Martens cost drivers millions.
Photo: ethan.gosnell2
The marten is an adorable animal that looks like a cross between a cat and a ferret, but its ability to trash your car is anything but cute. Found throughout Europe, Canada, and the northern United States, the marten has become infamous for its habit of attacking cables and tubing inside of vehicles. Don’t let your vehicle become one of its victims. Consider these strategies to protect your car.
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- Park your car inside a garage, where it’s more difficult for animals to access.
- If you feed animals outside, move the food source away from your car.
- Consider fitting your car cables with chew-proof corrugated jackets. Try out a sound-based marten repellant. These small plastic domes are easy to install, and they repel animals without resorting to poisonous bait or lethal traps. Plus, the repellant’s frequency is 22 kilohertz — above the range of human hearing — so you won’t have to deal with annoying noises while keeping your car safe.
- Some experts recommend sprinkling chili pepper flakes around your vehicle to deter animals, while others suggest hanging a mesh bag full of mothballs under the hood of your car, far away from the engine’s heat. Just keep the sachet away from the air intakes so you don’t get blasted with the smell of mothballs when you switch on the heat or AC.
- Avoid the use of poisons — they can be extremely dangerous for pets and children.
While many animals are drawn to the heat and shelter that cars offer, the marten’s aggressive, destructive behavior sets it apart from other wildlife. Marten attacks tend to leave telltale paw prints, fur tufts, triangular bite marks, and foul odors along with leaky hoses and severed wires. While the exact cause is unknown, the Belgian wildlife preservation organization Natuurpunt suggests that the rubber coating on car cables may smell like a marten’s scent mark. When martens encounter a rival’s scent marking, they’re inclined to destroy anything that bears the telltale skunk-like odor. Hence, martens mistakenly destroy rubber-coated cables, tubing, and hoses.
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In 2014, martens damaged over 216,000 cars in Germany alone, costing drivers over 64 million euros and causing over 11,192 breakdowns. In Belgium, martens cause 171,000 euros in damage to vehicles, inflicting more costs upon drivers than any other animal. In other words, they’re the real-life equivalent of mechanical gremlins.
Kimiko Kidd is a native Daytonian. She graduated from Wright State University with degrees in environmental science and sociology. She loves her trusty old Honda Civic, but dreams of owning a 1974 Ford Falcon XB with a custom paint job and a vintage Kawasaki Z1000. In her free time, Kimiko can be found watercolor-painting, baking muffins, collecting rocks, playing old-school Nintendo games, writing her novel, sewing stuffed animals, and cosplaying as her favorite Mad Max characters. See more articles by Kimiko.
