Can Squirrels Hurt My Coach?

Scott & Heather · December 07, 2011, 05:46:12 AM

We're parked very happily in a nice private and wooded spot with full-hookup and 50 AMP service. I have no complaints, except there are little squirrels everywhere. They are under the bus playing, climbing the tires, poking head out of the wheel wells. When I go outside to dump tanks, they scatter...dozens of them. They are using the bus as a playpen. Will they hurt anything? Should I just let them be?

grantgoold · December 07, 2011, 05:56:11 AM

Time for a cat!

Would not want those little guys inside the bus to stow away and cause all sorts of problems down the road.

scanzel · December 07, 2011, 05:59:18 AM

Possibly. I have had mice chew through three air lines in the past two years. First time bus would not air up and second time bus parking brake would not release. Had to replace lines from the rear to the front. Also when dash heat fan was turned up to high I got a face full of acorn shells coming out of the defroster vents. Mice, chipmunks and squirrels can do a lot of damage. They like to chew wires, plastics items and store food in places.

Ed Hackenbruch · December 07, 2011, 06:13:52 AM

If you are going to be there for any length of time, get some fabric softner sheets and scatter a bunch of them in your bays and engine compartment,.....anywhere that you don't want the little buggers getting into.

Scott & Heather · December 07, 2011, 06:19:26 AM

Interesting about the dryer sheets...that really works? I know mice and chipmunks are tiny and they are chewers, but I wasn't sure if squirrels really were the same way. Thanks for the tip..I'll try the dryer sheets. The squirrels can't get into my bays, so it the only place I'm concerned is the engine compartment. My air lines are all copper still. I guess I can throw some dryer sheets around the engine compartment....

luvrbus · December 07, 2011, 06:49:08 AM

Are they tree squirrels if they are they don't do damage to wires

good luck

Scott & Heather · December 07, 2011, 06:58:42 AM

Yes, tree squirrels. I didn't think they were chewers. The worst they could do is stick a nut where they weren't supposed to. Thanks Cliff.

Ed Hackenbruch · December 07, 2011, 07:16:22 AM

Yup, really work, just have to change them every 3-4 months. I have used them in storage units, cars that have sat in fields and woods, and an old uhaul truck that i had stuff stored in for 6 months. Once i started using them i never had another problem with rodents.

Dreamscape · December 07, 2011, 07:45:22 AM

I agree with Ed, the sheets do work! Now I need to go change ours out. Thanks for the reminder!

Scott & Heather · December 07, 2011, 07:59:23 AM

Thought I honestly don't think they are doing anything more than playing (I've observed them for a bit) I will experiment with the dryer sheets just for fun (hey, humans like to play too).

Iceni John · December 07, 2011, 08:29:34 AM

Oh yes, they can!

At work we have an ongoing problem with squirrels. The ground squirrels here cause major damage with their digging, but we can deal with them - once a year we put Fumitoxin in their burrows, not that it makes much difference to their numbers overall. However, the tree squirrels here are classified as game mammals, so there's essentially nothing we can do to deal with them. Unfortunately we don't have enough natural predators to control them effectively, and when there are some the employees here begin to panic - we had some coyotes running around during the daytime, and staff here thought they were going to be run down and killed, like The Hound Of The Baskervilles. Our problem isn't helped by idiot staff who insist on leaving out food for the squirrels, because "they're so cute". Also, some newer cars' electrical wiring has soy-based insulation instead of the more usual plastic-based insulation, and I'm guessing this is more palatable to rodents. An employee's Lexus here recently had $2000 of squirrel damage to its wiring - I guess the squirrel was relentlessly pursuing chewing perfection. One of our Ford Ranger work trucks here recently caught fire and burnt to a crisp while it was parked: we suspect its wiring had been damaged by squirrels and eventually shorted out catastrophically.

The tree squirrels here definitely chew wiring, but I don't think the ground squirrels do - their damage is mostly subterranean. Here are some useful links on squirrels:
Tree squirrels - http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74122.html
Ground squirrels - http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7438.html
Ground squirrel BMP - http://ucanr.org/sites/Ground_Squirrel_BMP/ (A "Burrow Exploder" sounds like it could be fun! Tora Bora on a smaller scale?)

Mothballs and dryer sheets are quite effective, but coyotes, bobcats and cats, hawks and even dogs are still the best way to deal with the little buggers. Or just shoot them - the city did that when they were making a soccer field here, but it caused some consternation to folk passing by.)

John

Bill 340 · December 07, 2011, 08:51:04 AM

Well I can tell you, squirrels will eat propane hose, And I mean tree squirrels. we have had them eat, the rubber seal around the vent pipe on the house as well. Have seen damage to an RV where they ate holes in the rubber roof, We use moth balls, around the engine when up north and here in Fl, you don't really smell the moth balls like you would think, or you could break out your trusty, RED RYDER if you still have it.....................

Scott & Heather · December 07, 2011, 09:23:15 AM

Mercy...those lil buggers are a little more harmful than I thought. I hope they are not chewing our bus. But I did scatte dryer sheets liberally in and around it just in case. We have a .22 bolt action with a scope and a 12 ga but I'm not planning on using that within city limits

luvrbus · December 07, 2011, 09:28:29 AM

You guys east have some bad @$# tree squirrels ours so lazy they wait till the pomegranates fall off the tree and share with the quails lol
I can live with the squirrels the pomegranates are a pain I hate pomegranate season

good luck

scanzel · December 07, 2011, 11:34:20 AM

Back east the gray tree squirrels will chew through the plastic covering on telephone cables on the telephone poles. We had this problem when I worked for the state wide telephone company. Once they got through to the metal sheath they stop but that now caused water to get in causing cable problems. They also ate the plastic bird feeder I had hanging trying to get the feed which they did destroyng the feeder. Any of these rodents with the sharp front teeth will chew items. I was told once that their teeth continue to grow and they must chew thing to keep the teeth short. Not sure if this is true or not.