Around four years ago, car owners in Worcester Park faced a seemingly unsolvable problem. It appeared that an animal of some kind, remaining unidentified however many have alluded to the suspicion that it were either squirrels or foxes, had chewed at the wires underneath new, hatchback cars. 

 

In the KT4 area, four residents expressed their frustration at the situation. I spoke with Asma Laher, who faced this problem at least three times. The first time Mrs Laher experienced a problem with her car was in 2019 where she turned on her car to go to work and an unrecognisable faulty line sign popped up. 

 

She immediately took the car to the garage where she was informed that the wires underneath her car had been chewed. At this point, Mrs Laher owned a Renault Kadjar. As this was the first time, she thought nothing of it. The garage fixed the issue but it cost the car owner approximately £500. 

 

A few weeks later, the same problem occurred twice. Asma Laher took the car to the garage and paid for the repairs again. At this stage, Mrs Laher was unaware that many of her neighbours were facing the same problem. 

 

Sophie, a mother of two, lives opposite Mrs Laher and admitted she was faced with the same problem several times. Both Mrs Laher and Sophie found themselves getting frustrated at the costly consequences of the situation. After contacting the council, Sophie states she had to take matters into her own hands as the council stated ‘squirrels’ and ‘foxes’ are not classed as rodents, and therefore they could not offer any help. 

 

Mrs Laher soon learnt that what attracted the squirrels and foxes was a type of oil/grease that covered the wires underneath her car which they enjoyed eating. She believed purchasing a new car would solve the problem. She then bought a Vauxhall Grandland, however the problem continued only a week after owning the new car. It can be concluded that no matter the make or model of car, the animals can still be attracted to the oil. However, Mrs Laher noticed the problem did not occur on her husband's car which was parked in the same driveway. A pattern between the models of car that this happened to down the road was that all cars were hatchbacks and newer models. 

 

After extensive googling, Mrs Laher found ‘anti rodent tape’ which she believed would work. She discussed this with her garage and in the end it was decided that she would purchase the tape from Amazon and the garage would apply it. Mrs Laher shared this information with her neighbours and they all agreed that this is what stopped the problem for good. She found it difficult that she had to come up with solutions by herself, she found that the lack of support from the council and even the garage made the problem worse. It has been a year yet Mrs Laher remains weary.