One of my employees went to trouble shoot a bath fan not working. He found a bird that was caught in the fan, dead of course. Has anyone ran into a situation like this before?

I heard that before as well but not too often unless the bird have a way to open the vent damper and build the nest in there.

but i did found at least two fans that i work that i found dead squrell in there. [ that really stink up the place ugh


Merci , Marc

Must have been squirrel cage fans, Marc.

I've twice found rats that had gotten across terminals in restaurant equipment. What a mess.

I've definitely run into this with attic fans where birds got into the attic and got sucked in. What a mess! At one site, the home of an elderly couple, this had happened many times over the years to the extent that there was a mound of rotted carcases below the fan. It wasn't until the fan failed that the homeowner called us for service and I discovered their "collection". My guess is that it was around 50 dead birds. Talk about stink!

I had another case where a snake managed to get into a bath fan exhaust outlet that was about a foot off the ground. The flapper had failed, so he just came right in. He managed to wrap himself into the fan enough to the extent that when it was turned on, it whacked most of his head off. Yes, it was a high-quality Nutone fan with a squirrell cage blade. Imagine my reaction when I pulled the cover off and half a snake fell out. I took the rest of the afternoon off to go home and change my pants.

Had a snake across the buss in a pool sub-panel. A groundhog remains in a pad mount xfr at an office bldg (major stench throughout bldg). A cat across buss in 4160 gear; and assorted rodents meeting their demise.
As far as birds, none that were memorable.
John

I took out 6 red dead squirrels out of a bath fan, never again. what a stinky mess.
one of theme made it past the back draft flap and chewed the plastic blades to pieces, the rest were stuck in the vent that took a 90deg turn up thay couldnt climb out.

I saw something sticking out of my parents bath fan louver/cover trim. took fan down and it was the remains of a bat. looked like it had been there a while...pretty crusty.

I don't mind the dead animals nearly as much as the live ones.

Having a cat visit you while in a crawl space is one thing; encountering a pair of (now cornered) raccoons is another.

Taking the cover off an 'indoor' box used outside, and seeing six little legs trying to pull it back on is no fun.

Opening a streetlight, removing a wasp nest ... then having the wasps come looking for home before the job is finished ... what joy!


Now, Nevada is quite rural, and the most amazing wildlife can be found in the most developed areas. My best 'animal story' comes from the time, on a plumbing-impaired jobsite, I decided to "water the sagebrush." Halfway through, the most horrible growl came from the bush ... I just knew I was in big trouble! Moments later, a bobcat exited the bush, shaking the dew from his pelt

Do alligators count?

Hmmm, alligators?

How about crocodiles?

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/media_archive/slideshow_crocodile_apr12_07.html

This one was chasing people around. That's my wife with the tape.

I remember a job on an old Victorian place a few years ago. As soon as I opened up the hatch into one section of the attic there was an awful smell.

By the time I'd crawled along to the end I found the source -- The remains of a huge and recently deceased rat, its jaws still firmly clamped around the 240V cable it had bitten into.

From an old ECN thread.

Old movie houses...need I say more? I can smell a dead rat about a mile away now...

I had a job one summer doing startups of controls and switchgear on low head hydro-generators installed at irrigation ditches in Idaho. In roughly 1/2 of the 30 odd systems we worked on, there were rattlesnakes waiting for us when we opened the enclosure doors to the switchgear. Rats would tunnel under the pad, chew through the PVC conduit, make a nest in the switchgear and that would attract the snakes. The first one was a big shock, I opened the door and immediately heard the rattle. The snake struck at me but I was a little out of range. Just about wet myself. The 15th one was no big deal though, we learned to expect it.

Snakes, racoons and cats in crawl spaces, rats and mice in switchgear, pigeons in HVAC duct work, but the worst (for me) black widows in pad mount xformers.

New job site old pit for working on farm eqipment full of brush and trash about half way through cleaning the pit out a field mouse goes up my leg and then back down!
I let out a scream that I was so glad that know one was around to here me. I laughed and then went and cleaned my pants!!!