Burn the house down
Others were understandably deeply disturbed. “I would just burn the house down,” quipped one internet user, a sentiment echoed by several others.
“I hope you can now move, list [and] sell the house before this stench arrives in force,” another said of the item, which may have belonged to a dead rat, stuck in the ceiling.
But the object wasn’t stuck: it began to “wiggle and move.” Shortly after, the original post’s author wrote, “It’s gone now.”
“OP, aren’t you panicking? I have goosebumps for you,” one user added about the unidentified tenant.
Another Redditor warns: “He’s just out of sight, he’s definitely not gone.”
Mystery Solved
Within 24 hours, the author shared an update, informing other Reddit members that, by process of elimination, the tail-like object did not belong to a lizard, a possum, or an armadillo—nor was it a “tampon string.”
Posted by Next Magazine on Friday, April 18, 2025
“After a ton of comments saying it’s a rat tail, I can now confirm that it is indeed a rat tail… I will be calling an exterminator soon to properly handle the situation. I will be calling an exterminator soon to properly handle the situation. Thank you all,” wrote the curious netizen, adding, “Someone in the comments quoted ‘When there’s one, there’s a hundred you can’t see.’ My goodness, I hope not.”
But when there’s one, there are likely others, as rats are highly social creatures that “prefer to live in groups,” according to PBS Nature.
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