"Fool me twice............... I KILL YOU!" - Dr. Zubin Damania, circa 2024

Templeton was the rat in Charlotte's Web. Great story.

My wife and are into backpacking. We walk into camp late, take our stuff out, set up camp and move on in the morning. Twice little mice have made nests in my wife’s backpack in those short windows of time. Love the reliability of the Toyotas!

I was working in maintenance in a ski town of Colorado. A guy asked to borrow some of my tools. When i asked why he told me that he brought his pet snake with him on his trip. Well low and behold the snake got loose, slithered into the engine and died. Oh boy it was one of the worst smells ive encountered in a car. I tried to help him remove it, but eventually had to move on to other work. I left a few tools with him and went about my shift. Ran into him later in the day. Apparently he eventually did find and remove it... never knew why he brought a pet snake to Colorado

What a story/experience Z! I was impressed how well your daughter handled it. Thanks for sharing and for the tips.

We've had rodents eat the wiring harness on our car -- twice. The first time it was a pack rat. The second time it was a rabbit. BTW, this is a very expensive repair, but if you have comprehensive car insurance coverage (normally called glass coverage), it also covers animal damage. Our comprehensive insurance covered the damage, minus the $50 deductible, both times. I had also heard that rodents don't like peppermint oil. I ordered packets filled with cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil. The mice that got in our cabin chewed through the packets and ate some of the peppermint-oil soaked cotton balls (and made nests out of the rest of the cotton balls). So far, the only thing that has worked was some special wrap that the mechanic wrapped around the wiring harness the last time we had it replaced. That was a year ago, and while mice have made a nest out of the engine filter), the pack rats didn't stay under the hood very long, leaving the wiring harness alone. Our car is a Honda, as is the wrap our mechanic used. I'm sure that all car manufacturers have a similar product. I'm not sure if it's infused with something that rodents don't like or if the wrap is harder to chew than the wiring in the car. The wrap is rather pricey, but GEICO covered it as part of the second repair to replace the wiring harness. I guess they figured that the $50 price for the wrap was a bargain compared to the $4,000 to replace the wiring. And most important, it works!

I don't know man, as a person who didn't grow up with cars (from NYC), I'd have immediately brought it to someone to deal with that kind of thing. I commend you and your daughter for being so brave and inquisitive!

This story was absolutely nuts! I'm commenting on here mainly for the algorithm as I shared what I wanted to say on Locals. I didn't share this on there, but this also reminded me of my dad that had a mouse pop out of the false ceiling in the basement of the house I lived in growing up. I still cry from laughing whenever the story comes to mind because my dad could hear it and so he was tapping the ceiling and then it poked it's head out and started taunting him. My dad actually talked to it and said, you better not jump out of there. I still say the mouse was laughing at him and going can you please stop that terrible tapping. It's ruining my quiet time. 😂

My ‘07 Toyota 4Runner has been THE best vehicle I’ve ever owned. 208,000 miles and I’d be comfortable taking it across the country.

We had an animal die in our truck. And our Toyota mechanic/ dealer took hours to find the source of our smells. Not good. It was in our air filter. That was not nearly as bad as when I saw a rat come up my toilet and jump back down. (Old house, plumbing not updated until I saw this). My children had pet rats when they were young. They were truly sweet and adorable. They were also females and the urine didn’t smell as male rats does.(We were told to put one of those Christmas tree air fresheners in the engine compartment)

The current Toyota trucks have wire harness made from a vegetable based insulation and if you leave it sitting outside rodents will eat it and ruin the harness. Happen to our sons truck while it was parked while he was over seas, cost a boatload to fix to.

96 white Toyota camry here. Best car I've ever had

Omg, this was funny and Gross, Z! Reminds me of when my mom quit driving. Her car sat in the garage for like 3 years. Finally I was going to get rid of it. Got it jump started and was driving it to put gas in it and, on the main road this little brown field mouse came out of the exterior hood vent and stood there glaring at me! 😂 poor thing. The wind was blowing it's fur and it's trying to hold on..got to the gas station and it wouldn't leave!! I had to shoosh him away with an umbrella! My brother asked me why I didn't just turn the wipers on. He's so mean!😅 the trunk was full of nests

Time for a new car!!!!

The engine air filter is very easy too change too. They cost about 25$ to buy and a mechanic will charge almost 200$ to change it! You can easily change the engine air filter and the cabin air filter yourself! There are videos on KZfaq on how to change the engine air filter too. Both of these filters should be changed once a year. I do this myself in my Honda Civic every year. Auto part stores sell them. You dont have to go to the dealership to buy them . Trust me the engine air filter is just as simple to change! Its under the hood.

You clearly have opportunities as a heavy metal singer!

No rats in a car but I have had a mouse climb in bed with me on two separate occasions. Once was in California when I was a working student living in a travel trailer on a horse farm. It was infested with mice and one rat. I was just lying in bed watching tv and it went behind my pillow and down the side of my bed. 😮. I killed over 14 mice that year. It was traumatic. I also had a rat in the trailer that invaded one of my drawers and chewed up a pair of my favorite shorts. My boss put out poison (against my wishes) and I eventually found it dead in the same drawer a couple months later, half decomposed. Sooooooo gross!!!! Second time a mouse was in my bed was a few months ago. I had been leaving my door cracked open to clear out cooking smells from the other apartments in my living space. It’s a single family home with 3 separate kitchens, all connected by the same forced air heating/cooling system. Anyway, I’d never had a mouse but I saw a little one on my counter late at night and realized I’d have to get some traps. It took 2 days to get them delivered (I wanted to use live traps) so I waited and continued to wash down my counters and stove. The second night after seeing the mouse, I had a thought …. “What if it gets in my bed again?”…. I blew it off thinking that nobody has a mouse in their bed twice in one lifetime. That night at about 3 in the morning, I was dead asleep but woke up to this tinkling sound coming from my nightstand. I KNEW before I even opened my eyes and reached over to turn on the light (in the same direction as the noise) that it was a mouse and sure enough, it had climbed on my salt lamp and jiggled the metal oil warmer on the top. It immediately ran behind my pillow and I jumped out of bed screaming…… “How can this actually be happening to me again!?!?!?!” I eventually caught it and released it somewhere away from other homes where it had a water and food source and ended up catching one more tiny one. I HATE mice! I respect them and even think they are kind of cute but those little bastards are NOT allowed in my bed. 😅

No rats but I’ve had bats in the belfry (condo) 3 times over the years. A learning experience for me too. Freaked out the first 2 times and had to get help at 11pm cause I couldn’t handle it myself. Third time I got brave and got it out <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1398">23:18</a> on my own. So proud of myself. I am not a wimp!

Jesus take the wheel !! 😮

😮…….Next thing…. Declutter the garage…me thinks🤔…lol

I had remnants of a cat hiding in my Escape engine, And boy can they destroy the insulation!!! Another time there was a nest built for some other rodent....maybe a squirrel? We found seeds and nut remnants......I don't recall why I was under the hood, but good thing I was!!😮😮!😮😮

I'm only a tiny bit in, and I have to say 2012 must have been a great year for cars, because I have a 2012 and it is still awesome and I remember a few years ago the average car on the road was around a 2012...Anyway...

Rats love my house. I’ve had multiple pest companies try to figure out how they’ve been accessing my attic, even had a well respected exclusionist come so many times we ended up dating for 3 months. 😂 lort help me

Round and round…lol

I'm SO weird that this is FASCINATING to me! Love the curiosity & the resourcefulness. AND if you were to journal about it, is it a metaphor for anything going on in your life? Are you unknowingly allowing a 'rat' who's gonna foul up your life in some way, to use your resources or betray your hospitality? A rat who sees you're not using something so they move in & foul things up. (Just intuiting out loud!) Great story!

I loved this story and your insights. Thanks so much for sharing. 😊

Hey dude, I was test driving cars and drove them over to my son's job where he is a car detailer at Night Owl. The first one: "baby boy, smell this car." "That's rat piss and I can see where the rats have burrowed in over here and there.." I bought the next car.

First! ❤