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We had a load of outside mains lights installed last year, with thick rubber armoured cable which is fastened behind the fence panels and along top of a slabbed retaining wall, under the dense ground cover. We had the electrician back today as for a second time in six months the cable has been chewed through by some kind of small animal, tripping the RCD circuit in the house. He has put some plastic trunking over the section that seems to be the prime chew site, and I’m wondering what else I can do to not have another recurrence.
It would be difficult to trunk or wrap the entire cabling on the rear wall top, which is where it is getting damaged, as there are sections that lead off to wall lights etc, so wondering more about a paint on deterrent or similar.
We do have a dog, who can’t get up there, though he tries, and neighbours have cats so don’t want a poison.
Any ideas ?
Electrician hasn’t seen anything like it before and he does a lot of garden lights, and I do fully trust him (energy though he’s a triathlete and roadie 🤪)
Ive got plug in audible deterrents in the garage and shed, and not had an issue with rodents since installing them. So if you have an external watertight power point may be worth a punt? They dont appear to deter the cats which still think my garden is a thoroughfare, the nerf gun has deterred a few of these pesky feral bird killing thugs however.
I was looking at those, albeit battery ones, on Amazon, and was thinking if getting a couple
I've got some cable sheath things for my van, gave my sister a few to stop her rabbits eating her cables and it's worked with them.
Got a few offcuts you can have if near the Tweed Valley
I had this problem with my car ..used the chilli impregnated tape from Amazon
Andrew, thanks for offer, not to handy to get to you, you got a pic or a link of what they look like so I can buy some ?
Chilli tape - will go have a look at that, thanks
thinking about the chili tape, we use a fire gel to keep birds away, wonder if they would work on rodents? They make the bird think they can see fire or heat, so stay away - allegedly.
https://www.birdcontrol.uk.com/shop/product/bird-free-fire-gel/
Surprised the sparky has not seen it before.
I would use metal copex (has a black plastic coating), but you'd need to rewire it at the same time as it's not split.
We had various things chewed including lines on the whirly washing line twice when I've laid it down for stormy weather, and the cover for it, pretty sure it's foxes.
Lots of great ideas, thanks, have ordered some spray on rodent deterrent and a couple of rolls of rodent mesh, which I can put the exposed sections into, with a wraparound. May also get one of the battery powered audible deterrents (or pinch one from my neighbour…………. Oops, that was another thread 🤪)
How about setting up a trail camera and catching what is causing the damage
Costs £20 and then you will know what animal you are dealing with