sons car, daily driver had it parked over the weekend, was going to go to
store with friend, got in car turned on AC and fire ants were being blown
out of the AC vents onto his friend and him, they had built a nest in the
car in two days.

Here's a funny one. Back in the 70s, I jumped in my '62 Ford Galaxie to go
somewhere. I kept hearing a strange little squeaking noise behind the
speedometer. Thinking I would get a can of silicone spray and douse the
area, I paid no attention.

When I pulled in my driveway, Mama Cat was going out of her mind. She
jumped in my open window before the car had even stopped moving, went up
behind the dash and retrieved her newborn kitten. True story.

Then there are the proctical joke masters....  in Portugal's Azores
Islands somebody caught a cute little hedgehog and released it inside
of a truck we had.  Aftera time the truck began to develope a foul
odor. The odor was tracked under the rear seat into a small tunnel
opening on the driver side, which appeared to follow the frame rail.
The hedgehog had crawled in, died ad began to decompose. And in a
location not reachable.... and even a firehose appeared not to get it
all out.

In another case, in the California desert, an unknown prankster had
released a rather large gopher snake in the cab of a patrol vehicle.
Later the same day, the patrolman was cruising along when the snake
popped up through the dash defroster vent right in front of him. The
surprise led to panic (gopher snakes look VERY much like rattlesnakes
to those not familiar with reptiles), and panic led to a flashflood
condrol culvert. Fortunately, no injuries, although there was a lot of
serious paint damage to the passenger side the vehicle landed on.

Most people do not realize that tarantulas migrate. That's when you
find out how many there are that you never knew were there if you live
in the desert. Gets so thick at times that cars loose traction and
spinouts are not unusual when drivers hit a black patch of roadway
that suddenly turns slippery.

By the way, think crushed mothballs for those pesky rodents, and for
black widows, a tarantula is great. When black widows would show up in
my garage, I'd go catch a tarantula and turn it loose in the garage
(and forewarn my then wife!). Tarantulas like the dark cool garage,
and the like to snack on black widows.

Living on a farm, we get mice in almost every vehicle, even one parked in
the garage this year. Particularly bad is in our old '74 GMC horse van that
sits idle for weeks at a time in the winter. The Spring start up ritual
usually involves a cloud of debris flying out of the heater and defrost
vents, clearing away bits of chewed paper from the glove box, and sometimes
chasing mice out from under your feet. Last year I tried an old farmer's
suggestion and soaked a couple of cotton balls in peppermint oil and stuck
them in the defroster and heater openings. They were totally effective! Not
a single shred of mouse evidence showed up after that, and the truck smelled
like "Christmas" according to the kids.

=Vic=
Bear Gap, PA