Do Mice Chew On Electrical Wires and Cords?

Mice can cause considerable damage in the attic, and that includes damage to electrical wires. Mice are rodents, and their teeth constantly grow, and they have an instinct to gnaw on things to wear down their teeth. They sometimes chew on things like wood or ducts, but they also chew on electric cords of all kinds. This can cause an electric outage, or alarms to go off if you have a security system wired through the attic, or failure of any component that is wired in the attic, such as a sound system or lights. But worst of all, if they chew and expose the copper inside, and the wires touch wood or paper, the hot copper can cause a fire in your house.

Why Mice Chew on Electrical Wires and how to prevent them - There are many people who find electrical wires in their houses or attics with bruises and scratch marks. While many people know the cause of the bruising, there are those who are not sure who or what to blame for these scratches. Studies have shown that mice enjoy chewing on hard materials like electrical wires. Mice love chewing many things due to their nutritional value but with electrical wires it is different. Many materials used to make the casing of electrical wires have no nutrients whatsoever. This means that mice and any other animals that chew on electrical wires do not do it for the nutritional value. Mice have a set of very strong sharp teeth that they use in various ways. The teeth have to be strong for chewing on food material. Chewing on electrical wires sharpens the teeth of mice and this is the main reason why they chew on them. In addition, let us not forget that biting on hard things makes teeth firmer and relatively stronger. This is also another reason why mice chew on electrical wires.

Research shows that mice cannont control the size of their teeth, and teeth growth can occur very fast if the teeth are left untamed. The hard material of the electrical wires is a very good surface that helps the mice to control the size of their teeth. The hard surface prevents uncontrolled speed of teeth growth and also helps the mice to maintain a certain length of their teeth.

What are some of the methods used to prevent mice from chewing on electrical wires?

Concrete
There are very few animals if any that can chew through concrete. As such, it is a good idea to bury your electrical cables in wet concrete when building. Also, a thin layer of concrete can also do the trick. Just place the wire on the designated position and the cover it with a thin layer of concrete.

Steel covers
Mice cannot chew on steel pipes. Using a steel pipe to cover the wires can be a very handy idea especially when the electrical wires run for a long distance. Sure steel doesn’t rot or rust and thus the pipes can be buried in the ground if need be.

Using plastic pipes
This is the most prevalent method in many places. Just let the electrical wires run through the plastic pipes. Mice cannot chew through plastic and this provides enough security for your wires. Just ensure that the pipes are not broken at any point since mice may attack that point viciously. You can even bury the pipes underground when they run for many meters.