When I replaced our kitchen a couple of years ago, I spent a
considerable amount of time and effort making sure the walls and
floors behind the units were 100% rodent proof - or so I thought. (we
live in a 150 year old house in the scottish countryside, so at this
time of year we usually expect a few 'visitors'....)

Anyway, the dishwasher packed in a few weeks ago, and as it was still
under waranty, on the order of SWMBO I 'called a man in' as you do. He
told me then that a small mouse (apparently he could tell from the
teethmarks) had chewed the hoses, and water had leaked into the base
pan, causing a safety valve to cut in, which is what had caused the
machine to stop working. He warned that unless we took action, we'd
have the problem again, so traps and poison were laid, and the
inevitable mouse bodies duly disposed of. However - they stopped
appearing about a week or so ago, so we believed we'd overcome the
problem, but last night the dishwasher stopped again, with the same
symptoms as before....I realise that the possibility is that one of
the mice had chewed a hose as it's main course before trying the fatal
cheeseboard, but i'd like to be certain, so.....

This time, (assuming it's the same problem when I pull the damn d/w
out to check) - I'd like to replace the hoses with somthing 'armoured'
if possible - anyone know whether there's a supplier of such a thing,
or is there something else I could use to wrap them in - that would
act as a rodent deterrent? I'm also going to make some sort of solid
'cage' to fit around the d/w from floor to about 12 inch height, so
that any future rodent explorer will have difficulty reaching the
tasty plastic pipes!

Anyone got any other ideas? Ripping the kitchen out to find out where
the little sods got in *isn't* an option I've been informed......

Cheers

Tim