Mouse sheltering in place(air filter)

I heard about a large rodent of some sort (squirrel, maybe) making a home inside one of those Mitsubishi ductless heat pump; Squirrel takes a bite out of a wire, electrocutes itself to death, and shorts out the system, leaving a nasty surprise for the technician who arrived to service it...

 

And how about this one...?

An HVAC tech finding a live owl inside the flue pipe of a gas furnace after the homeowner called to complain that their furnace wouldn't light!

 

Rodent gnawing electrical wiring has been known to cause house fires from time to time

 

I've had squirrels chew through wood and aluminum to get in my house.
Was doing a deck job for someone and there was a birds nest in the dryer vent.

 

Luckily in this case, it just overloaded the heat pump and cost the homeowner their heating and cooling for a bit!

I also found a dead mouse wedged under the fan grille of my neighbor's central air-conditioner maybe ten years ago; My guess is that it somehow climbed all the way to the top, and it happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the unit kicked on. The blades acted like a whirling guillotine (though the mouse was surprisingly intact and there didn't appear to be any blood or guts). The air-conditioner was fully operational, so I'm guessing the ill-fated rodent didn't gnaw on anything important...

Mice can squeeze themselves through incredibly small spaces, correct?

 

Squirrel and chipmunks...also in the rodent family....same deal. They can do damage to alot of things, including vehicles

 

Yea we are off topic.
If you do any type of work on houses there is usually dead rodents someplace in side.
I use to help install HVAC - there was almost always dead mice some place in the house

 

Alright, mice in vehicles...

When we moved into the new house in March 2016, my dad rented a Uhaul van (a brand new Ford Transit) to move some of our unneeded stuff into storage. He stopped at the grocery store to get something, and when he got back in the Transit, he felt something crawling up his leg. Out of reflex, he swatted whatever it was; He reached up his pant leg and pulled out a mortally injured mouse. The mouse was fatally injured but still alive, so my dad placed it on the ground underneath the tire of the Transit and drove over it.

We have rented a few Uhaul trucks over the last two decades, and most of them were older and absolutely disgusting. However, this was a brand new van with only a few hundred miles on it, and it was clean; My dad's theory is that the van was kept in storage for a bit before they put it into storage, and a mouse made its home inside...

 

At my Grandma's lake house in Maine, we noticed a powerful smell near the dryer, which was located in the basement; I thought the smell was rather urine-like. The dryer also was not operating very efficiently, and my dad finally tore the vent apart. He found an entire deceased family of chipmunks in the vent; Chip, Dale, and their in-laws! It is unclear whether the chipmunk family became trapped and died prior to the dryer being used that year (it was a summer house), or if they were suddenly baked alive when we turned on the dryer for the first time...

 

Think 'rona is bad? Read up on hantavirus

 

@tacofish

Here's a good one, with a happy ending...

My Grandma at one time owned two houses next door to each other up in Maine; She bought the first one in 1989 or 1990 and still owns it. She bought the second one in 2000 as extra space for visiting family members and sold it in 2010 or 2011 (possibly 2012) when family members stopped going up there as often and she only needed one house...

The chipmunk family was found in the house that she sold, not long before she put it on the market, in the summer of 2010 if I remember correctly; This story happened in 1990 right after she moved in. Her bedroom, on the second floor, has a private balcony overlooking the lake. My Grandma had been standing out on the balcony, and a chipmunk snuck in after her when she went back in; My Grandma about jumped through the ceiling when she saw the chipmunk, though honestly I think the chipmunk was more scared of her than she was of it, as is normally the case.

She chased the chipmunk; The door to the balcony has a conventional door with a full-length window, and a storm door. She managed to trap the chipmunk between the two doors, and the poor thing peed out of fright. My Grandma then went to bed with the chipmunk still trapped, and had a friend safely remove it the next morning. The chipmunk went free and probably had a hell of a story for its buddies when it got home!

 

Why in the hell aren't we worried about this?

 

It doesn't transmit from person to person in North America.

 

South America?

 

I had a marmot chew up a LOT of my underhood wires; thankfully it only chewed thru a few so I could connect them and drive the 1500 miles home. And it also carried off most of my firewall insulation. I spent most of two days repairing the wiring damage. I also had a mouse get into the cab thru the HVAC cowl entrance- I've since screened it off. Thankfully it did no interior damage and left. Mice can squeeze thru tiny openings, a finger diameter.

 

I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to evict him due to corona

 

Yea I think he now owns your truck dude. Sorry...

 

How does the plastic cowl come out?

 

I avoid Uhaul at all costs. Now I have one more reason.
We had to move a bunch of stuff recently, rented a truck from a local place. Mileage charge was half what uhaul's was. I wouldn't have wanted to take it too far or not have rescue available, it's next owner looked like a wrecking yard.