Damage under the bonnet of a car in Wellington caused by rats. Photo: Supplied
Mechanics are reporting a spike in rats chewing through the electronics of cars.
The Motor Trade Association said there's been an increase throughout this year, but it's been particularly pronounced in winter.
Association spokesperson, Glen McGarry, told Midday Report that rats and mice see vehicles as a warm, dry place to nest and that they enjoy eating anything plastic or rubbery.
"The vermin are very cunning. the places that I've seen rats and mice damage cars, to this day, I sort of don't know how they've got in there. They can get into the small sort of old places, and start doing damage," he said.
"So, in an engine bay, the whole underneath of your engine is exposed to the ground so they can climb up the tire ... and then find their way easily into your engine bay.
"If they get into the engine bay, they can start chewing on wires and, predominantly, all your power starts within your engine bay and then gets transferred through to your car."
Depending on which they start having a chomp on is going to depict how much damage they can do, he said.
Some insurers are also reporting an increase in damage claims resulting from rodents.
McGarry said he's even seen mice nesting in air conditioning systems.
"If you're parking in an environment with lots of cars and there's rubbish bins, make sure wherever you're parking, as clean as possible," he said.
"I would say that they are probably first inclined to come to a vehicle for the warmth of it. As they smell food or anything like that, then they'll start coming in. They want to nest somewhere dark, dry, and warm.
"That's why I've seen mice nesting within air conditioning systems. I've talked to some other technicians this morning, and they've actually seen them nesting inside the engine air boxes."
He said a vehicle presented at their dealership wasn't blowing any air through its conditioning system, and it wasn't until they pulled out the cabin filter they realised it had been munched on and been turned into a nest.
"As soon as they actually pulled the cap off to where the filter was, they could smell the what the mice had been doing, and there was a dead little mouse in there as well," he said.
McGarry said car features such as its Bluetooth, radio or electric windows could stop working as a result of a rat chewing through the wiring.
But he said rats can cause far greater issues.
"They can do a lot more damage than that. Anything plastic or rubbery is what they seem to enjoy eating," he said.
"Some of our colleagues have had instances where they've gone out to the vehicles and they've found pools of fuel under the car because the rats have actually eaten their diesel fuel lines at the fuel pump."
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