Clever designers around the world have come up with all kinds of ingenious creations over the years. Mazda’s famed rotary engine is admired by many, the energy recovery systems in Formula 1 engines made them some of the most efficient in the world and now Honda has a special rodent-resistant tape that’s packed with chili heat to stop rats and mice from chewing through your car’s intricate writing looms.
Honda has made some phenomenal things over the years, like humanoid robot Asimo and the slick HondaJet private aircraft. However, a part you can order for around $50 might be one of its simplest but most elegant creations out there.
The part in question is called Honda Rodent Tape and it’s been designed to try and stop animals like rats and mice from chewing through all the electrical wires in your car. To do this, the adhesive on the tape has been treated with capsaicin, which is one of the active components that gives chili peppers their spice.
According to Honda, it’s packed with the same spicy kick that you’ll find “in a bowl of five-alarm chili,” which means it should help curb rodent damage in your project car.
Just how spicy can a roll of tape be, I hear you ask? Well, YouTuber Zack Nelson had that very thought, so bought a roll to find out. In a video shared on Instagram this week, Nelson unraveled a length of Honda’s spicy tape and gave it a suck.
At first, Nelson says the rat-resistant tape doesn’t taste of much, but then adds that it’s a slow burn as the spice soon kicks in. He adds that there’s no flavor on the exterior of the tape, and only notices the spicy sensation when he licks the sticky part, which is a sentence I never thought I’d write. In the clip, Nelson summarizes:
“Honestly, not that potent. This whole roll is less spicy than one single pepper that you would get at Subway. It tastes almost like regular electrical tape and I would seriously doubt its ability to deter any rodents.”
The spice level in the tape will probably seem much more intense to smaller animals like rats and mice. While the density of taste buds on our tongues is relatively similar to mice and rats, rodents have a much higher sensitivity to some flavors to help them better avoid potentially toxic snacks in their environment.
If you’ve ever wondered why rodents like to bed down in your project car and chew through all the wires, it’s actually a means of keeping their teeth in check. That’s because the teeth in mice and rats are always growing, and chewing on hard, abrasive surfaces like wiring helps grind them down and keep them at a manageable length for the animals. The more you know.