By: Nina Huang

Let’s talk about rats. You might think they are disgusting, or you might think they are cute, but you may just find one lurking about under your car hood. This issue has become very common in New York City, and auto-repair businesses there have been booming ever since. So what is with these rat invasions?

Why?

Who knew that these small animals, minding their own business, getting food from trash cans, could trespass in people’s beloved vehicles. Why? Scientists say that it’s because rats like warmth, so they sneak under the car hoods. Imagine leaving your car in a parking lot, and coming back to find a whole family of rats living inside it. “I see new cars, old cars, everyone is coming in now with these rat problems,” said Ozzy Dayan, a mechanic at Manhattan Auto Repair. “It brings me a lot of business, but it’s disgusting.” “The ‘check engine’ light came on, and I brought it to my mechanic, who popped the hood and found chicken bones, some bread and part of a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich sitting there,” Ms. Carpenter-Moyes said. She battles with rats constantly, and paid $1,200 to get her car cleaned. “When things started shutting down [during the pandemic], the rats lost access to their usual food sources,” Michael H. Parsons, a research scholar and rat expert said. So this current rat crisis resulted from the pandemic. When it hit, we adapted to the chaos, and so did the rats. But when the pandemic cooled down a bit, we were able to return to some of our old habits, but the rats didn’t. It’s possibly just because of a simple reason; we need to keep our community cleaner, and to place tasty food scraps in green recycling bins with lids that shut more tightly. So, what would you do if you found rats in your car?