How To Keep Snakes Out Of Your Engine

How to keep snakes and kittens out of your engine bay.

Being a country surrounded by rainforests, Malaysia hosts a vast diversity of plants and animal species. Because of this dense rainforest, we can practically see Malaysian reptiles everywhere in the country, including city buildings, urban areas, homes, gardens and even sometimes car parks.

While this herpetofauna is something that we are proud of, it does create a few pesky problems, and one of them is snakes in car engine bays.

While this almost sounds like a scene straight out of Samuel L. Jackson's movie, Snakes On a Plane, it is something familiar that many Malaysians face almost on a daily basis.

Just because you've never been in said situation there's no harm in being proactive so that we can avoid this situation altogether.

Firstly, snakes do not see your car as home, but they do see your engine bay as a warm area that helps increase their body temperature. This helps them to carry out and maintain respiration and circulation functions essential to their life. The engine bay area, when closed, also offers darkness which is attractive to snakes. 

Pic credit, NST

Snakes will most probably curl up into the engine bay via the gaps available on the underbody or the wheel well. If your car is full of gaps it will be really hard to stop it from getting in there. 

However, you can try to stop them from entering the cabin by not leaving your windows or doors open. They can still wiggle their way into the cabin depending on how insulated your cabin is from your engine bay, but to try and avoid the situation altogether, it's best not to park your car in areas where there is long grass or wooded areas.

But what about modern chemicals? Are they any good at deterring snakes away from the cars?

There's a myth and 'petua orang tua' that says sulfur will keep snakes away. There are even snake-away products that contain sulfur which claim to keep snakes away. Unfortunately, it is not effective at deterring snakes and is a waste of money. But don't take our word for it here's a short video of it NOT working.

Like we said before, there's probably a million in one chance that a snake will make its way into your car, but the chances of a kitten making its way into your engine bay is much higher.

Just like snakes, a kitten loves a warm shelter, and an engine bay is a perfect location. They love to make their way into these type of places so that they can sleep well and feel protected. 

Unlike snakes, there are more ways to deter them from entering your engine bay. 

Get under your car and spray any openings with cat deterrents. These are products that you can find at pet stores that kittens hate. Yes, it will probably wash off with rain, but if you keep spraying it onto the car, the neighbourhood kitten will most likely get the drift.

If this problem persists, another way to help this from happening is to provide shelter for the offender. We know this might sound counterproductive because it's just inviting them further into your home area, but a kitten in a carrier or box lined up with a warm fluffy towel is better than a cute and harmless kitten in an engine bay. A small bowl of food and water next to it would probably help the cause, and chances are they'll stay there instead of trying to make their way into your engine bay.

Pic credit: Bomba dan Penyelamat Twitter

Suppose you ever find a snake in your engine bay, it's best to call the fire department as they are experts in dealing with this problem, and if you ever find a kitten there, try to get a mechanic to help remove it because sometimes they do hide in hard to get enclaves and nooks in the engine bay or just lure the kitten out with some cat kibbles.