Foxes eating Soy based cables

Oscar_Madison

Latest article in Indo highlights many cars in one estate impacted - a quick google shows a lot of coverage in UK on this issue.

Will this problem only grow over time I wonder? I don’t know enough about what cars are impacted hence the post here now

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/residents-of-south-dublin-estate-baffled-as-over-40-cars-have-brakes-damaged-in-night-time-attacks/a259053146.html

SuperBowserWorld

Revenge for all the foxes killed by cars ?

😁

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123995086#Comment_123995086

it’s certainly a cold dish served up by these car owners 😀

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123995104#Comment_123995104

I should not joke - It's not funny if your car has been damaged. And also dangerous if your brakes fail (etc) while driving.

I can't read the Irish Independent article. It would be obvious the tell the difference from an animal chewing something vs human intentional damage.

Seems strange though it's only one estate here considering foxes are everywhere.

Maybe they are just getting the taste for it now? Probably takes a while to catch on. Also, if they like it, rats etc will too. They'll have to mix something in the makeup for the cables to make them abhorrent to foxes/rodents...

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123995117#Comment_123995117

Well I’m joking today too but totally realise the seriousness of it - apparently there are foxes living nearby this estate - and it’s a learned behaviour so if the entire fox family develop a taste in this estate, the problem will only spread over time as the family expand and travel to set up new dens and families -

It’s the ABS cable apparently

“At first there were fears in Marsham Court, a small, 1970s estate of 120 houses near Stillorgan, that they were being targeted by vandals. But now the night-time attacks are being blamed on foxes.After a recent AGM of residents, the question of why this small estate is suffering, while nearby housing estates have no such problem, remains a mystery.“If it is foxes, why haven’t adjoining estates been affected?” one resident wanted to know. “There is nothing but a large area of green separating us, so why have we been targeted?“It isn’t just the financial burden, but it is waking up in the morning wondering if you will be able to drive your car,” says Ray Ward, whose car has been damaged twice.“I wrap my car in chicken wire at night because I need it for work. Some people are parking as far away as the Beacon, in Sandyford, because they are so afraid of having their cars damaged.”Postal worker Garret O’Connor wraps his car in garden mesh every night. “I go to work shortly after 5am and it takes ages to get ready before I can leave the estate. But what else can I do?” he said.The attacks began last August. At first many local people were afraid to highlight it because they thought it might give their estate a bad name.Marsham Court, which is just off the Upper Kilmacud Road, is a quiet area of neat houses, with well-tended lawns and a mature population.“The gardaí have been informed,” one local told me shortly after the incidents began. “But we still don’t know whether this is someone out to get us, or it’s animals like foxes or rats.”But as time passed and the damage continued, the consensus now is that foxes are the problem.“

“When homeowners come out in the morning and get into their cars a warning light often tells them they have a problem with their ABS cable.An ABS cable is an anti-lock brake system that reduces stopping distances during panic situations, particularly on wet and slippery roads. It helps drivers maintain control and avoid crashes.The cable is the only part of a modern car’s wiring system that is not enclosed, and is therefore vulnerable.Most of the residents of Marsham Court didn’t know what an ABS cable was until they found theirs damaged.Depending on the make of the car, it can cost between €500 and €800 to have it repaired.“

Miscreant

This is not a new issue and has been happening for decades (albeit more with rodents, not foxes necessarily). It is nothing to do with "soy" or environmentally friendly insulation, for the most part. For rodents, they will gnaw and chew on anything they can find to keep their teeth trimmed (including rubber pipes and car interior fittings), not sure why foxes would all of a sudden be up to it.

As mentioned above, embedding some sort of chemical scent into cabling and piping might mitigate against this but it is certainly not a new phenomenon. What is strange is that it is only happening in this small area… must be a fox den very close to them and a lot of food available there to scavenge on as well as the cars. Surely someone would have got some video evidence of it by now to point at foxes though.

Interesting occurrence, nonetheless.

jumbone

Have seen this spray in lidl a few times.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CarTalkUK/comments/1m86quj

Had no idea what it was until I Google it and found the above link

GavPJ

NVD had a huge problem with this years ago in Baldonnell.

Loads of Citroen and Honda's had all the CV boots eaten by rats.

Whatever rubber they both used at the time was loved by the rats.

sligeach

I took a photo of this during the summer and made a joke here asking whether it would work on Micheál Martin.

Martens chewing through cables on cars is apparently a huge problem in Germany. Though the species of Marten responsible there is different from the Pine Marten we have here. I think Lidl were selling them off for a few Euro. I still see it some stores from time to time. It works on other rodents as well.

Whether it would work on foxes I don't know. But there is a product called Kunagone, which works on warding off martens, rats, badgers and foxes.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123995793#Comment_123995793

Given their superior noses, I wonder does that or the tasty temptation of soy or whatever the vegetable matter is in those cables that’s attracting them. win out.

CiboC

This is no joke, we have a Renault that has had to go into the garage twice to get cables replaced after being eaten by something, cost 1800 euro to get it sorted. First time was a cable for one of the sensors in the exhaust for emissions which threw up an check engine light, second time it was the cables for the adblu system which meant the thing wouldn't start!

This was parked on our driveway. We started parking it on the road and the problem was solved, it hasn't been eaten in the last year.

We have a gravel driveway but our neighbour has a very overgrown front garden so we reckon whatever it was is coming from there. On the road there is a wall between their garden and the path and that seems to be enough to stop it. The wierd thing is that it has only happened to this particular vehicle, other cars parked on the driveway in the same spot are perfectly fine.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124001259#Comment_124001259

Classic French cuisine- can’t beat it

CiboC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124001283#Comment_124001283

Whatever it is doesn't like Citroens though….!

Dirty Nails

Must be a small fox or brought its own trolley jack to get under a car. More Indo rubbish.

tabby aspreme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124002376#Comment_124002376

Foxes are not very big underneath all the fur, they would crawl under most cars, and this time of year the cubs that were born in March / April are hungry as the Vixen won't be feeding them any more and they would easily get under a car

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124001297#Comment_124001297

Well unless it’s something like a Citroen DS I wouldn’t blame them😀

sligeach

I think Liveline are discussing this issue now. They haven't named the culprit yet.

Yep. Foxes.

Hellrazer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123995418#Comment_123995418

Was just about to post this exact thing - its not foxes eating the wires - its rats and mice.

We even found nests in cars left for a couple of weeks - 100% not foxes.

We used to get cars in from NVD with all the ABS wires eaten before the customer even collected their new car and then there would be a rats nest under the bonnet.

But the poor foxes are being blamed - Somethings a bit fishy especially with a new bill upcoming in December trying to ban fox hunting.

Fake news if you ask me - but then again the D4 horsey crowd are probably the ones out on hunts at the weekends!!!

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/1121/1545207-fox-cars-dublin/

Biodiversity Officer at Trinity College Dublin Collie Ennis said foxes, rodents or pine martens could be the cause of the damage.

Locals said residents of Marsham Court in Stillorgan are now resorting to parking in the homes of friends and families or paying for local private car parks to protect their cars overnight.

NIMAN

Heard it discussed on radio the other day, and a guy who offers warranty on 2nd hand cars was saying its more common than people would think it is.

He said they had one case of a top end vehicle which has 20k of damage done.

Banjo Carney

As a matter of interest would your insurance policy cover this kind of event ?

Charles Babbage

Are there any ultrasonic gadgets or the like to persuade aforesaid rodent to move on to the next car?

Thargor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124007321#Comment_124007321

Was just going to say that, maybe not ultrasonic because the jury is out on whether any of those actually work but what about the motion sensor alarm type ones? None of these people in this estate thought of that and they just let their cars get written off or park them in Sandyford instead? They sell them in Lidl/Amazon/Aliexpress… Same for Ring cameras to catch the culprit. This is an easily solvable issue.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124007490#Comment_124007490

Putting a higher voltage on one of the wires would dissuade the critters, electric fence type gadget.

elperello

Strange story.

I saw it on the RTE News this evening.

Any chance it's rats or mice eating the cables and the foxes are trying to catch the rats or mice ?

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124007531#Comment_124007531

considering 40 cars have been impacted you’d think at least one dash cam camera or whatever would have been deployed to actually capture what critter is involved - rats, mice etc are all “suspects” - droppings alone could rule critters in/out - there’s something odd about this story - very odd

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124007570#Comment_124007570

There are multiple items online about rodents eating car cabling but only a few citing foxes.

It just occurred to me that the rodents have to come out of cover and cross tarmac or concrete to get to the cars.

As both the foxes and rodents are foraging at night the foxes might be finding a new source of prey.

Droppings and teeth marks would be useful indicators.

OneEightSeven

Do dashcams still work when the car is switched off? Many people have IP cameras and Ring doorbells installed on their homes. Very easy to install. A fox moved into my estate about two years ago and I've seen him on my camera running past my driveway in the middle of the night on 3 different occasions.

blackbox

They should encourage the foxes to eat the rats.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124007731#Comment_124007731

And then release bears to eat the foxes.

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124007495#Comment_124007495

There actually is a device like this designed to protect combines which are vulnerable to this kind of attack for obvious reasons.
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/a-shocking-way-of-keeping-rodents-and-rats-at-bay/

I agree with hellrazer. Very very much doubt it’s foxes.