‘Baby Rat Aliens’ Discovered in a New Zealand Kitchen

“Experts baffled by mysterious 'baby rat aliens' found crawling on kitchen floor”

That’s the kind of headline that normally comes from Florida or a former Soviet republic, but in this case the strange tale of strange tails on the ends of even stranger tiny creatures originates in New Zealand. Even worse, they were in the kitchen! And … they were ALIVE! (Cue the eerie music.) Are they of this planet or really alien creatures?

"My mother found these on the kitchen floor this morning. One is still alive. Anyone know what they are? Nikki is horrified and will have nightmares for weeks!"

“These” (see the disturbing pictures and a video here) are strange rat-like creatures the size of peas that Tim Clerke shared with the world on his Facebook page after he got that call that every guy fears – a woman in his life found something on the floor and she needs him to come over and kill it. In Tim’s case, the mother was his mother, so he had no choice but to go running over to her home in Auckland and confront what he hoped was a manageable spider, non-venomous snake or a deformed raisin. Unfortunately, he had no such luck.

“Like someone cut the bottom end off of baby mice. Ew. I wonder what they are they are heckin creepy!”

The comments on Clerke’s Facebook page ranged from creepy to gross to vomit material and beyond. Unfortunately, none could help him positively identify what the brave young man pointed out the hand holding them in the picture belonged to his less-horrified-than-him mum! The New Zealand Herald reported the speculations of experts on creepy videos. Experts from the Biosecurity New Zealand entomology team thought the creatures looked like moth legs that had been pulled or bitten off by an animal that ate the moth and left the rest for miniature scavengers, which is why one of the things was still wiggling.

Experts from the University of Auckland opted out of the game and said it was a hoax. Insect expert Eric Edwards called on his vast experience with legitimate creepy critters and offered “rat-tailed maggots” – but he wouldn’t confirm it.

Everyone else said “Ewww!” or “Aliens!” or both. Take a look. What do you think they are?

As of this writing, the identity of the mysterious creatures is still up in the air … or more likely flushed down the commode.

Your move, Florida.