Do rats eat cars?
Posted on 15th February 2025 at 10:54
Do rats eat cars? Yes they do!
If you asked the question, what do rats eat? Most people would say that they’re scavengers and that they’ll eat just about anything that they come across, and that is the correct answer, but how many people would realise that in that statement, they’re precious car is included on the menu?
Yes, rats eat cars but why? Surely cars are made of metal, rubber and plastic so how can any of that be edible? Much of the plastic in our cars; from the coating of electrical wires, the interior plastic trim and components that hold everything together are made up of what we, as humans would call food.
Bioplastics are now in common use by the automotive industry but what are bioplastics? Food production companies like Heinz have got a lot of waste material to get rid off and that costs them a lot of money, the waste pile from producing just tomato ketchup alone is around 200 million tonnes and disposing of this is a big problem.
So what does big business do when faced with loosing money? They research a way round the problem and turn a negative into a positive and that unfortunately for us, is bioplastics. Waste tomato skins, the plant stalks, corn husks, soya bean shells and loads of other goodies are now being reformed into something useful but also edible and rats are lovin’ it.
Back in 2014 the Ford Motor Company were so excited about the prospect of turning food waste into car parts they produced a press release which you can read on the link. I doubt Ford would be happy to know that the owners of new transit vans are having their vehicles savaged by rats and you can see the pile of debris that we picked up off a driveway after a midnight feast by a hungry rodent.
And don’t think that this is going to be the end of the issue, there is an entire industry dedicated to developing bioplastics and they have the best of intentions because it makes absolute sense to turn waste into something useful, however their problem has become our problem, and for every problem there must be a solution.
What can I do to protect my car from rodents?
If rats are going to start eating our cars and vans you can bet that this problem will become more of an issue as they learn this behaviour and pass it on to others, after all as scavengers this is just another, previously untapped source of food.
These days, not many garages fit the cars that they’re supposed to house, vehicles have become much larger over previous years and garages are more often than not, converted for additional living space, but if you’re lucky enough to have one that fits the car, then park it inside.
Just because the cars safely inside the garage, it doesn’t mean that’s it now safe from rodent attack because many garages have an ‘up and over’ door.
These doors often have a gap at the bottom and if its big enough, mice and rats will simply squeeze underneath.
If this is the case and you want to secure this threshold then get your hands on a length of decking; this material is treated to preserve it from rot and it’s a simply job of butting the board up against the inside edge and fixing it to the concrete floor of the garage. For around £20 you can now make the garage secure and save yourself potentially thousands of pounds in repair costs.
A lot of small new build estates have sections of covered parking bays a bit like an open fronted barn and as its not practical to try and secure one section when the others would be left open.
If you have the money, for around £1500 you can purchase a device called the Rat Mat. This is like an electrified metal walkway that surrounds the car, you drive over it and park up and then switch it on and any animals that touch it will get a small shock which deters them from crossing the grid, so its safe for the neighbour’s cat.
When you just don’t have either the option to park a car inside or the funds to go for the Rat Mat, a cheap and proven alternative is an anti-rodent aerosol spray from Lodi, they supply me with many of the chemicals I use and so I’ve no doubt that this works very well.
It’s that simple, you just spray all of the cables and mounts on the vehicle and at under £40 for a tin, it’s an affordable way to protect your vehicle, although you will need to respray these areas from time to time.
I am getting a lot of calls for rats and mice in cars and its something that we in the pest control industry will see rising as a trend, there are ways to protect your vehicle and these are all within various budgets so take preventative action rather than wait for it to happen because it won’t be the manufacturers problem, but its certainly going to be yours.
Tagged as: rats
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