The Danger Of Packrats.

 Also known as wood rats. They have those big ears and look cute, but looks can be deceiving. We had to deal with them on a regular basis when we lived in the S. Colorado mountains. They liked to build their nests under decks that were tight or in the engine compartment of your vehicle. You would go out in the morning and take a deep breath of what used to be fresh wholesome air and choke on the smell of packrats. 

They had a tendency to urinate as they moved about and it smelled awful. You would then be on the hunt for the nest and when found you needed to remove and break it up. Then get out the live traps and bait it with peanut butter.  If you were fortunate you would catch one and take it far away and let it go and hope it didn't beat you back home. 

As to the vehicles, you would need to prop your hood open as they did not like to nest in closed spaces. We found that out the hard way as one morning I forgot to raise the hood only to find out a nest was built in the engine compartment with our vacuum hoses as part of its nest. Some had their wiring harness as part of a nest and that is costly to repair. 

We found a neighbor who actually weaponized packrats. He had a lot of junk under his deck which attracted large amounts of packrats. He would live trap them and during the dark hours of night release them at peoples homes that he didn't like. I would then trap them and paint their tails and release them at his house during the day time. He considered it a game that only he enjoyed. 

Packrats are cute but they smell and can be destructive. Fortunately they love peanut butter so they are fairly easy to trap.