One More Thing to Think About during COVID-19: Rats in Your Engine Compartment

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

New York City has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19, so perhaps its no surprise that the city's paper of record, the Times, is open to writing about a nasty new phenomenon happening to cars that aren't being used as much as normal: rats sheltering in place inside car engine bays.

Stories of animals in car engines are nothing new (just see the many YouTube videos out there offering easy and fast solutions to keep rodents away), but with fewer people driving and NYT reporters apparently scanning Twitter for story ideas, it became obvious that there's been an increase in rodent in-vehicle habitation.

Link to tweet

?s=20

Twitter is where NPR reporter Kelsey Snell posted that, after not driving her VW Jetta for a week, she was greeted by an unexpected surprise when she got in to run an errand. Snell said she was alerted to possibility of there being something wrong when her car displayed an exhaust system error message. As it was a new car, she thought that was strange and so opened the hood to discover some rat excrement and what looked to be a nest. After contacting her dealership for help, Snell learned that hers was the fifth call in a week about a rat problem.

And this is where the Times stepped in, filling in some details of Snell's story. The eventual cost to fix Snell's chewed-through wires was around $400, and we learned that rats "get a certain amount of comfort by just chewing," since they are evolutionarily familiar with chewing roots in their in-ground burrows to keep their teeth sharp and short. Also, with the massive change in food disposal patterns in big cities because so many restaurants are no longer serving sit-down meals, rodents' food sources are not where the creatures might be expecting them.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/one-more-thing-to-think-about-during-covid-19-rats-in-your-engine-compartment/ar-BB13zEpS?li=BBnb4R7

And I thought this was the only rat we had to worry about.

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Had mice in certain engine compartments.

Stored their seeds in my air flow system. When I took it in, mice were seen bailing (at least 2) and 5 lbs of seeds were removed.

[csziggy]

2. Here in the country we have to worry about squirrels chewing through wires

I just had to have some fixed in my Suburban. It still ran but had the Check Engine light on for the last year. It's been diagnosed as the wires to the pollution control sensor being chewed, but when we finally had time to leave the truck with them, they found even more chewed wires.

If meat gets hard to find (doubtful) I should take up squirrel hunting. When we first moved here, there were few to be found, but since we don't hunt like the previous owners, they have been very prolific and they are everywhere.

[Beatlelvr]

3. This happened to me!

Last year found out rats had messed with the wiring. Neighbor said they use the wires for their nests. Anyway, looked on web for info. Foind some anti rat spray. Its basically peppermint. It works! I spray the grill and bottom of windshield once a week. Haven't had the problem again.

[fleur-de-lisa]

4. The TrumPlague.

Coronavirus, murder hornets, engine rats.

November can’t come fast enough.