ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area vermin that freak me out

Oh yeah, forgot about bees and wasps! I keep a can of "bee blast" in the truck.

While checking some light poles at a country club tennis court, I was trying to pull the wires out of the handhole,I stopped and peered in and then asked the maintenance guy with me"Is that what I think it is in there?" He leaned over and looked real close and then jumped back about 10 feet and screamed "HOLY @$#%< IT'S A SNAKE!" There was a about six foot black snake about two inch diameter inside the four inch sq. pole. It had crawled between the base plate and the base by the leveling nuts.
I decided to check for power elsewhere.

Chuck

I have lost count on the number of rattlesnakes I have come across in electrical enclosures in the field. A lot of guys don't take the vermin-proofing rules seriously, so mice take up residence, then the snakes follow the food supply. I always stand to the side when opening cainets in remote areas.

My scariest one was not a snake though. I was working on a pump controller in the woods in Washington State once when I was confronted by a baby bear. Cute little thing, but I knew enough about bears to know that Mama was close by and would not appreciate any attention paid by me to her little precious darling. I immediately went back to my truck and got inside hoping the baby would leave, but sure enough Mama Bear got there right away. She reared up and threatened me, I started the engine and laid tracks in the dust as fast as I could get traction. Had to go back and retrieve my tools and close the panel; she had torn apart everything that had my scent on it. Lucky for her the power was locked off at the pole. I got the priveledge of rebuilding the panel in the field, but the next time I had a lookout with me.

I might be a bit silly here, but, there is nothing that a 20oz Claw-hammer head can't fix.
Spiders, and the like.
BANG!.
Let's see you come back from that!.

I'm surprised "ants" have not showed up here. Of course there are the carpenter ants that seem to love pump switches and FS boxes as homes. Thet has you to be sitting in the dirt. Then you find the fire ants that make you dance around slapping yourself.

While not particularily bothered by critters, there are a few that complicate my day.

There's the 'indoor' box used outdoors, with the little holes bugs just love. It's lots of fun, trying to remove a cover plate, when you see six furry legs pulling it back on!

Or the fixture you remove, destroying a wasp nest at the same time. All is well, unless they start coming home before you have the fixture replaced!

There's the customer with pit bull puppies, who just love all your tools and parts, convinced you've brought them new toys to either chew up, or hide.


One job site, though, has me wondering if it is really of this world at all. Early on, we had a Snowy owl take up residence. 5 ft. wingspread, body as large as a chicken... magnificent bird! The alarm guys got quite a start when that came across droppings, with fairly large bones in them!
A light snow, and we found Mountain Lion tracks around our stuff. Ever gone to "water" a bush, only to have the bush growl?
We left the lights on one night, and arrived the next morning to hundreds of moths, as big as sparrows. 5" wingspans, bodise the size of your thumb. There were also beetles whose bodies were 2" long and 1" wide. HUGE.

Funny this thread is still running...

I just had a little encounter with a skunk here in Huntington Beach last night. I thought he was gonna get me - had his tail up and everything - but I just froze and didn't even breath. A couple seconds later he just ran away down the alley.

I just thought it was a funny looking cat for a second...

Huntington Beach - Isn't that the town formerly known as "Surf City"?

I lived there most of my life. I can't write down on here the term I use to refer to it...but it ain't "surf city". =)

I'm a critter lover. I have groundhogs living under my pantry floor, they don't seem to do any damage, and I love seeing them in the yard. Also, a lot of moths near my house, many are more beautiful than butterflies. Also have the occasional field mouse in the house that I catch and go on a long walk to release them.

But I hate roaches and spiders. I did a short stint as a maintenance guy for some public housing projects, and we had to fix an apartment that people were evicted from for trashing the place.

I had to replace a sheet of badly cracked drywall. Knocked it down and hundreds (or thousands) of cockroaches fell onto the floor (and me). I ran out, stripping to my boxers trying to get them off. I didn't finish the job, as we had to call the exterminator. I left my clothes there, but I had an extra jumpsuit in my locker.

Of course there were many times I'd prefer a rat or a snake to some of the humans there.