Flexible Varmits

[Hartley]

Oh..Boy..

The other night I was sitting in my squeaky chair watching TV and our cats
were playing happily around the room. I thought I heard a squealing noise which
was attributable to my chair or maybe one of the cats scratching on plastic somewhere.

None of them seemed to take interest in the noise so I didn't think anything
better of it.

WELL....
Last night I was sitting there and a most nasty smell wafted across me. I blamed
the new dog for it. He looked at me with one eye open, rolled over and went back to sleep. The smell passed by me again... I then blamed one of the cats for gassing the room.. ( They have unusual gas attacks! )...

Nope... That wasn't it.... I then blamed my wife for maybe leaving something in the kitchen trash... WOW... Big Mistake !!!

She cleaned the cat box and took the trash out earlier.... Hmmm...

I then pulled my chair out of the corner where my breaker panels are located on the wall. Noticed that the smell was a little stronger back there.

I removed the cover for the upper panel and looked inside.. Nope nothing in there looked fried and no extra critters...

I removed the cover for the primary panel under the main panel and stretched across one of the hot legs and neutral was a mouse who apparently had commited suicide.

Well... Mouse was removed after shutting down the power.. I looked for how it got in there and the only passage was a 3/4" conduit tube that runs from the upper panel to the lower panel and has several wires in it.

Now.. I figure either it teleported there or somehow managed to get into the top panel through a small opening where the cover doesn't fit well. And managed to crawl down through that small conduit into the lower panel. The mouse was over 1 1/2 inches long and got fried trying to get back up into the tube....

Did you know that a mouse can squeeze through a space 1/2 its size??

Do Now !!!

Over the winter we have had a small number of Live Cat toys get in through the door seal.. Of course they only run around until the crew is tired..( The mouse gives up first!)

I like cats.. They are fun to watch... Just when you think you have seen every possible silly situation they get creative.

[JackConrad]

CATS=Eco-friendly rodent control   Jack

[cody]

Mice I can handle but one of my greatest fears are snakes and their ability to wiggle into strange places, a friend of my dads that used to winter in the brownsville texas area showed me a rattler skin that he found in his generator compartment when he was cleaning up his motorhome after coming back for the summer, scared the dog dirt out of me.

[busshawg]

RATS!!

[Hartley]

Snakes also like to nest in and use the inside of electrical panels
as a skin shedding location... I have watched them climb up electrical conduits
to gain access. I usually got into the habit of whacking a panel and standing back
a few feet to check for wasp nests and other critters. And I always try to wear
heavy gloves when I open a panel.

I did have a harsh awakening with the bay door handles on my MC9...

Paper wasps like to build nests up inside the handles.. They wait until you have the door up and open and you have your head down looking in the bay... OUCH!! You first instinct is to jump up.... Whack your head until you see stars and start running....

As for the mice.. Cats got another one last night and left a prize...
Sounded like a bowling alley at 3 am.... I guess a 1 ounce mouse is no match for a couple of 20 pound cats.... Sport Hunting...

[junkman42]

I live in the Florida panhandle and out in the country on 70 acres.  I have killed several rattle snakes over 6 feet long and I can assure that I never put My hands anywhere I can not see!  I have pulled a lot of snake skins from under the hood of tractors etc normally just rat snakes, but I can assure if I were wedged in the engine compartment and grabbed one there would be damaged stainless steel!  I have had mice and a number of the nuts at Arcadia said peppermint oil and bounce sheets would keep them out.  I hope they were not sending Me for the proverbial bucket of prop wash.  John

[NewbeeMC9]

Borax  (20 mule team cheap stuff) in the cavities seems to be effective for me. for bugs and mice.


that is whats in borated insulation

[Ed Brenner]

This one's for John, Do you use that chevy powered John Deere to cut those 70 acres.
Time to do ? 20 Minutes 

[chargePlus]

I hope they were not sending Me for the proverbial bucket of prop wash.

http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=index

- John

[Van]

mice I can deal with ,it's these stinkin scorpions that rattle my cage ,mom hockey sticked one across the room the other night and just went over and stuck it in the bowl like nothing happened .Guess it shows how desensitized we can become living in the desert LOL.