This morning I opened the hood of my new 2010 F-150 and heard the sound of nuts (acorns) rolling back in the hood as I put the hood up. Checked the engine compartment, but only found one or two there. I live in the woods and the truck is under a carport; I do not drive it every day as we have three vehicles. If I remove the hood pad under the hood is there an opening so I can reach in and get the nuts out? Or, should I duct tape the area around the hood pad? I think the only access to the inside of the hood is thru the opening where the latch is. Thinking of putting a piece of screen in that area or duct tape, and leaving an area for the latch open. Is there anything I can do to keep the chipmunks. mice, or whatever out of the engine compartment? I've heard about people using moth ***** or dryer sheets. Do these things work? Anyone experience this same problem? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Thats odd place to keep your nuts. I don't see how they can just fall in so a animal must be storing them

As for filling the hole I would use spray foam

You can try and take the liner off to see but the best bet would be to remove and shake them out.

 

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that a lovely little squirrel has found your truck to be a storage compartment for his winter stash.

Think about it. When you park your truck it's normally a nice hot dry place. Perfect for storage right? I'm sure the residual heat that lingers for a day or so is nice to the little rodent.

I doubt those nuts are falling in there on their own. I'm sure you have some "guests" in your engine bay.

 

foaming the openings sounds like a good idea....

For my snowmobiles I leave dryer sheets (like Bounce) in various areas as I hear the rodents don't like the smell....moth ***** as well

 

Obviously the nuts are being brought in by either mice or chipmunks. My question is whether anyone has had this problem, and how they solved it. Read my post.

 

Heavy duty screen, spray foam, or the drier sheet idea (which I've never heard of, but sounds easy enough).

Or I could lend you my hound mix...he keeps all the rodents out of my property!!

 

Buck1...yes same problem with snowmobiles in the off season....get in and make nests as well as sometimes eat rubber sound insulation under the hood...even plastic parts sometimes....dryer sheets work .

In the case of a truck I would seal them out with the spray foam idea as it will be a pain in the *** to be stuffing "Bounce" dryer sheets in the holes all the time..

 

DO NOT USE SPRAY FOAM!!!!!!!!!!! Spray foam, even with an opening will distort and bend the sheet metal! Thats why you don't spray it around windows in your house, when it expands it can bend or break the frame and glass. They do offer low expansion versions but I still wouldn't suggest it. Screen wire sounds like a better idea. Had some mice get in and chew up some underhoood insulation on a new truck on my lot once but we replaced the liner and never saw any evidence of the actual rodent. Tape won't do any good to a determined rodent. I would try something like hardware cloth or something a little finer but make sure it is actual metal and not a fiberglass type screen.

 

when i say foam, i dont mean diy store stuff. get foam spary from a auto body supply place, most car or full of foam in the rockers and 1/4 panels

 

Ohhhhh.....my bad, just didn't want to see you warp the hood.

 

Thanks for all your help. I put dryer sheets attached in 3 places, and stuffed the holes with steel wool at the advice of the local body shop. Also, I set a few mouse traps in the area of the truck. Put a ziploc bag with mothballs in front of the radiator with a zip tie after making several small holes in the bag. I'm sure, since I covered many bases, that I have solved the problem. (Hope!) Will keep you all posted.

 

get a good sized dog, chipmunks wont hang around where dogs have been, get an outdoor cat, that would get em too! my truck gets nuts stashed in it too if i turn the heat on you can hear the nuts rattle around but its just an old farm truck and the heat doesn't work anyway.

 

Pellet guns are useful too.

 

I had a problem with feral cats sleeping on the top of the engine in my last truck. They were crawling under spark plug wires and actually pulling them off. I park the truck and its running fine. Get in the next morning and its running on 6 or 7 cylinders. Moth ***** in aluminum foil took care of the problem.

 

I had a mouse stand on the plastic cover to the intake and chew through the hood's fire blaket. It made a nest in there. I took the blanket off removed the nest and cleaned out all the nuts in there. I also found a nest in the air box. Cleaend that out and put wire window screaning over the air intake tube to keep them out.

I have a real big mouse problem at my place and with 2 cars and 4 trucks it's hard to drive all in a week.

I have a 2 car cover-it tent and have been using moth ***** or moth ball crystals on paper plates in it. Seems to work good. My mouse bait packs in there have not been broken into yet. I did some internet reading and the moth ball crystals (might be flakes) are more potent than regular moth *****. Both are deadly to animals that may eat them though. The fumes are also harmfull to people if inhaled for a long enough time.

I also found out mice are prety resiliant. Some smells that deter other animals will not deter mice. I even bought some special mouse aroma deterant packets and the mice just ate them and did not go away. I also put a mouse bait pack near a battery in a car. Went to go move it when I went to drive the car and the pack was gone, no where to be found.

All I can say is good luck on geting rid of them. I'm in a constant battle with mine.