Lolz… Working in IT, we had a facility connected to our HQ via outdoor wireless bridge some years ago. Daggum squirrels chewed thru hardened exterior coax cable. We had to rent a Sunbelt cherry picker to re-run cable since it was about 4 floors up near the top of a building.
All of this reminds me of the feature in Wyze’s app for uploading user video submissions. Where did that go and is there some place in the forums that took over that role? I was visiting parents last week and a bobcat showed up wreaking all kinds of havoc. Got some great captures from one of their cam pan v2s.
Wyze Cam helped me figure out Groundhogs were ripping the insulation off the hoods of my car and truck. In the truck, they also chewed the foam off one hose (might be AC line).
I put a cam in the shed and recorded a groundhog chewing the fuel line on my mower.
it’s taken me a while but those squirrels are nice enough to walk up right under my windows to eat from my flower garden. 8-10 down, 4-5 to go. I feel bad… just not that bad.
watching my many dozens of sunflowers, now about 2-5ft tall that will reach 8-10 if…) suddenly start to shake like there’s an earth quake, then topple like a tree in the forest brought down any sympathy to a very quiet, “awwwwwwwwww”.
One of the trick you can use for protecting some of the more sensitive cables from rodent is to cover them with peppermint oil. The strong smell will push rodents away.
I had the issue in Seattle with squirrels and after 3 repairs, that’s what the garage told me to do. Never had to fix cables ever again.
In lieu of that, a thin coating of Vick’s VapoRub on the air cleaner box (or anything that doesn’t get hot) will keep them away for a few months.
You won’t notice the odor after a few days but the critters will smell it for far longer.
Squirrels have to constantly chew to survive. If they didn’t, their incisors would grow to the point where they couldn’t eat at all. I feel ya though; been calling them tree rats for years. I, too, have had the wiring harness in my Jeep chewed through. It sucks big time. I killed one once, and tossed it in the garbage bin. I never stopped to think it would be several days before trash pickup - what a stench !. I now run a squirrel relocation program. Some 40+ squirrels that used to live in & around my backyard now live in the wooded area around my local Walmart - plenty of good foraging. I gotta tell ya, a catch & release trap, besides being more humane, is a whole less smelly, and doesn’t tick off those who hesitate to stomp a spider. Squirrels are exceedingly dumb; I’ve caught a few with no bait. Speaking of rats, did you know a common Norway rat can chew through concrete ! ?. They have the same incisor thing going on.
Word must have gotten around the local squirrel community - hardly ever see one now. I’ll tell ya the critter that really gets a bum rap, the opossum - never caused an ounce of damage to a homeowner. They just have a prehistoric face only a mother could love.
Dumb? I dunno, they seem crazy resourceful to me, tireless persistent problem solvers, seen those viral obstacle course vids, wow, a country full of squirrel people would have a GDP off the charts!
You got me there. I just watched one of the viral videos for the 1st time. It reminded me of a video I saw years ago featuring a guy who actually had a live-in pet squirrel (I know, disgusting). The video, as I recall, was titled “Attack Squirrel”. The squirrel actually attacked, and got rid of an intruder. If problem-solving isn’t directly linked to intelligence, I don’t know what is. That was enlightening, to say the least !.
