This car was towed into our Dealership because it would not start. Whatever made this nest ate everything that wasn't metal. All the harnesses, all the plastics around the senders and as you can see the hood insulation. No critter was found but there is an awful lot of rhododenderon branches. Keep an eye out under your hoods if your car has been sitting awhile.
I had a rat in my truck, and I drove it daily, but the nest was NOTHING like that. Look up Nutria...only thing big enough that I can think of that would do something like that. Was it parked anywhere near water? They do that kind of thing, and eat the styrofoam off the bottom of boat docks and cause them to sink around here.
you know, the normal human being would pop the hood even if they dont know anything about cars. and god thats a big rat!
OK I've been in the trade for 20 plus years and have seen all kinds of critter damage and habitats but that one takes the cake. That aint no mouse nest.
It was an elderly lady that had it towed in. She wanted to know if her new car warranty would cover the repairs ...
red toothed web footed rat! from what i read they can be 15-22 lbs be scary to open a hood and see that thing
I doubt it was a Nutria, I have only heard about them in sothern states. (not to say I could be wrong). But since the OP is in New Jersey I am not inclined to think so. I dont know the nesting/den habbits of racoons of possums, but would be more inclined to lean toward them as the culprits.
Once when I was wandering around a "rural" local junkyard popping hoods looking for relay boxes I found a nice big groundhog in an empty dodge Caravan engine bay. Went back the next week and there was a freaking snake INSIDE the hood of the same van. I could see the snake slithering around through the gaps in the "liner" or whatever you call it. I never did get the freaking box out of that van. Maybe this year.....
I saw something on TV about those critters slowly making thier way up the east coast towards NY and NJ. From what I remember not too many have been seen yet, but I guess it's only a matter of time. The TV program showed either cops or wildlife officers hunting those things at night along waterways with spotlights and .22's with silencers mounted on them. Once they caught the eyes of one reflecting in the light they blew the suckers away. I think it was in Florida were they were shooting them. It's hard to say what made that mess under that car's hood. I sure haven't seen anything like it before. Maybe an industrious chipmonk or plain old common rat? You would really need to find the critters droppings to verify what kind of animal it was that decided it needed a moble home.
Thats looks like a Muskrat. Heres a link on the Nutria in Jersey. http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.nj.com/southjersey_impact/2007/12/nutria1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nj.com/south/index.ssf/2007/12/biologist_says_nutria_have_arr.html&usg=__tH-3b-rqOHi1A2eoLnZXETUzqf4=&h=283&w=420&sz=64&hl=en&start=18&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=IDrz59Ug-jD9zM:&tbnh=84&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnutria%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26tbs%3Disch:1
We get nests like that under our hoods all the time here.....pack rats, more like "Field mice", although a lot bigger than a mouse, about the size of a rat to a guinea pig.....but they look more like a mouse than a rat. They pack under the hood with everything from leaves and twigs to grass, old carpet, paper, trash, and especially hood insulation, and burrow tunnels through it all for quick down-and-out-from-under-the-car escapes when someone finally opens the hood.....too late for the car by then, all wiring, plastic and rubber parts chewed to pieces in the construction of the nest.
