RatMat Featured on the BBC's 'Rip Off Britain' As A Solution To Rodent Damage To Cars
The RatMat has been featured on the BBC’s ‘Rip Off Britain’ as a solution to rodent damage to cars and vans. Thank you to Pest Interceptors Kris and Mark for presenting this.
Here is the link to BBC iPlayer; https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0026y8c/rip-off-britain-series-16-37-ravenous-rats-destroyed-my-car; the segment with the RatMat starts at 12mins.
Here is the transcript;
‘Over to Julia who's out on the BBC Piaza. Well, after all that, the question is if rats are chewing through your car, who are you going to call? Well, as it happens, we have here Chris and Mark who are from Pest Interceptors, and they are going to let us into all the secrets of how they get in there in the first place and what you can do about it.
And Ian here, who has brought us this lovely vehicle. Ian, I gather you've been a victim of rat attack. Can you tell us about it?
Yeah, it happened twice actually now, and through the dealership, they identified that the rats or rodents had actually chewed underneath the vehicle and destroyed quite a lot of the wiring and some of the sensors and things.
I presume it's quite a costly business repairing all that?
Yeah, it costs about £800 in repairs so far.
Well Chris and Mark, I imagine this is a sort of story you're very familiar with. I mean, is it becoming more common?
Definitely over the last few years at least. We've seen quite a few calls about it, haven't we? Initially, it was only once every now and again, but it's getting more and more. It's definitely going up on the chart rather than down.
And what can you do to deter the rats apart from installing a rather large cat?
Well, there's an awful lot of things out on the market that we come across on a regular basis. This is called a RatMat. We'll touch on that in a moment, but there's also anti-rodent spray. There are a couple of different types of this, and the great thing about this is that it works similarly to the stuff you use to put on your children's nails to stop them biting their fingernails. So, a rat will still go into the engine bay, go to chew it, but think, "Ah, that's not soy, that's disgusting."
Have you used it?
I have actually, yeah. I've been using it for about a year, and it's worked so far.
So, that's the cheap one. What's the rather more expensive option at the top end of the market?
The top end of the market is a thing called a RatMat. Basically, down here we have an energizer pack which can be plugged into a car battery or to the mains, and that puts a light voltage through all of this. It doesn't electrocute the rat or the mouse, but it's not a very nice sensation to them.
Well, I like the whole approach which is basically to deter but not to kill.
Exactly.
Well, it's been lovely that you brought this beautiful thing in. Are you having happy motoring now?
Love it, absolutely love it. It's a dream.
Excellent. Well, thank you both very much, and thank you for coming in. Happy motoring!