Or maybe it's field mice or possibly one of several of the genus Neotoma, commonly known as Pack Rats or Trading Rats. Some varmint has been building nests inside the engine compartments of both of our cars.
The cars sit next to the wall that runs along the side of our driveway. On the other side of the wall are the neighbors' Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo), olive tree, and Pyracantha bushes, all of which drop fruit during the year on both sides of the driveway wall. We usually clean the fruits out of the driveway, but with the distraction of the chemo treatments, we just didn't get around to it this year. Then we noticed that the cars were running roughly, to the point where they felt unsafe to drive. Our auto mechanics, for whom we are a constant source of entertainment, found an enormous rodent nest of leaves and sticks and partially eaten strawberry fruit inside the air intake valve in one of the cars and that the rodents had also chewed up the insulation on the wiring on both cars.
With all the rain we've had this winter, we think that some of the pyracantha berries and strawberry fruit had fermented and the critters had holed up in the nice warm engine compartments of our cars to consume their fermented berry hooch and sample the taste of electrical wiring insulation. I have to admit that it's the ideal location for them since it's protected from the elements and safe from the hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes and other predators that live in our canyon.
We know there are Pack Rats here because for years there was a huge midden on the other side of our driveway wall. The midden grew over the years as the Pack Rats added on to it, incorporating sticks and twigs and even a paintbrush we had left on the driveway wall. The neighbors tore the midden out when they renovated that part of their garden a couple of years ago.
Cindy also found one of the Pack Rats in our compost bin a few years ago; it had evidently crawled or fallen in and become trapped in the bin when it couldn't climb out. We called him "Mickey" because of his huge ears. She opened the collection door at the bottom of the bin, left the area and when she came back, Mickey had taken to his heels and vanished.
However, our amusement at Mickey and his fellows turned to annoyance when we discovered the cost of replacing the various damaged engine components.
So now the cars are repaired, the driveway is cleaned up and we've tried various rodent repellants inside the wheel wells of the cars. The rodents do not seem to have been deterred at all by the smell of Irish Spring soap recommended by our mechanics, but they do seem to have moved on since we deprived them of most of their food and fermented berries.
We're just hoping they haven't discovered the bird seed stored in the garage and moved in there.
