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Car Manufacturers Sued Over Rodents Eating Soy-Insulated Wires (hackaday.com)
An anonymous reader writes about "a little-known problem plaguing many newer vehicles from the likes of Honda, Toyota, and Kia."
The car makers used soy-insulated wiring to cut costs and "Go Green", but owners in rural areas are finding the local wildlife finds the wiring irresistible; thousands of dollars in damage has been done by rats and other critters eating wiring harnesses. Hackaday is asking their community to brainstorm solutions to this unique problem, as owners of affected vehicles have had to resort to sprinkling their driveway with coyote urine and putting rat traps on the wheels.
Hackaday reports that "It isn't just one or two cases either, it's enough of a problem that some car manufacturers are getting hit with class-action lawsuits." Back in 2010 Slashdot reported that rabbits had already discovered the joys of eating soy-insulated wires, and were turning the parking lot at the Denver International Airport into their own personal buffet.
There's even a web site called HowToPreventRatsFromEatingCarWires.com, which reports that Honda has already manufactured a special wire-wrapping tape that's infused with the active ingredient from chili peppers.
Hackaday reports that "It isn't just one or two cases either, it's enough of a problem that some car manufacturers are getting hit with class-action lawsuits." Back in 2010 Slashdot reported that rabbits had already discovered the joys of eating soy-insulated wires, and were turning the parking lot at the Denver International Airport into their own personal buffet.
There's even a web site called HowToPreventRatsFromEatingCarWires.com, which reports that Honda has already manufactured a special wire-wrapping tape that's infused with the active ingredient from chili peppers.
Its not just cars. I bought a battery charger/jump starter from Harbor Freight, which has much of its products made in China. After only one month, I went out to my tool shed to find it and, lo and behold, all the insulation on the wiring was stripped clean. I live in SE AZ, in the desert so we have lots of wild life, but it was done so fast, I figured it might be a whole family, but I set a trap using a coil of insulated wiring from Harbor Freight, and caught the lil fckr. He was fat a sassy, and over the next two days I found several power tools all stripped of insulation.
However, I have had a '86 Honda civic sitting in the car port that the wiring was untouched. So its obvious a recent thing
I live in surburbia, and this happened to me. Rodents ate the wiring in my Honda Odyssey a few of years ago.
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We used twine laced with arsenic when I installed wiring in tech control facilities. They don't get immune to it.
Why on earth would anybody want wires with biodegradable insulation? That makes zero sense.
Because things end up in landfills. Biodegradable doesn't mean in 5 years it will have rotted away. Biodegradable just means that it can be broken down naturally. Typical plastics can only be reduced in size to the point where they enter the food cycle. Bio-degradable plastics just mean they can be broken down by bacteria in certain conditions.
That last sentence is key. Biodegradable plastics don't actually start to break down unless they are carefully composted in the right conditions.
So to answer your question: Who wouldn't want biodegradable insulation. It makes zero sense not to use it for anything other than the sensor in your compost monitoring system.