There are a few tell tale signs such as scat deposits.
I have been told they dislike dog hair, but other tips would be very welcomed.
Does anyone have any tips on how to ward off pine martens from enjoying eating brake pipes. We have recently experienced this and wanted to let others know about the dangers of the little 'beauties' gnawing at warm rubber.
A cheap quartz watch attached in the engine bay.
It has a noise, inaudibe to humans but apparantly very audible and diagreeable to pine martens
Welcome to Switzerland. The vast majority of EFers tilt at the windmill of Swiss coldness. Completely extraneous: if there is anything whatsoever which deserves getting bat shit crazy worked up about here, it must be the Marders.
There are various approaches. These range from regularly spraying the underside and rubber bits with something (iirc BMW even has a special spray just for this), cat or dog hair (or urine, or faeces), ultrasonic noisemakers, or putting something under the car (typically chicken wire).
The long and short of it is: don't park near a forest, particularly not in spring.
Tar spray generally works reasonably well but only lasts a few months, Chicken wire is impractical for street parking, some of the ultrasonic things seem to work, but they will eventually drain your battery.
If they are only going for the brake lines, and have done this repeatedly, but they're ignoring CV boots and such, then consider getting your shop to use a different brake line mfr next time around (They seem to like something specific to some kinds of rubber, but ignore others). You can fit Stahlflex (Stainless armoured hoses, but you should check with the local MFK if they will object to these).
Just parking at the non forest end of the street can make a difference, particularly if there are some Peugeots parked nearer to the forest. If you have an '80s Alfa Romeo, just move to an Island (Greenland, New Zealand, Manhattan, Australia).
A couple of stripes of underbody tar based rustproofing, applied to the underbody in the late winter is fairly effective.
Go to Jumbo / Hornbach and buy several meters of this stuff.
It's known as "split loom tubing".
Cut to size and encapsulate the pipes / cables.
Magic tree air fresheners hanging in the engine bay work pretty well.
There are some sticks you can buy from DIY shops that can be used to ward them off although these are more for engine bay pipes rather than brake pipes, I don't know if the smell is strong enough...
There are also some electrical / battery operated devices that you can leave near where you park your car, these work with sound inaudible to humans, but will also be disturbing for cats / dogs (if you care about that).
Many people also suggest chicken wire installed on the ground where you park your car, apparently the Martens don't like that and it's akin to walking under a ladder for them!
The best protection of course is to have a garage box. It will not prevent your car from getting gnawed when you park it outside.
You really think Pine martens can't get into a closed box....
A Pine marten got into one of our cars engine bays, ripped up all the bonnet and bulk head insulation and put holes in just about all the water pipe, little bugger
I would love to see them try
Actually... the problem isn't just them getting in... it is much more if they happen to be locked in to the same box as the car.
Yep... been there, done that. Didn't get the shirt, but I tell you, I don't think many amateurs can change the boots on a GTV 2.5 half as fast as I learned to do it. Never mind the guibo (yes, the guibo.... twice!).
You can also buy "official" pine marten deterrent tubing on ebay
Moth balls work. Ask at any Drougarie.
I think it was because of a thread started by you on the subject that made me go home check my insurance to see if I was covered.
Tss... a ROLEX preferably, we are in Switzerland after all!
Swiss Pine Martens have class .
pah, common
a Breguet clock buit into the dash or I don't want to know
Don't think they offered one as ann option in a Rover 75...
PS Breguet never made Quartz watch yet either !
Somewhere in the back of my mind I remember seeing a clock made out of of quartz crystal... the wheels and shafts were brass, but the case, plates and bridges were made entirely out of crystal. It was about Breguet's time iirc.
Just buy one of these, conect to your battery and attach that little box somewhere. I use plastic strips to attach on cable. Apparently that box make some sound (safe for humans) and repell the martens.
(see post 2 for cheap option doing the same thing)
I got mine for 6 pack of Heineken in local village garage. And I installed it myself, at least I don't need to replace watch batteries every now and then