Don’t let this one kill you.

Aircraft Service bulletin, applicable to all aircraft, this one could be deadly. Best Tugs, mice and rats nests. 

[@gtr1952]

We hired 2 mouse security guards, their names are Dusty and Freckles. They work for room and board, and the occasional treat. During non-working hours they will also keep your lap warm, and give you as much loving as you can stand. We also included free medical for them, so they are in great health. They work hard, never complain and get along with everyone very well. They have also been known to go on play dates with young neighbors, and they love them. Just a thought, BTW, we also have no mouse, or any other rodent issues. 8) Peace, --gary

[@Sylvan_dB]

Until the day you realize Dusty and Freckles have made some new tiny friends...

[@banzaiib]

@@Sylvan_dB easily avoidable

[@grayrabbit2211]

I like having a good mouser outside, but you have to make sure they do their bathroom duties someplace favorable. My local airport is a top notch place with even landscaping on some of the taxiways and doesn't look too kindly upon keeping a cat around.

[@michaelmonaghan2717]

Even though it wasn't your failure or fault, you went down, investigated, and resolved! Good customer service!

[@NSResponder]

BTW Mark, I used to work in Apple's hardware test engineering group, and there are all kinds of cases where we replaced a customer's iPhone or other product just because it had been damaged in a way we'd never seen before. "Oh, you dropped it skydiving? Never seen that before. We'll swap it for a new one." "Rolled into fresh asphalt and you had to pry it loose? Send it in!"

[@F1fan007]

Great advice!! Man, Mark, that’s some amazing customer service. Fly to customer’s location, find problem, fix problem, no charge! You all are awesome!

[@idleobserver7211]

I was a dealership mechanic back in the seventies. A good customer had a brand new full size sedan delivered just as he was leaving town for the weekend. First thing Monday, we got a call from a very upset customer. The first time they tried to start their brand new car, nothing. No dash lights, just nothing. I was sent to replace the battery because that's the only thing that made sense. I opened the hood and the engine compartment had been gutted. Literally anything not metal had been chewed to sawdust. Even the top couple inches of the battery. Whatever had hit the thing had bored through the air conditioning housing and destroyed everything under the dashboard too. We guessed a pack of rats, but it's just unbelievable anything could cause so much damage so quickly. It took weeks to repair. Things like the dash structure, the air conditioning housing, and lots of other stuff is hard to get for a new model. I even had to replace the front carpets and firewall insulation.

[@superdave2403]

Holy moly Batman !!! That is a issue ! That squeaking will drive you crazy! Mice like to fly too!!

[@anthonyg9787]

now thats customer service..... good info and thank you ....

[@GaryMCurran]

Interesting story, Mark. You appear to be doing well after your One Wheel incident, I hope we're seeing you back in fine form. This was an interesting lesson, though. Thanks for sharing this.

[@kasm10]

Critical to bend knees on a Onewheel just like surfing

[@carlsurma8549]

Great Call Mark!

[@poesypoet]

That's why God created cats keep the mice away and great for love and attention just don't let them around furniture or anything else they can scratch unless you train them up on a scratch post. Thanks for the vid

[@bulldog_504]

Having cat food around can also bring in rats so there has to be a balance in between the number of cats and the available cat food

[@poesypoet]

@@bulldog_504 Also having an abundance of cat food makes lazy cats

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

They also love garages, and seem to LOVE motorcycle wiring.

[@jozsefizsak]

Thanks for raising such an important issue that we often overlook.

[@donjohnston3776]

Birds, insects and rodents have an attraction to aircraft, just like humans. Unfortunately, their activities can lead to failure of the aircraft or in this case, a tug. Thanks for raising awareness of this Mark. Our airplane was prone to frequent varmint incursions. A blade of grass hanging from a hole often leads to a handful. Like you said, if there is access, they will find it one way or another. A very thorough pre-flight inspection is a must. I am sure most AMEs have endless stories about this topic.

[@NOT_Air-Racing]

Good visual inspection sorts things out alot of times.

[@IndyTiger1050]

Come on Mark, mouse proofing the planes would be tough but your tug's. That should be an easier task. A mouse hardened tug, new product line for your company. 😊

[@dirttdude]

20 years ago i made something like this out of a rototiller, lawn mower and some Mercury marine tilt trim cylinders for moving boats on trailers. we had a forklift and a tractor for moving boats but our contraption was twice as maneuverable in tight spots, slow but very maneuverable. i saw a picture of it on facebook a few years back so i think it still runs

[@Tadrjbs]

Thanks Mark for the heads up on the mice. Tell Mike, "HEY HOW ABOUT A FEW NEW VIDEOS?"

[@fineartz99]

Significant. Discovery Remarkable. Solution Progressional.

[@cdalton3169]

Very good catch, Mark! They get in my engine bays, excavator engine and hydraulic bays, everywhere. We use peppermint oil to deter the silly things. Hahaha.

[@challenger2ultralightadventure]

Traps...YES Poison...NO! The reason is simple. If a poisoned mouse is eaten by a hangar pet, aka the hangar Cat. That Cat will also die. My favorite is the black goo sticky traps, they seem to be the most effective. Cheers from Winnipeg.

[@bjs2022]

If you were a mouse you’d be proud to make a Best Tug your home.

[@jetblastjim]

RV Tip: Irish Spring soap deters mice and other rodents

[@Kenriko]

Oh Jimmy's World must have visited that field.. Mighty Mouse strikes again.

[@russellsmith3825]

Lol

[@Jim_Austin]

Good advice! Thanks for sharing.

[@russellsmith3825]

It doesn't take much of a gap for mice to exploit, they really like a 3/4" opening, just big enough for them to crawl through, but not big enough for a predator to get through.

[@Theineluctable_SOME_CANT]

Reminds me of my previous life as a bench tech for office equipment. A printer had come in. Dead. Smelt funky. Inside the power supply section a dead mouse, it's tiny claw still clutching LINE (240Vac), had become barbequed inside. The smell was RANK!

[@johnrisher3007]

Sounds like a great reason for a very in depth inspection

[@wadesaxton6079]

They make rat/mice barriers to put around your gear when parked. A G550 in Singapore had rats get into the wing root and chew through a wiring harness. It took techs 3 weeks to splice everything and get a ferry permit to move it back to the factory to replace the harness. Multiple system anomalies on the flight back to the factory. Wing had to come off to replace the harness.

[@fourfortyroadrunner6701]

As a long ago former HVAC/R tech, and THEN a radio/ telco / 911 installer for Motorola shop for awhile, I know all about mice, insects etc "in stuff." Up here were were concerned about the "huntavirus" for awhile. One little old dingy bar I worked on had a condensing unit down low, slid in/ out of a door on the side of a cabinet. Dead mice. They were nesting up near the condenser fan, warm, and when the fan would start it would knock one or two in the head. Finally jammed the fan and would not cool.

[@somedumbozzie1539]

In 82 Brisbane airport was locked down after a rat got off a flight from a country with Bubonic, a biosecurity squad set mouse traps around the building perimeter, it worked.

[@brandonsuarez8283]

Wow. Great video. Btw I like those chairs. They're not cheap. I happen to know something about em. I sale them. Haha. I'm jus up the road from y'all Mark

[@ronniescopeline7486]

The one night I left my Maui Jim's in my glovebox, the mice nibbled on them. Yes, rodents have expensive taste.....

[@mikejohnson4617]

mice like my outdoor A/C compressor and top of warm car engine (happened a few times). On A/C unit I plugged as many holes as I could in electrical box and covered most of the wires with plastic corrugated split conduit.

[@kevinphillips9408]

Really good advice

[@lucassmit5510]

I had this happen twice on my BMW. First time I was on a holiday and when I came back two weeks later the mice had chewed through all of the engine wiring harness. Caused thousands of dollars of damage. Second time I caught it relatively quickly and they "only" chewed through some of the parking sensor wires. Apparently BMW uses some bio material for the wire insulation and rodents love that. I bought a couple of ultrasound rodent deterrent devices from Amazon and placed them under the hood. It seems to work so far. I also check regularly under the hood now. Expensive and inconvenient on a car but would be disastrous on an aircraft! Perhaps the ultrasound devices are an option inside the tugs as well!

[@brentsrx7]

Mark! More uploads, please! Can we see some in-depth engineering tech? What cool features are you including in your newest tugs? How about some cool engineering insight into your quality control standards and crimp connector QC process for example? Thanks again!

[@valuedhumanoid6574]

Not just airplanes and tugs. ANY machine is fair game. I have had them in lawn mowers, trucks, cars, RV's, motorcycles, side-by-sides, etc. If it's got wiring, it's got insulation and that's what they're after. They make their nest from the insulation. Lots of preventative measures to keep them out. But just knowing they done damage is the key. Like Mark said, check your stuff.

[@jhill4071]

The mice love to nest in cars. One favorite place is a nest next to the cabin filter. So the cabin filter is most often found at via a filter door at the back of the glove box. Pull out the filter and take a good look.

[@Sylvan_dB]

5 gallon bucket, 6in or so water in the bottom. Coke or beer can with a wire length-wise thru it, so the can will spin on the wire. Spread peanut button on the center of the can. Position wire bridging top of bucket with can centered. Put bucket assembly somewhere mice can crawl out the wire to the can. Can spins, dropping mouse into water. Does not need reset to catch the next mouse.

[@nemo227]

Inspections. Inspections. Inspections. Inspections. Inspections are just as important as check lists. One year I discovered a rat nest under the hood of our Volvo. The critter had helped itself to a bunch of insulation. I immediately bought traps. We got the rat and that season I trapped 27 rats. That was years ago but I plan to set more traps this week.

[@tropicthndr]

How many guys have their movie and “”snack”” mancave set up in their hangar, then they go out and fly their kids in a single engine acft with wires all chewed up and no second power plant to bring them home. Idiots are everywhere.

[@sparksandchips]

I can relate to that, our hangar is in the country and one cold December morning I took off in my 172. As I climbed out I pulled some cabin heat and peanut shells and dust filled the cabin..... I leveled off at 3k and circled waiting for a fore to develop. Returned and cleaned out a pile of peanut debris from heating system. Then soon after my alternator quit charging and was same reason......

[@sparksandchips]

Fire not fore!!! LOL

[@chadpm11]

lol should see some of the equipment and trucks we work on, i do allison transmission work and much of the oem chassis bulders wiring in newer units contains some soy or peanut based oils that the rats and other animals love to eat, worse ones are motor homes and tour busses.

[@golfbravowhiskey8669]

Ha ha. Hey mark my tug went from working to not working and making squeaking sounds 😀😀. My feed sheds have those plug in audible squealers. Ain’t seen a rat or a coon in years.

[@michaeltaylor1603]

This is "Y" I "HATE" squirrels! I have Uverse destroyed twice like that. They also play havoc with boats/ RV 's. Ants like motors.

[@SpyGeorgilis]

Even seen a fighter jet in a hangar with weird, shiny/polished stainless "boots" around its landing gear? 😉

[@mikercflyer7383]

I have been watching Jimmy’s World and you expect this from airplanes that haven’t been flown for years but it is amazing birds nests and mice wow. I was a machinist and it happened to one of our CNC lathes they got into the control panel and chewed some wires. Crafty little devils.

[@Chris_A_]

When Mark's away, the mice will play

[@chuck5764]

As a AC mechanic for many years rodents on planes is a real big issue. They have task cards for rodent inspections. It's a perfect environment for them. Food caterers bring the rodents in and then the people spill food for them to eat. The insulation in the sidewalls make a perfect nesting location. It's a never ending battle.

[@thomasbordelon4149]

As an appliance repairman I routinely saw the havoc mice and rats could do to electrical components. Don’t be fooled a sizable mouse/rat can bite clean through a 10 gauge wire in one bite and leave it not just peeled but chopped into many short pieces of wires. I hear something in the field of extremely low voltages mimicking ‘water is there’ to the mice so they cut into the wire looking for it.

[@thompsonjerry3412]

Sticky pads everywhere!

[@allenpeachy3987]

Hey Mark. How about adding a packet of mouse treats inside each tug to reward the the ones that move in. 😊 Great video.

[@ushouldntjudgeme3683]

Why not just add a chute into the tug frame big enough for a chunk bait to drop into every so often. It would be enclosed there to prevent pets from finding the bait and getting sick.

[@Gordies]

I parked a very nice car of mine at a mate's place, in the country here Downunder. In 6 months, mice ate ALL the wiring under the bonnet (hood). Cost a FORTUNE to replace.. (retired Aussie Air Force Captain)

[@robwalker915]

Mice like to chew wires because glycols are used in the manufacturing of the wire casings. The glycol is sweet and that’s why mice and other animals I’ll plastic wire covering, tubing, etc.... .

[@Chanselor]

Moth balls in cheese cloth! Smelly but it does the trick!

[@chrishowell9499]

Best mouse trap ever.. get a 5 gallon bucked rig up a wire across the diameter.. in the center of the wire a tin can coated with peanut butter fill the bucket half full with water.. catches multiple at a time check it daily....

[@skylane1829]

Get the Kitty Patrol…….

[@craigdowden4788]

Watching this I kept expecting to see smoke as your cloths began to set on fire!!!!

[@PeaceMarauder]

Ya need one of those live bucket traps. Best bet is to have a shelter or humane society type person live there with a ton of cats. My cats got 150 chipmunks in 3 months when I moved here and hunted out the 2 acres in 6 months. Now they've hunted out about 4 acres but it's half wooded so still chipmunks and a few mice, tons of squirrels and some rabbits... raccoons, possum, armadillo, snakes :P

[@daffodil71]

When we started putting scented dryer sheets in all the storage compartments in our camp trailer we quit getting mice in the trailer.

[@ianwilson8675]

I used to tie down outdoors, went flying and the radio failed, subsequently found an ant nest in the radio, hadn’t been previous signs of infestation. In another plane I went to fly, ‘airspeed not alive’!!! I had not put pitot cover on the previous day (only time)… paper wasp was the culprit, my clumsiness resulted in new airspeed instrument requirement

[@bernardc2553]

Eyes hate Mec's to pieces!

[@PacificAirwave144]

A couple days ago I was getting the trailer wiring out of the back of the car after a year and found the entire spare tire had been turned into mouse habitat. Where they collected all the fluff from I don't know yet... :-/ Stray cats kept hungry can help. A S'load of cool mouse-traps on the market but I'm now waiting for the Mark Patey-approved 'slams so fast you won't even hear their last squeak' aero-space-designed... ' 'Best-Snuffs'...the future of mouse abatement. :-)

[@bigtex879]

I wondered why automakers don’t use capsaicin wires, now even more so planes! I believe Honda may have dabbled, and there’s aftermarket products with the spicy additive. Supposedly it’s quite effective

[@arkpu]

Time to get your tugs mice proof 😅

[@SemperCrayon]

Tip of the day.... 1 part Jiffey brand honey corn bread mix, 1 part baking soda. Mix thoroughly, leave it dry and place about 3 or 4 tablespoons in a small tupperware container with a lid. Cut a hole in the side and place wherever you have a mouse or rat problem. 🐀 they love the food, but when it reaches the acid in their tummy they have no way to release the gas build up and die.

[@patrickroher4760]

Thanks for the tip. BTW, don't tell him, but you're way better looking than your brother. 😆

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Amazing....Thanks Mark....Shoe🇺🇸

[@circuitmonkey6653]

Wait, you just found a bunch of mice...... what's in the fire, Mike? WHAT DID YOU DO?

[@rustyclam238]

Cats are not new to controlling mice 🐁 The Vikings used them nearly 1000 years ago to protect their stores. The Norwegian forest cat is a rare breed of cat that didn’t exist in the United States. Was brought here by the Vikings.

[@Maverick648]

Try either Tomcat poison blocks (avaialable in 4lb buckets) or RinneTraps (check them out on Shawn Woods yt channel). Both are available on amazon or agricultural stores like Atwoods. Both are repeatable and much more effective than snap traps and glue traps. You can also set up game cameras to monitor their activity levels -- compare how many pictures it took per day.

[@texasrednspeck]

Great community service.

[@57eleven1]

Wow! I’ll be at my hangar in the morning looking for evidence and setup traps just in case. Thx

[@tomcoryell]

I’ve seen that one many times as a tech in the computer industry. They will chew right through the insulation. Also, be careful of Hantavirus if you live out west. Thanks Mark! Also, they can build nests in the cooling fins of air cooled engines beneath the cowling where you can’t see it. That an be catastrophic to your engine. I’ve had them in the cabin filter of a vehicle that sat dormant all winter. Check and change the cabin filter of your vehicle.

[@00bean00]

Time to invite Shawn Woods to the channel for a PSA

[@frank7911]

simply amazing.

[@geoffmolyneux9173]

Your brakes should be always applied. Power to release them.

[@jonkeau5155]

That would be a bad idea, if the power cuts while an airplane is connected and it’s moving it would likely damage the landing gear. These tugs actually use software to adjust their braking rate based off the plane you’re moving (every plane model has different weights but also the landing gear is rated for different amounts of lateral forces).

[@brianyoung9014]

Mark, Honda motor co makes and sells electrical tape for wrapping wiring that rodents wont touch.

[@ericwilner1403]

In the rather short time since moving from suburbs to countryside, I've had my car disabled twice by the murine menace. One time it was a wiring harness; the other it was a fuel line. If your apparatus contains any sort of soft tubing, not covered with steel (or otherwise nibble-proof) armor, that's a potential vulnerability. Traps, poison, habitat reduction, and predators are all helpful. (If using both poison and predators, take care when choosing your poison. Last batch I bought was cholecalciferol-based: basically an overdose, for a rodent, of vitamin D3, but not an overdose for a larger critter that might come along and eat the rodent.)

[@2Phast4Rocket]

It's time to shop for mouse traps

[@tykusheaton]

On the farm they have ate entire wiring harnesses on tractors costing us thousands. I’ve heard there is a spray that is like a repellent to rodents. But I haven’t tried it yet.

[@destroytheilluminati770]

yep, powersports mechanic here, mice/rats are a major source of headaches for owners of their toys, they can do some pretty serious/costly damage.

[@nwanchorcertification]

Mr patey It’s my understanding they like the cover on certain types of wire I believe it has something to do with insulation covering and soy

[@ianwalton284]

And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the Earth , to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the BEAST OF THE EARTH.

[@aggiewoodie]

I think it was Toyota I read is using a new insulation on their wiring that’s infused with capsaicin- super spicy. Overall, this has gotten to be a bigger issue since more manufacturers started using soy based rather than plastic insulation.

[@eh42]

re: Tug brakes. Why not fail safe a mechanical brake? Require power, etc to disengage. That way any electrical fault, rodent induced or otherwise, results in the tug being safe. One could add maybe a manual override release lever with big red 'last resort for emergency use only' stickers.

[@NSResponder]

Debugging I'm used to. De-mousing is a new one on me.

[@1rtk2]

The ultimate mouse trap consists of a 5 gallon bucket of water and a spinning type walk way across the top. Bait the walk way with peanut butter. The next day you will have a bucket of drowned mice.

[@rondockweiler2663]

48 % flour, 48% baking soda, and approx 4% powders sugar. Told the little critters can't burp and they bloat up and go to mouse heaven. Changing out the 48% baking soda for plaster of paris is another mix. Both have worked for us. Good luck.

[@joeburns4294]

Before we go nuts extolling the virtues of cats, we found out the hard way they sometimes chew wires too. My neighbor bought a new battery when his car wouldn’t start, only to discover it was a cat that chewed the wires. My other neighbor had to buy an expensive wire harness for his Beamer after the same thing. I found a baby cat crawled between my wheel spoke and found a non moving part to rest on. Didn’t find him until after about 50km. Here in the Philippines, it’s not the warm engine heat they’re looking for. Just a spot to avoid other ‘predators’. But, we have no mice in our hood, because of all the stray cats!

[@Milosz_Ostrow]

Mice are capable of having babies every 6-8 weeks. If you are concerned about mice getting into your electrical gear, remove all sources of food and water. I've lived in the same house since 1995, over a quarter of a century, and I have never had to deal with mice or rats, although I know of people in my neighborhood who complain of having the rodents in their houses while they put out seed for birds and peanuts for squirrels. The same goes for snacks in your office. I worked in a couple of Silicon Valley high-tech office buildings where I saw mice running across the office floor. They were there because workers had their private stashes of candy and peanuts in their desk drawers and filing cabinets.

[@helipilotuh1]

This is why you have a hanger cat.

[@waynep343]

Did you place Sticky traps inside the rugs too

[@pauljoseph8338]

Funny…I was taking apart panels on my John Deere tractor today to find out why two electrical switches were no longer functioning. Guess what…huge mouse nest and a bunch of chewed up wires. Will now have to replace the entire wiring harness. 🐁

[@toadelevator]

Ooooh! I Hates 'dem Meeses to PIECES!

[@Rick_Dunaway]

Had one make a home I’m the air box of my pickup. Found out one day sitting in the drive through at our bank and could smell the belt start to smoke. That joker got wrapped up and fouled out the a/c clutch/pulley. Big stain on the fan shroud and well you get the idea….

[@francisschweitzer8431]

We had Owls in our big hangars ( USAF KC-135 & B-52 compatible). Definitely keeps the rodent population at bay… the downside was Owl Pellets on the aircraft… NOTAM : OWLS EAT THE WHOLE MOUSE… AND … POOP OUT A SOMEWHAT WHOLE MOUSE )

[@darrylb2052]

Just had an idea for an upgrade . Put a serious capacitor wired to a grid on the inside bottom of the tug, won't draw any energy till they step on it and they won't be thinking of chewing anything LOL.

[@ianchandley]

We lost an expensive washing machine because of those little buggers! They got into the electronic control panel (chewed through the hard plastic cover) and had a field day with all the electric wires…..

[@edspencer7121]

I drive the same car every day and mice ate trying to make a home if it! I've witnessed a mouse climbing up wall studs and plywood before. And they can jump several times their body length.

[@ajdogcurr1]

I found mice nest in both wings right next to the fuel tanks in the RV9A 9 I’m in the process of building. The rodents built nest over night. Had to use my shop vac to suck it all out.

[@stumblefish360]

I would suggest sticky traps surrounding each tire of the plane. Unless they drop in from above they can't get into your plane like that.

[@richardcranium5839]

rodent force special ops have been known for HALO insertions for quite some time. there's a whole species thats been adapted for this.