. I have to have something portable as all the potential permanently attached to the door solutions for closing the holes interfered with the lower rail bracket that holds the bottom of the sliding doors. I think it will work. Checked it this morning and no bait gone and purlins still where I put them.

My Pecan trees have died off but I have Hackberry and they like the berries since with no Pecans that's about all they have to eat. The place is covered with them (make nice firewood) so the attraction is there for the critters.

Thanks for the responses.
Mark