Last year, marten bites caused damage of 92 million euros to comprehensively insured cars. “Although the number of insured marten bites fell slightly to 208,000, each bite cost an average of around 450 euros, almost seven percent more than in 2020,” says Deputy General Manager Anja Käfer-Rohrbach from the German Insurance Association (GDV).
Motor vehicle insurers also expect more marten bites in the future. “The decline over the past two years was probably also an indirect consequence of the corona pandemic: Because the predators react very aggressively to the scent trails of their fellow animals, they mainly bite through cables from cars that are often parked in different places or in territories of different martens . During the pandemic and especially during the lockdowns, such journeys were rarer,” Käfer-Rohrbach suspects.
Those with partial and fully comprehensive insurance are protected once morest the financial damage caused by marten bites. Motor vehicle liability insurance is not enough. Some comprehensive insurance rates only cover direct damage, meaning they only replace the damaged parts. Other tariffs also cover sometimes expensive consequential damage to the car, for example if leaking cooling hoses lead to engine overheating or broken rubber sleeves in the worst case to damage to the drive or axle joints of the vehicle.
What works best once morest rodents? It makes sense to seal off the entire engine compartment, for example using elastic wire mesh that is placed under the engine. These barriers prevent the animals from even getting to the cables and hoses. Also available are defense systems that are supposed to keep martens away from the car with ultrasonic waves or electric shocks. Another possibility is the sheathing of cables and hoses, for example with additional hard plastic tubes. After a marten visit, professional cleaning of the engine compartment is recommended, preferably by a workshop. (awm)
