I had a rodent problem in my garage where rats and mice ate through wiring in my motorcycle and garage door wires. When I had them repaired after eradicating the problem, both my motorcycle mechanic and garage door repairman said that ya the wires they are making in china are made with something especially tasty for rodents.

LOUD Auto playing video far down on site even with Ublock.

Sorry, should have just written the words and let people find their own link. Or be a less sucky curator.

>Then theres manufacturer recommendations. Zip tie plastic can contain additives that bugs or rodents find quite delicious

Lol, what a load of BS on the part of the OEM. The soy plastics are more expensive. Your $1.99 pack of Harbor Freight nylon zip ties won't use it. OEMs (at least for smaller vehicles) have been phasing in soy based wiring insulation since the late 1990s (done at the recommendation of the EPA IIRC). This is why rodents now are more likely to chew on wires (whereas in the past they'd just make nests in dumb places). I guess they'd rather stretch the truth than say "because reasons".

Edit: looks like someone else posted a link to a story about soy wiring.

Why wouldn't zip ties be made of the same material as for lacing? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

The lacing isn't plastic, it's (as the article mentions) typically waxed linen or some other type of fiber/rope. Zip ties have to be made of a more solid material like plastic, since you need to mold in all those tiny teeth that cause the zip tie to ratchet closed. It's neat that a lot of these plastics are apparently tasty for rodents and other pests to eat though; I wonder if you could add a bitterant to combat this. But zipties will still have other issues caused by the plastic material: brittleness from UV exposure, and cracks due to freeze/thaw cycles and thermal expansion. There's other (non-plastic) alternatives to cable ties though, for example metal hose clamps. Although that might be too harsh on the cables, not to mention being conductive. It seems lacing is by far the gentlest option on the cables, and longer lasting than zip ties, at the cost of requiring more time to set up correctly.

In racing (and aviation) there's a whole art to safety wiring. Is that ever used anywhere anymore?

But why worry about the tie material when the electrical wire itself is insulated using plastic?