Almost exactly a year ago I published “Green” Car Wiring Tickles Rodent Tastebuds on this very blog and what should I stumble across today but more news about exactly how tasty car makers have been making their wiring! So tasty that angry customers are actually starting to sue! The below article from nbcnews.com details a class-action lawsuit against carmaker Honda. It seems that in the company’s zeal to pursue eco-friendliness, they have made friends of mice and enemies of some of their customers. The damages caused by the rodents can add up to thousands of dollars very quickly. While Honda deals with angry customers, there is a solution for those of you stuck with yummy soy-based products in your vehicles – predator urine. I am not just saying that – Wiley Faris of Arapahoe Autotek is quoted in the article below – “Predator urine is a good deterrent,” Faris said. “That stuff can take care of the critter damage pretty quick.”
Where do you get predator urine? Predatorpee.com .com of course! Auto mechanics, car dealers, and pest control specialists just like Faris have begun telling their customers about our products, specifically our PredatorPee PeeShots for vehicles and other indoor applications. They are available with WolfPee, FoxPee, BobcatPee, and Mt. LionPee depending on the particular pest you are trying to deter. So, while you are waiting for your class-action money, protect your car from any further damage with predator urine. urine.
Honda’s Soy-Based Wiring Covers Irresistible to Rodents: Lawsuit
byLucy Bayley
Environmentally friendly car wiring with a soy-based coating is too tempting for rodents to resist, according to a federal class-action lawsuit that demands Honda pick up the tab for the damage caused by gnawing mice, rabbits and squirrels.
The breach of warranty lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles and first reported by Courthouse News Service, results from the automaker’s quest to “go green” by using soy-based biodegradable wire coating. The coating costs less than plastic but does have a downside, according to lead plaintiff Daniel Dobbs of Wyoming.
In the lawsuit, Dobbs alleged that he had to pay twice to have chewed-up wires in his 2012 Honda Accord replaced at a Honda dealership. The second time, he said, mechanics wrapped the wires in special tape intended to deter rodents, demonstrating that Honda is aware of the issue.
That means car owners should not have to foot the bill for the repairs, argues Dobbs, who was joined by Honda owners in Arizona and Texas in suing Honda.
A deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), seen in an undated photo provided by the National Park Service. d) John Good / National Park Service via AP
“(The automaker) has turned this defective soy-based insulated wiring into another source of income for Honda and its dealers by charging aggrieved vehicle owners for repairs or parts to deal with the adverse consequences …that Honda should have covered under warranty in the first place,” the lawsuit says.
Other car owners not involved in the lawsuit say they have had similar problems.
“I just picked up my 2013 Honda Accord from the dealer with almost $2,000 worth of work completed due to a wood rat eating a main harness,” one dissatisfied driver said on a forum discussing the issue. “Then I find (that) Honda makes a shrink wrap tape specifically for the problem. Are you kidding me!!! Fix it from the start instead of putting the burden on us consumers.”
This isn’t the first time that the use of soy in vehicles has caused problems. In the mid-1940s, in an attempt to spare metal for the war effort, license plates in some states were made from compressed soy beans and fiberboard. Goats and cows were attracted to the vehicles and regularly chewed off the plates completely.
The soy-based wire coating also has been known to be appetizing. In 2013, the Los Angeles Times reported that rabbits had munched their way through soy-based wiring in cars parked at Denver International Airport.
“They come to the recently driven cars for warmth, and once they’re there, they find that many of the materials used for coating ignition cables are soy-based. And the rabbits find that quite tasty,” Wiley Faris of Arapahoe Autotek repair center told the newspaper.
Faris suggested a solution for anyone seeking to prevent their car from becoming a critter snack shack – coating the wires with fox or coyote urine.
“Predator urine is a good deterrent,” Faris said. “That stuff can take care of the critter damage pretty quick.”
Honda did not immediately respond to a request from NBC News seeking comment on the lawsuit.
I just recently stumbled upon the article below. Finally! A journalist who actually gets me. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better write up about our company, Maine Outdoors Solutions LLC. My wife and daughters especially enjoyed the “juvenile” humor comment, and “exemplifies the essential vigor of capitalism” is just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.
By Jayson Jacoby/The Baker City Herald September 18, 2015 01:58 pm
Should I douse my wife’s garden with the urine of a wolf or a cougar?
As you can imagine, this conundrum is cutting into my sleep.
Nor are my choices, in the realm of liquid produce protection, limited to apex carnivores.
Maybe I can confuse as well as frighten the tomato-gobbling deer and the blackberry-pecking robins by sowing the place with the excretory scent of the fisher, a diminutive but apparently quite vicious type of weasel.
The online market for the liquid byproducts of wildlife micturition — animal pee, if you’d rather dispense with euphemism-by-obscure-vocabulary — is considerably more, well, voluminous than I expected.
Indeed, more than I could have imagined.
Turns out you don’t need to actually own a wolf — and possess a certain deftness with a catheter — to procure the protective powers of a predator’s urine.
An Internet connection and a credit card will bring the stuff — packed in a well-padded and leak-proof box, one would hope — to your front door.
Which saves time and, probably, a finger or two.
It was pure coincidence that introduced me to the brisk commerce in what’s generally considered a waste product.
Not long after my wife lamented the loss of her tomatoes to the neighborhood mule deer, I happened to hear, on a morning radio comedy program, a reference to “predator pee.”
I sensed a potential solution which would be simpler, albeit more aromatic, than erecting 10-foot fences.
Whether Predator Pee ranks as the most prolific purveyor of this substance I can’t say.
But its competitors would have to go a fair piece to match the Predator Pee website — http://www.predatorpee.com, of course — for sheer entertainment.
When I scroll through the site and try to imagine how it came to be, I envision a group of people sitting around a seedy apartment, tossing around ideas rather like the joke writers for Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Fallon. There’s a laptop on the kitchen table, surrounded by empty beer bottles
and grease-stained pizza boxes, and occasionally somebody types in an especially comical line.
The humor on predatorpee.com, as you probably have guessed, lands solidly on the juvenile end of the spectrum.
Puns abound.
The best of these is “pee-rimeter” — the pest-free zone you can create by sprinkling the urine of your choice around whatever it is you want to protect.
The company’s motto, as it were, is “Bringing pee to the people since 1986.”
Remember that year the next time someone contends the Reagan era was a repressive time.
The company’s line is not limited to urine. This is something of a relief.
But even the non-pee parts of the catalog involve other animal byproducts.
The company — its official name is Maine Outdoor Solutions — also sells authentic wool crusher hats. So far as I can tell this is the outfit’s only item that involves, or requires, sheep.
Also available is BearGuard, which isn’t what you probably think it is, what with all the previous urine references.
In fact BearGuard is a water-repellent for boots. It is, however, made from “real bear fat.” I don’t doubt this keeps the rain from soaking your socks. But extracting it from the bear must be a more, well, irreversible process than collecting ursine urine. Which, rest assured, is also available if your garden marauders are particularly fearful of bears.
Jokes aside, Predator Pee exemplifies the essential vigor of capitalism, and its existence proves that in a free market pretty much anything can be turned into a profit.
Indeed, these clever iconoclasts from Maine peddle urine as a way to attract as well as repel wildlife.
Pee, the company claims, will lure butterflies, because it’s an essential source of sodium and other vital elements for these graceful flyers.
The website boasts about this with the sort of breathless enthusiasm typical of online marketing, although the insertion of a single word (the one just before “business”) transforms an otherwise predictable sentence:
“We have been in the urine business a long time, but we always get excited when we discover a new use for this incredibly renewable resource!”
You won’t read that at the Harvard Business School.
The ultimate question, of course, is how Predator Pee obtains its raw materials. I’ll leave the details to the website, but suffice it to say the explanation is mundane.
The company does not, as I had hoped, employ a battalion of short people with quick hands who can move fast even while wearing galoshes.
Earlier this month, at about 6 p.m., John Norris was fixing the light on the front door of his Cedar Crest Lane home when he heard his dog, Lucy, barking in the driveway behind him.
“I turned and I saw a coyote,” Norris said. “Lucy went to the edge of the driveway and the coyote shot out and grabbed her by the rear and threw her.”
It all happened so fast, Norris said.
As he ran to his injured dog, the coyote took off.
“I was all concerned about Lucy,” Norris said of the 21-pound Australian labradoodle. “She was really badly injured.”
Coyotes are definitely present in Scituate, where Animal Control Officer Kim Stewart reported receiving sighting reports for more than 20 years.
“Heavily wooded areas are more common, but there are very few areas that we do not have reports of coyotes and in fact they are present in virtually every town in Massachusetts,” she said.
There have been a lot of reports of coyotes being aggressive toward pets, Stewart said. . . . Click here to read more of this article
Well, this is scary for pet owners, but what is to be done? Many articles reference fencing, keeping the food inside, making loud noises, or just learning to understand them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to get to know a coyote, and I certainly don’t want to share my back yard with one. Now, I make it my business to know predators, and I sell urines(including coyote) to scare off other critters. As soon as I caught wind of this growing problem a few years back, I did some research and confirmed my hypothesis that the coyote has only a few natural predators, one of which is canislupis, more commonly known as the wolf! I put 2 and 2 together, and now predatorpee.com .com is selling 100% WolfPee to deter coyotes. We have sold hundreds of bottles. . .but you don’t have to take my word for it. . .
” I was about to get a gun for the coyotes trying to attack my puppy. But I’m not the gun-slinging type. Was chatting with a lady on the hiking trails and she told me about you. can’t remember her name.” -predatorpee.com customer
“…After we bought your WolfPee last year, we did not have any problems with coyotes whatsoever and we thank you for that. New year and we have three cats we must protect. I thank you and will place my large order soon…” – Margery F. Walpole, MA
While I am not a cat lover at all, I do have 2 dogs and I understand the connection pet owners have with their pets and the strong desire to protect them. Coyotes aren’t going to just go away, and we’ve got to be able to protect our pets. Wolf urine provides a safe, natural way to do so. No guns, no walking around your yard banging pots, and certainly no attempting to “get to know” your neighborhood coyotes – just the predator-prey instinct put to use. Click here to better understand the predator urine concept and its application.
Wishing you and Spot or Fluffy or Mittens a happy and safe New Year!
Well, the weather forecasters are predicting a good ole nor’ easter for tomorrow into Friday. Accumulation forecasts are all over the map. As usual, we will see what actually ends up on the ground when all is said and done.
In the mean time, before hunkering down for the storm, I thought I would squeeze in a blog post. I know that I have posted about the coyote problem that is facing the nation many times, but it is a nuisance that is not going away, and we still haven’t sufficiently gotten the word out about the usefulness of 100% Wolf Pee in combating this situation. Below are articles from states across the nation that have been written in the past few weeks alone. They vary in tone, but they all recognize the growing threat of the coyote to small pets at the very least. One article mentions that the coyote has become the top predator since the eradication of wolf and mountain lion in some areas. Well, it stands to reason that if the wolf is a step above the coyote in the food chain, the coyote has instinctual fear of its natural predator and that is why even if the coyote has never seen a wolf, wolf urine will scare them. But, I will let you make up your own mind about that . . .
I received this testimonial in my Peemail box just today . . .
“I have used wolf urine in the past so did a google search for wolf urine as a deterrent. searched your website also for dispensers as they are hard to find. it has kept coyotes away from my ducks. Penny”
Well, the January thaw is in full swing around here with rain and snowmelt continuing. Next week it looks as if old man winter will mount a comeback, but for now I am enjoying not worrying about frozen pipes or ice dams. While it might not be below zero outside, it is still cold enough for rodents to want to come in from outside. An easy to access dry, warm place can be under the hood of your car. We hear from our customers about this problem all the time and we are trying to get the word out . . . 100% PredatorPeePeeShots are the convenient, effective answer to this annoying problem.
On of our customers emailed the following suggestion –
“Someone should tell the NPR ‘Car talk” guys about this, they are always getting calls about cars damaged from rodents, or rodents dying in cars……Christina”
Also, in case you doubt how much of a problem this can be, I found the article below on the website of Sweeney’s Garage –
Rodent Damage = Expensive Repair Cold this winter? You’re not the only one!
You might be surprised to learn that during these winter months you may have some furry little visitors living under your hood. The warm dark recesses of your car’s engine compartment is an ideal nesting area for rodents. Mice can and will chew through the wiring under your hood leaving you with an expensive repair bill.
One customer complained of a check engine light and a rough running engine. Upon investigation we found a mouse had chewed through the wiring for his fuel injectors.
Another mouse got into a blower motor where he expired. Every time the heater fan was turned on, it made a loud vibration noise. Some signs you might want to look for under your hood include deposits of bird seed, nests made of string, twigs, insulation, fabric and what looks like dryer lint, or funny noises when you turn on your heater.
Our PeeShots are perfect for this application. They come in an 8 pack and are “Pee-Loaded” with 100% Original PredatorPee. Remove the lids and place the PeeShots near each tire and in engine compartment or other target areas in the vehicle. Remove before driving. Choose BobcatPeeShots for mice, CoyotePeeShots for rats and ‘coons, FoxPeeShots for squirrels, and WolfPeeShots for domestic and feral cats.
Help us get the word out – call Click and Clack – tell your friends, tell your neighbors – don’t let this happen to them or you.
That reminds me, I should go stick some in the Scout, the boat and the tractor since I startled a fieldmouse a couple of months ago who had made a home in my headlight!
Greetings from the North Woods! Well, there is a little snow on the ground now, and the mercury is dropping. It is definitely starting to look like Christmas around here. In between trips to the woodpile, Stanley’s pen and the hen house, I have been catching up on my email. Lots of stories about the increasing threat that coyotes are posing in residential neighborhoods continue to come to my attention. Below are just a few of the recent ones . . .
“In the morning gloom Thursday, Alan Watkin let his soft-coated Wheaton terrier Athena out into his condominium yard, tied to a rope to keep her close. He went into the kitchen of his Pemberton Terrace home and just sat down when he heard a massive yelp. “I go out and the coyote’s got her by the back leg. I managed to chase the coyote off. He ran probably 20 feet, stopped, and I ran at him again. He ran down to the road and down toward Sahali Terrace,” Watkin said later that day, after a trip to the veterinarian.
“Another worried dog owner has come forward after her Westie was almost dragged away by a coyote last week in West Kelowna. This is the second story of an aggressive daylight coyote attack in our area, the last time the beloved pet did not make it. Cynthia Jarvis lives on the edge of the Two Eagles Golf Course in West Kelowna.
Last Monday Dec. 2 her roommate took Jarvis’s Westie, Winston, and her Sheltie, Piper, for their daily afternoon play in the backyard. She says they were kicking the ball and having a wonderful time in the snow when a coyote, she believes was stalking them, rushed in and grabbed Winston. “It only took a moment and a coyote had latched onto my 19-pound Westie and was dragging him out onto the golf course,” shares Jarvis.
Photo: Contributed – Cynthia Jarvis
Piper
Her roommate screamed and started chasing the coyote, fortunately Winston was able to break free and run back to the house. “If it was not for Winston’s strength and my friends screams, my Winnie would be gone,” says a shocked Jarvis. (excerpt from Castanet News article by Carmen Weld) http://www.castanet.net/news/West-Kelowna/104292/Coyote-attacks-dog-in-broad-daylight
“Huron-Kinloss Township is reporting a few coyote problems. It follows similar reports from nearby Kincardine. A small dog was killed recently in Kincardine by coyotes wandering through town. A report from Huron-Kinloss bylaw officer Brianne Elliott stated that coyotes are a major concern in the urban areas of the township. She told last night’s council meeting that the township has been advised to have residents report sightings to the Ministry of Natural Resources. But she also said the Municipality’s option are limited in trying to aid residents with concerns. Elliott said most of the concerns are from Huron-Kinloss areas year Kincardine.” (excerpt from BlackburnNews.com article by Ken Kilpatrick)
Well, as you know, I am a man who likes to solve problems and help others find solutions to theirs. 100% WolfPee is effective for keeping coyotes away. It is time to get the word out about this all-natural coyote deterrent. 100% WolfPee – accept no substitutes and keep Fido and Fifi and buster(you get the idea)safe from harm!
Ok, we have had some serious chill this week up here! A couple of days it only made it into the low 30’s! Well, I shouldn’t complain since I choose to live here.
Anyway, moving on – would you believe that I received another email from a different production company based in New York about a PeeMan reality show?!! I just don’t understand why people would want to sit around and watch me and my family sell, package and ship animal urine. I mean – I think my job is great and definitely fodder for interesting conversation, but I wouldn’t want to sit in front of a screen watching me or anyone else do it.
I do actually have a worthwhile contribution to the “reality tv” craze. The following is a video of “real” live deer reacting to our 100% CoyotePee. Talk about drama! These deer want nothing to do with the scent of one of their feared predators. But, the whole point of reality tv is to see it, not read about it – without further ado – PredatorPee Unleashed – Episode 1
So, as I was surfing the net after I got back from my fishing trip up to a secluded spot in the Maine woods, I came across this video from a couple years ago. Really, I knew the coyote problem is bad, but in NYC! I won’t even go to the Big Apple. Check out this brazen beast:
What is to be done with this seemingly indiscriminate invasion of our backyards, farms and even city streets by this vicious predator? Well, as you may have guessed, we’ve got a pee for that! 100% WolfPee is the all natural coyote deterrent. It is available in liquid and granular form and can be used to create a pee-rimeter around the area you are trying to protect. Don’t delay! Protect those pets, chickens, and whatever else the coyote might see as its next meal with 100% Original WolfPee. Accept no substitutions!
Enough business stuff, I am ready to go fishing again! Unfortunately, the much needed rain we are getting today will usher in a healthy batch of black flies and mosquitoes. Fishing in springtime in Maine can mean sacrificing a pound of flesh – literally. Oh well guess I will go down and keep puttering away in the Airstream. Hope the sun in shining where you are.
It has been a long absence from the blogosphere for the PeeMan. I have been kind of busy chasing all those animals around to collect the pee. Never fear, for although we have been away from blogging, Predatorpee has been continuing to furnish customers all over the globe with the the best and original 100% Predator Urine. But, you don’t have to take only my word that this stuff works. Take a look at what the expersts have to say:
What’s the News: In the animal kingdom, prey species must follow one rule above all others: keep away from predators. To do this, some animals take chemical cues from the urine they stumble upon. Now, new researchpublished in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has identified a single molecule in the urine of many mammalian carnivores that causes rodents to scurry in fear. This chemical could eventually help scientists understand instinctual behavior in animals.
How the Heck:
A research team at the Harvard Medical School analyzed a group ofolfactory receptors called trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs). They concentrated on one in particular, TAAR4, which is strongly activated by bobcat urine (sometimes used by gardeners to repel small pests). They found that one specific molecule, called 2-phenylethylamine, is responsible for the TAAR4 reaction.
To see if 2-phenylethylamine is bobcat specific, the team tested urine samples from 38 mammalian species, including servals, snow leopards, giraffes, zebras, and rodents. They found that the carnivores had the highest concentrations of the molecule, with some species, like lions and tigers, producing up to 3,000 times more 2-phenylethylamine than the herbivores.
As a way of checking the role of the molecule, the researchers placed a few drops of lion urine loaded with 2-phenylethylamine in a cage with mice and rats. The rodents avoided that area of the cage. The team then used urine free of the chemical, and found that the rodents had no aversion to it.
What’s the Context:
Scientists have long known that chemical cues can mediate predator-prey interactions, and not just in mammalian species. For example, some salamanders and tree frogs use these cues to detect predatory fish.
Sometimes these the cues aren’t enough. The parasitic diseasetaxoplasmosis can overcome rodents’ instinctual aversion to predatory urine. In some cases, the disease causes mice to actually seek out areas marked by cat urine. The mechanism is still a bit unclear, but scientists believe that taxoplasma does this by affecting dopamine levels in theamygdala.
The exact role of TAARs, first discovered 2001, is also unclear. But, “here we have the first convincing evidence that they might control instinctive behaviour,” Anna Menini, president-elect of the European Chemoreception Research Organization in Paris, told Nature.
The Future Holds:
The researchers are working to experimentally show that TAAR4 controls the rodents’ instinctive behavior. They are also trying to pinpoint brain circuits that TAAR4 activates as it responds to 2-phenylethylamine.
Future research needs to explain why carnivores have a higher concentration of the 2-phenylethylamine in their urine. The team suspects that it’s a by-product of meat digestion.
Thousands of coyotes now roam suburban and urban yards and neighborhoods across America. News reports about coyote attacks on pets and other small animals are becoming more common. People are struggling to find ways of keeping them away. One completely natural, yet innovative solution is the use of wolf urine to repel coyotes. According to the Wikipedia article Coyote: Interspecific predatory relationships, wolves are one of the few natural predators of coyotes and can compete for hunting habitat.
“The gray wolf is a significant predator of coyotes wherever their ranges overlap. Since the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, the local coyote population went through a dramatic restructuring. Until the wolves returned, Yellowstone National Park had one of the densest and most stable coyote populations in America due to a lack of human impacts. Two years after the wolf reintroductions, the pre-wolf population of coyotes had been reduced 50% through both competitive exclusion and predation. In Grand Teton, coyote densities were 33% lower than normal in the areas where they coexisted with wolves, and 39% lower in the areas of Yellowstone where wolves were reintroduced.”
When coyotes believe wolves are in an area, they will move to a less hazardous habitat. By applying wolf urine around the perimeter of a yard, the homeowner can create the impression that wolves are nearby. The scent of urine is one of the primary ways an animal is warned of the presence of a predator and the smell of the wolf urine tells coyotes that this area could be a dangerous place. The coyote’s instincts kick in and they move to a new territory. In addition an added advantage to using wolf urine is that it is completely natural and safe to use around pets.
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Words from The Peeman 