RODENT RAT MENACE AND CARS

All  or most car owners could have experienced the problem with rats.Simply said rat or bandicoot entering the car and disconnecting the electrical system or creating short circuit between electrical networks or biting the fuel tubes and creating fuel leakage.These issues can sometimes be life threatening to passengers..

The population of rats enhance very fast a single female contributing up to 140 progeny per year a staggering number and a group of rats pronounce greater risk for vehicles as against a single predator.As a group they become more playful and do more damage.Rats are generally active in the night after say 1:00 PM and go about their business of scavenging for few hours.

Many people have spent a fortune repairing cars damaged by rats and have zero sympathy for them exterminating them using rat cakes which is a poison.Rat cakes take around four days to terminate the rat a slow and painful death the poison crippling the central nervous system of the rat and arresting movement.

Why do rats enter cars? The aroma of fuel attracts them..and larger the amount of fuel ...larger the smell..and larger the threat of rats entering the system.If one rat picks the scent in a group all of them enter the car and bite everything possible to drink fuel....The smell of fuel is similar to stench of discarded food and fuel may not be palatable to them but it end results in costly damage to the vehicle. Rodents enter vehicles cars and two wheelers which have not been used for some time.If it has been used the engine environment will be hot keeping away these creatures..and the risk is higher when it rains as rats assemble under the car for shelter and move into the vehicle which is cold due to rains.

I have endured various kinds of problems with rats entering my car..spent sleepless nights trying to put the vehicle back on track and endured many a jolt noting petrol leaks and jammed electrical system and spent so much.

How to handle this rat menace? This problem may not occur in Gated apartments where these rats might have been thrown out during construction and there are large compound walls and security.Rats are attracted by food and they enter cars searching for food mistaking fuel smell to be food..

Some of the tips may be as follows;

1.Never park cars near filth and decayed food matter in the vicinity overnight.Early morning the car may not start.

2.Never park cars near opening of Drains ...rats emerge from these drains and there will be many rats in this drains..and because of crowd effect they might emerge from the drain straight into the car.

3.Keep your car warm.If your car is parked outside make sure some family member runs the engine for atleast two minutes and cover the vehicle with the cover.The cover will trap the heat and prevent rats from entering.This must be done in rainy season and cold seasons as car tend to become cool.

4.Put naphthalene balls under the car where you park it. Naphthalene repels rats. Even tobacco emptied from cigarettes can repel rats.

5.Pepper has the innate quality to repel rats.

6.The law must enforce manufacturing standards on vehicle manufactures to mandatorily  put metal shield on all conduits that risk rat biting

Wishing those who read this a ratless car experience. Beware they can attack anytime and especially at the most vulnerable juncture.

vineeth

rkvineeth@hotmail.com

SIDDIGANAPATHY BHAT AT REC NIT CALICUT

At REC NIT Calicut in 1982 there was a student in the seventh semester by name Siddi Ganapathy Bhat.The day my admission process was underway it took some time into the night and my father and myself were distraught and tired as getting back to Calicut city at that hour would be an onerous task. Siddi Ganapathy Bhat knowing our predicament suo-moto suggested that we could stay in his hostel room as his room mate was away.So we spent the night in his C hostel room on the first floor facing the D hostel.Much later I used to meet him in his room in the D hostel. Later I came to know he lectured Electrical Engineering for many years at some Engineering College in Karnataka State.His brother Narayan Bhat was later a student at REC NIT Calicut.

I must thank the concern he showed for us at that juncture which is noteworthy and may be without much precedence.

LEG BYE CARTOON

T V S T V SUNDARAM IYENGAR

SIVADAS NAMBIAR

Let me place on record the fruitful association I had with Mr. Sivadas Nambiar which was for almost a decade.He is an alumnus of  XLRI and teaches Human Resources Management.I met him first in 2004.We used to be part of many symposium and conferences where he used to do a good job at making presentations on Human Resources and allied sciences.He used to be associated with RIMS for many years.