Why a rat infestation in you parking area is very bad news

Just to be clear, an infestation in by itself is an awful thing to deal with. But when these critters find themselves a warm place to hang out, eat and sleep in the form of your car's engine bay, it could result in a huge and possibly expensive headache, illustrated below in my sister-in-law's car.

As you can see, the rats chewed off entire lengths of the rubber insulations protecting the wiring. It is fortunate that the copper wires where thick, so they were mostly intact and we replaced the rubber insulations by wrapping the wires with layers upon layers of electrical tape. 

One of my cars weren't so lucky - the little bastards severed the thin wires for 2 out of 4 fuel injectors. Fortunately I was able to re-solder back what's left of the wiring and wrap it back with electrical tape.

You can probably imagine how this could spiral into a very expensive repair bill. In fact a few years ago an incident with a Malaysian VW Passat made it into the news because of a nearly RM50k (approx. $12k USD) repair bill due to rodent damage to the car's wiring harness.

Sorry, I have no DIY solution if you are facing a rat infestation problem, other than calling in pest control and pay them to get rid of the infestation. Trust me, I've tried many things, and the only solution that worked was to park outside of the house. The only advice I have to offer - deal with it as soon as possible.