By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
I wonder if the foxes are vegan?
Eco-friendly brake cables are being eaten by foxes, after manufacturers switched from petroleum-based insulation to soy, forcing owners to wrap their cars in tarpaulins.
Recent photos show multiple cars covered in blue plastic for protection after a spate of attacks in Worthing, West Sussex, with locals claiming at least 20 vehicles were targeted by foxes.
Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy, said the animals may be attracted to the soy-based insulation on brake wires.
Since 2000, peanut and soy-based oils and waxes have been used on car parts including gearbox insulation, primer bulbs and diesel injector wires, instead of petroleum-based coverings.
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This is hysterical.
The rats here in rural Texas can do a ‘number’ on a wiring harness on a car too, of conventional wire (PVC jacket) at that …
Yeah I’d put even money on it being Rats rather than Foxes with the Foxes going after the Rats instead
Northern Nevada, too. Some rural folks leave their hoods open because they believe the light deters the rats. Makes the driveway look pretty trashy. Of course, nothing says home like a house surrounded by Rat Zappers.
I keep mine in the garage – and keep it well sealed. (Mice get in, but their first stop seems to be the Rat Zapper.)
Agreed. This article makes little sense. First, brake cables are mechanical with a solid wire shrouded by a spiral wound metal case so that the wire slides to engage/disengage a brake mechanism. A vegetable based wrap wouldn’t work. They’re obviously talking about electrical insulation. I doubt that foxes would find soy based insulation attractive but they’d certainly go after rodents munching on it. Mice, rats, squirrels all are know to regularly chew up electrical wire insulation – even plastic types. I’ve had such damage on all kinds of equipment in spite of regular use of bates and traps. (Hint: stuffing a laundry dryer sheet in wiring compartments seems to repel mice.)
Porcupines in Ontario find rubber tubing on equipment radiators tasty, possibly the sweet taste of ethelineglycol coolant
Let them have their revenge, after thousands of them get killed by cars every year.
Heh. Droll. But sort of a Wile E. Coyote scheme if the cunning foxes get run over because the humans can’t use the brakes. Unintentionally outfoxed.
What do they say about, “The best laid plans of mice and men”?
We must figure out how to outfox them!
or ‘the best laid plans of mice and Alarmists’….
Yet another unwise use of food for fuelish reasons
They say, “Gang aft agley.”
This is news?
I’ve had two vehicles severely nibbled by rabbits. I learned to tell the insurance company it was “squirrels” that done it, as they just wouldn’t accept the rabbit. We don’t have squirrels, but plenty of rabbits.
I acquired a fine English made pellet rifle and took care of the cause. The ravens enjoyed it.
Ravens are pretty intelligent. However, they have not worked out the negative connection between their benefiting from my rabbit campaign and them pooping on my cars
Living next to Tooting common we’ve got an arranged with the local foxes and vixens. We give them unwanted leftovers etc and they leave the dustbins alone.
It works.
Here, across the pond, the terms “foxes” and “vixens” often have a different meaning than the one I believe you intend.
However, considering your use of “dustbins” and leaving them alone, maybe not.
What was that Mark Twain said about the English and the Americans?
“Two peoples separated by a common language.”
Foxes are small to medium-sized mammals
Vixen – a female fox
The US and treaties… a very chequered history
Definition of fox: “3: a good-looking young woman or man”
— https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fox
Defintiion of vixen: “3 informal: a sexually attractive woman”
— https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vixen
Yes, as noted by Kpar above, our common language sometimes separates us. 😉
Your language may be common, ours is refined.
Yes . . . and I take great pride in US English being “common”. As but one example currently being highlighted in our news, I could never imagine the British refined tongue using the word “twister” in place of “tornado”, although it is indeed so much more descriptive in context.
And as Rudyard Kipling—you know, that great British novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist—famously wrote:
” . . .
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
. . . you’ll be a Man, my son!”
(my bold emphasis added)
Isn’t “cheque” reserved for use to describe the payment authorizing slip, as used in the UK and Canada.
While “check” and “checkered” refers to the checkerboard pattern, as well as the payment slip in the US.
It’s funny that only now I just realized the connection between check, Chech Republic and their flag with that pattern.
A very dubious and unfaithful history
NB It’s Czech Republic
“Foxes are small to medium-sized mammals”
I dated one for a couple of years who was about 5′ 8 inches tall… tho’ she was a slim fox.
This is nothing new. For the last 10–15 years, automotive repair shop have reaped bundles—while car owners have spent tens (hundreds?) of millions USD—in the USA as a result of car manufacturers switching to electrical wiring that used soy-based insulation.
See https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a21933466/does-your-car-have-wiring-that-rodents-think-is-tasty/
I had to spend ~$800 for replacing a poorly-located engine knock sensor rendered inoperable because a squirrel (mechanic diagnosis) ate through its soy-based insulation, shorting it out, while the car was parked. My older brother had to pay ~$3,000 for new engine wiring harness replacements when rats got into the upper engine compartment while his car was parked continuously for several weeks . . . said wiring harnesses used soy-based insulation.
I would have thought by now that vehicle manufacturers would have voluntarily stopped use of soy-based insulation ANYWHERE on their vehicles . . . but guess I neglected how important it is to save a few bucks on each $30,000+ USD vehicle.
I doubt the conversion is being done because of cost.
Read the linked article . . . I personally believe that cost considerations overwhelm “environmental” considerations.
I am sure that it costs more than synthetic wire insulation and does not last as long. Your car is a harsh environment. Can you imagine what will happen if house wire is used with edible insulation?
Coming soon to a home fire near you.
See my comment above. I’ll try to see if I can find the particular Mercedes models having engine wiring disintegrate after only a decade or so.
<later> Apparently all Mercedes models produced between ’92 and ’97 had this type of wiring. 🙁
I spend $500 to $1,000 a year to replace the wiring in my Mini Cooper that the mice love to chew on. Pain in the A$$!
I have not tried any myself but there are chemical rodent repellents that, spayed at various points under the hood, or placed in sachet bags, are claimed to be quite effective.
If I had a car lift, then I could see where the wires are located and administer said product. I have installed an electronic device said to deter rodents. Doesn’t work at all. Have stuffed the car with mothballs, dryer sheets, mouse traps. doesn’t work at all.
What about a cat?
I don’t suppose Cougars are affected with the problem??
You need to use an adult cat. When I was a kid, a kitten crawled into the engine compartment of my father’s car to keep warm on a cold night, and met its demise when my father started the car the next morning.
I recall hearing about some Mercedes models from the mid-90s that had similar insulation. Not sure about issues with rodents getting at it, but in the high temps and rather caustic conditions often found in engine compartments, it deteriorated much faster than conventional insulation, often requiring the entire engine wiring harness to be replaced after only a decade or so. A cosmetically clean car could sometime require over $20k in repairs to make it road-worthy.
Critters including horses have been eating wiring and even vinyl tops for literally decades. I don’t think this is anything new. BTW, I love going through comments on WUWT. Always interesting and informative.
Never had any foxes bother any cars, trucks, tractors ect. My neighbor runs a sizeable band
of free range chickens and the fox love chicken, so now he has a guard dogs in his chicken pens.
The rodents are what damage wires/equipment on my place, packrats and chipmunk’s are the worst.
Traps and bait are my #1 solution.
On my last flight from Australia, wooden spoons, knives and forks were provided with the main meals. Other than the spoon, which worked, the knife did not work and the fork broke into a couple of pieces with splintered ends. Meanwhile, just about everything on the plane is plastic and just about every other thing provided to us was packaged in plastic to some extent.
Virtue signaling at its finest!
The next thing you can expect in food service — in order to save on flatware, soap and water — is to require diners to jam their snouts into a common trough, like swine, to gobble up food the best they can without utensils.
So, instead of Plastic Wire Insulation, the solution is Plastic Tarps?
I’m trying to picture how the tarp is going to cover the bottom of the car, where there is access to the engine.
I can’t believe my eyes….
When a civilization passes its peak, then loses its confidence, there are only a few more sorry stages of decline until you’re taping diapers to machines.
The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
In 2005 fox hunting was banned in the UK. Maybe it should be reinstated.
Maybe it should be reinstated with politician hunting…
I have long considered it desirable that people elected to public office should enjoy all the consequences of being designated “practicing politician within the meaning of the law” on New Texas. ( See “Lone Star Planet” by H. Beam Piper.) for hunting however, I advocate declaring open season on bureaucrats. No bag limit, license not required. 🙂 🙂
The radiator fans in my Mazda are made out of something like this. The chipmunks loved it. I opened the hood to see that 1/3 of the fan was chewed away.
This is just a NEW! IMPROVED! method of speeding up the recycling process. . . Manufacture machinery out of food, turn your back for a few hours and presto! Rodents have turned it back into raw materials.
Coating auto parts with food — who woulda thunk that could attract varmints?
Gee whiz! The Brits might have to trundle out those packs of hounds and toffs hunting from horses, to chase every fox over every hill and dale, into every car park and garage, until those furry troublemakers stop chomping insulation.
It’s probably mice, rats and other small rodents that are chewing the cars up, the foxes are likely just there to pounce on the rodents as they emerge from the guts of the car. Guilty by association, since they’re more easily spotted.
You can’t fix stupid, these people don’t deserve to have private transportation.
Shouldn’t the headline read ‘Global Boiling forces foxes to eat brake cables’?
Apparently red foxes are the most successful predators in the Northern Hemisphere. Their eyesight is four times better than a human with 20/20 vision. Their hearing and sense of smell is also far superior. They’re fast enough to hit 30 mph and can jump over 6-ft, barriers. Their coats are thick enough for them to sleep in the open even at temperatures lower than minus-40 C/F, and their brain power puts them in the class of the most intelligent mammals. Yet they won’t hesitate to consume anything that’s edible, and they were quick to recognize soy-based insulation as being in that category. So it’s a good thing that they haven’t developed a taste for rubber.
Hmmm … what happens when windmills and solar panels go to “peanut and soy-based oils and waxes” for insulation?