Necessity is the mother of invention. 

What that means is need drives invention. When humans were sick of walking they invented the wheel, and that innovative spirit continues into today, although many 'new' inventions and discoveries are less physical like a wheel, and are more like digital things. Honda had a need. It needed to repel rodents from its wiring harnesses, and they came up with an ingenious solution. Pepper tape.

Image Credit: Paul Shea/TSM Screengrab College City Honda website
Image Credit: Paul Shea/TSM Screengrab College City Honda website
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Described on the College Hills Honda website as:

Rodent tape is a deterrent for critters who like to chew vehicle wiring. Wrap any trouble spots to prevent any future wire harness issues. The tape is treated with capsaicin (active component in chili peppers). When wrapping the harness it is recommended to use the half-wrapping method. Each time you wrap the tape around the harness overlap the previous layer by half the width of the tape. One roll = ~65 feet of tape.

I saw a picture floating online of this tape, and at first I thought it was a meme rather than a real product but my curiosity got the best of me and I had to search to see if this tape was a real thing, and in fact it is!

Since the advent of electricity it seems rodents have been attracted to the deadly warmth, a mouse or rat in your electrical can cause havoc, and also be VERY expensive if you need to re-wire something. So to me it only makes sense that an auto manufacturer would want to protect their product, and Honda took a step in that direction when they created this tape.

How does it repel the rodents?

You wrap your wiring harness, or I suppose anything you don't want a rodent to be chewing, with the tape, overlapping the tape as you go along.

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When the rodents start eating away at the tape to get at the electrical wires, a pepper substance gets in their mouths, which isn't pleasant and they stop.

You can learn more about the tape, or even order it if you need it here. 

 

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