Help me evict the neighborhood squirrels from my car engine bay!

Post date: 2025-07-11 12:38:30

How do I stop squirrels from eating the wiring and nesting in my Rav4's engine bay? Pics of the crime scene under the cut.

I live in a Townhouse Style Condo governed by a HOA in the great suburbs of New Jersey that has an outdoor communal parking lot with 1 assigned space in front of the condo. There is no indoor garage parking available. The parking lot looks something like this. The condos are surrounded by trees, shrubbery and wildlife, with parking spaces on both sides of the road and a communal dumpster & recycling.

I recently caught a few squirrels trying to nest again and eat up my 2017 Toyota Rav4 wiring again in the engine bay. This is at least the 3rd time we've caught squirrels redhanded trying to either make a nest and/or eating the ground wire/electrical tape repairs. I've tried putting peppermint scented balls in the glove compartment of my car but I don't think it's deterred them much. I've also tried to move my car around in the parking lot (across from my assigned spot) but that's when I caught the 2 squirrels under the hood last weekend.

I WFH so I'm not driving too often, but the 3 times I've caught them for the last few years, the Rav4 had been driven earlier that same week. Our household has multiple cars but it looks like the squirrels especially like mine for some reason :(

Please help me stop them from nesting and eating my car apart!

Also bonus question: what's the wire in the 2nd pic above supposed to be connected to & is it important? the car isn't throwing any dashboard lights or alerts.

Thank you!!

Please click Here to read the full story.