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.

Comments

one word

[geoskd]

Honda has already manufactured a special wire-wrapping tape

This is simple: Poison

Just like pressure treated lumber, add arsenic to the insulation in relatively small quantities. Just enough to kill anything that eats this as a primary diet, but not enough to prevent biodegrading. Quickly enough critters will develop a strong distaste for the stuff.

Put denatonium benzoate on the wires.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hehhehe.

Soviet Field Mice Attack German Tanks

[Anonymous Coward]

Soviet Field Mice Attack German Tanks

From 'Enemy At The Gates' by William Craig:

"Finally the German High Command made a move to cover its (6th Army's) flanks. The 48th Panzer Corps, stationed more than 50 miles southwest of the ominous Russian bridgeheads at Kletskaya and Serafimovich on the Don, received priority orders to move up to the threatened sector.

Led by Lt. Gen. Ferdinand Heim, a close friend and former aide to Paulus, the 48th clanked onto the roads and headed northeast. But only a few miles after starting out, the column ground to a halt when several tanks caught fire. In others, motors kept misfiring and finally refused to run at all. Harried mechanics swarmed over the machines and quickly found the answer. During the weeks of inactivity behind the lines, field mice had nested inside the vehicles and eaten away the insulation covering the electrical systems. Days behind schedule, the 48th Corps finally limped into its new quarters. It was almost totally crippled. Out of one hundred four tanks in the 22nd Panzer Division, only 42 were ready for combat."

Re:Biodegradable wires? WTF?

[Cinnamon Beige]

Cars are some of the most heavily recycled things on this planet--they certainly don't end up in landfills under normal circumstances, and I'd generally expect any dumped in a landfill to have bonus corpses. The value of a dead car is not insignificant. A car sold to a scrap yard--which can net you a decent sum--will be broken down with the salvageable parts sold and the metal that's left is melted down for reuse. All of this is better for the environment than a new car made from 'virgin' materials--a good chunk of the nastiest parts of the ecological impact is from getting those raw materials.

So you don't actually want biodegradable insulation on those wires anywhere near as much as you want insulation that will last a good ~25 years at minimum and burn off as cleanly as possible when it's time to recycle the metal in the wires.