Dear Car Talk:
Did I experience an alien invasion?
I recently went on a road trip to Yellowstone National Park in a rented 2022 Hyundai Elantra. My wife prepared the usual trail mix bag of assorted nuts and, of course, yummy peanut M&Ms, otherwise why hike?
Anyway, we stayed in a cabin in Yellowstone and left the bag in the car, with all windows and doors closed. The next morning, I was shocked to see the bag surrounded by a mix of food remnants along with unwanted rodent droppings. Whatever critters got in there surgically removed the candy coating off the M&Ms to devour the chocolate/peanut innards.
As I watched from the cabin later that morning, a gaggle of adorable ninja-like, Guinea-pig-size ground squirrels congregated over and around the rear right tire looking for something.
My question is, how the heck did they get in there? Did they steal my keys? Are there openings in modern undercarriages, or did they breach the vehicle? Seriously, do I need to buy a carbon monoxide monitor when renting a car if there’s an opening big enough in the rear undercarriage for squirrels to get in? More importantly, can we still eat the trail mix? — Doug
Sure, eat all the leftover trail mix you want, Doug. Just be sure to chase it with some Azithromycin.
There’s no way for rodents to get into the passenger cabin from around the rear tires. As your question suggests, any opening there would allow exhaust into the car, which would eliminate you as a future Hyundai Elantra renter. So the squirrels may have detected food and were looking for a way in. But my guess is that some mice beat them to it.
Mice will often climb up the tires (more often the front tires, closer to the engine compartment, but they can travel along the exhaust system, too), and from there, they can find their way around the engine to the cowl, near the windshield, where fresh air is drawn into the cabin.
Fresh air has to be brought into the car’s passenger compartment somehow, right? If not, see above comment about future Hyundai Elantra renter status. The cowl is where fresh air comes in — far away from the exhaust system. There’s usually a mesh or wire grill covering the fresh air intake to prevent rodent access, but we know that mice have very sharp teeth and are very persistent when food is involved. Particularly peanut M&Ms, apparently.
So that’s how they got in, Doug. I find it hard to believe squirrels could make themselves small enough to get in through the fresh air vent, but I’m no rodentologist.
Maybe the squirrels just saw the mice coming down from the tires with melted chocolate all over the paws and said, “C’mon fellas, there’s M&Ms in there somewhere!”
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