eating the wires.......

it's amazing how they manage to compress their skeletons to make their way through the holes with romex , which they walk on like Karl Walenda

and they nibble them along the way, sometimes right on down to the copper to where all 3 (12-2 say) are completely bare , and in perfect formation like the insulation simply vaporized!

i wonder what attracts them? is it the emf? the simple fact that the wiring provides a pathway? the particular material of NM providding a satisfactory knawability?

~S~

You're going to laugh ... but I was told that the insulation once was (but no longer is) made using soybean byproducts .... which served as a rat magnet. Supposedly the new stuff is not nearly as tempting a dish.

(And I won't quibble over whether that's a rat, mouse, or vole in the picture!)

What's needed is a 'Critter Abatement Technician,' or, perhaps, a 'FEline Replacement Rodent Eliminating Technician.' Good luck.

I have seen where they only stripped the phone and alarm wires, while leaving the romex alone. But not always, some will eat it all. I guess there's just picky eaters in the rat world too!

The worst is when you are hammering in staples on a joist and turds are falling all over your head and dropping into your tool pouch. Always remember to keep your mouth closed!

With the recession, we are seeing lots of homes that have sat abandoned for 1 to 2 years now and the pack rats have taken over.

Reno, it looks like rattus rattus to me.
(AKA roof rat, black rat, tree rat, palmetto squirrel)

Sparky,
is that a live shot with a live mouse??? how did you do it?

Some years back I had a paging system that a number of speakers stopped working. Upon inspection, the rats had eaten the green wire from the 70v transformer to the volume control, JUST the green, where I used red or blue, they passed. Same wire, just different colors. Also squirrels will eat the lead roof jacks. Strange.

no kidding...?


the kind with tails, not suits, right?


Googled it Niko, they're far too fast...

~S~

Oddly enough,
Rodents of all types and forms have a need to gnaw on anything they can find, it keeps their front teeth in check.
This is why you might find the hardest of things around have been chewed on where there are rats, squirrels, etc.
I remember an old guy from Canada telling me this some years ago.
He said if a rodent isn't able to gnaw on something to wear it's teeth down, it can actually die from mal-nutrition from not being able to eat properly.

I think they are attracted to the warmth of a loaded cable, can or transformer.
I see lots of tunnels near the sub feeds and have found dead ones curled up by the doorbell transformer (not before putting my hand down on it first...eeeeeeoowwwwweee....poor little guy.
The tooth growth thing explains the chewing.

We used to have mice as pets; in addition to the typical food, you would provide them with "chew sticks" to work their teeth on. From what I remember (this was a few years ago) their teeth grow pretty much constantly, and if they aren't worn back down they can become impacted and cause all kinds of nasty problems, including them receding into the skull.

Around here it is the opposite. Rats chew into the attic duct work to air condition their den.

Noderaser; My mother in law, [clumsy lump] trod on my wife's pet rabbit's head and permanently distorted it's teeth. Denise used to trim them back every fortnight with a pair of sturdy nail clippers! Yikes! [ex veterinary's assistant]. I used to go hide in my shed. Something about the sound of teeth snapping off kinda gave me the willies.

Chico; I think you're right about the warmth of cables. The mice here flooded our kitchen twice in quick succession, by chewing through the plastic water pipes within weeks of us moving in to this end of the house. They only attack the hot water pipes. Since all the plumbing was behind the sheetrock, this was a real pita. I moved the lot outboard of the sheetrock, but every access I opened in bathrooms, toilets, kitchen etc. had the hot pipes gnawed, through the foam lagging as well. Killed 21 of the beggars with mousetraps and, touch wood, no more problems. So, if rodents are about they will target overloaded wiring?

Hmmm, maybe we can market this as a diagnostic tool; release a dozen or so mice/rats into someone's house, and assume the cables they chew through first are overloaded circuits. Bill accordingly, subcontract extermination.

Just trying to think about what kind of sound cutting teeth makes like gives me the shivers. I had a particularly bad experience when I had my wisdom teeth extracted; was supposed to be sedated but the anesthetic wore off and I woke up to the mechanical grinding of teeth and jawbone. Still have nightmares about that one.

You could get your own taskforce of rodent exterminators.
However, frequent replacement of the diagnostics equipment could eat into your bottom line.

Hmmm, mice and cats in the same work vehicle may not work out that well.