I have a friend who works in breakdown / recovery (like TCS etc).
He tells me that the martens are attracted by the smell of the warm rubber, especially (but not only) on American cars and GM models, including Opels.
Sure enough, my Chrysler was chomped twice by these little bu99ers! It looked like someone had cut the cables with a razor.
He also advised me to put split flex tubing around the cables which did the trick, I had no further issues afterwards.
Also, I have seen some add ons with electrical pads, again has any one done it themselves?
I was quoted 600 bucks to fit it, more ouchy than the marter...
So ya, we'll see customers with the beeping/hi-freq generators, shock cables (kinda like horse electric fence zappy pulse) with an independent spark cable, stink/musky sprays, dryer sheets stuffed in corners. One guy made an actual wire mesh shield around a set of vacuum hoses that were eaten 3 times and MFK made him take it out (oh no, not original equipment!).
Using a combination of the above should help mitigate these pests. The seem to be drawn to things that are in their crawling way. One thing I do sometimes is take extra heater hose, slit it lengthwise, then cover problem/susceptible hoses/cables. Kind of acts like a rubber barrier. It's always a crapshoot, sometimes the come back, many times not.
Good luck!
Heard some rustling last night and though aye, I found the bugger… but false alarm, this one was only after my slugs.
Meanwhile, thinking the random garage quote was excessive, I decided to ask my local dealer how much - 850 stutz - now thinking Marter Mafia is Real.
I share a fantastic insight into the problem from 2016 Germany, talking about how they were nearly extinct not so long ago… because of the fur trade, but now they have spread and we are all doomed
I am just going to have to wait out the mating season…
I just checked and our local garage charges 70chf for the device and fitting.
I think that garage is taking the piss.
So when I picked up the car I asked to see the chewed bit, as I was curious what it looked like. "Oh! it's been thrown out" I was told. I told them I would pay as soon as I saw the evidence. Never heard from them again, and I never went back to them again.
After expensive garage repairs for rewiring, both the mechanic and several of our Swiss neighbours told us to soak a rag in petrol, dry it out, and let it sit in a cavity within the engine bay. Also, one of my neighbours walks his dog around our car and has the doggy sit in the car every couple of months - he swears that martens don't like the smell of canines, and who am I to argue with him. Voila, no more martens this last 3 years for the Landcruiser.
However an inspection of our barbecue this weekend showed that the buggers were at work again - they've eaten through the wiring that fires the gas starter! Sigh. Another thing to add to a very long "jobs to be done" list.