If you have a problem with rodents around your home, then you know that they can be quite destructive in a number of different ways. Not only do these animals carry a large number of diseases and parasites that can be quite dangerous to the health of you, your family, and your pets, but they can also do a great deal of damage around your home that can lead to you having to pay a great deal of money to make repairs.
While you may be aware of that they can cause a great deal of damage to such things as your walls and your foundation, you may wonder if these little pesky critters can also become a challenge for your water pipes or pex? That is a very interesting question.
If you consider the teeth of the rodents that are most common, such as rats, mice, squirrels, and rabbits, you are well aware that all of these critters have very sharp front teeth. These teeth are used in a wide variety of ways by the animals, with probably it’s two most significant purposes being its need to kill and eat food it has found and to defend itself against predators.
The teeth have become one of the greatest assets that these rodents have, meaning they need to do all that they can to protect them and keep them as healthy as possible. One of the ways that they do this is by chewing on objects that will help to keep those teeth healthy and sharp.
If you have ever had a hamster, you know exactly what is being talked about here. Hamsters will chew on just about anything that is in or a part of its cage. Hamsters have been known to chew apart the plastic and the metal that surrounds the door of its cage, to chew the metal bars that are meant to keep it contained, and will even try to chew at the glass in those kinds of cages. It is not just an instinct to try to get out of the cage, but is also a means to keep those teeth as sharp and healthy as they possibly can be.
This is bad news for the objects around your house, including such things as your water pipes. Even if they are metal, if the rodent feels there is some benefit out of digging through that pipe it will most definitely attempted to do so. This would especially be true if the pipe is carrying such things as water or waste. You may consider your thrown out food or even your feces to be quite unappetizing, but a rat may see it as a water resource of a great meal. Chewing through the pipe would be its means to reach that food.
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