Smoked squirrel

[houblon]

I have a chimney with two liners, one for gas and one for the wood stove. Both are capped and under a slate.
Yesterday I noticed a squirrel sticking out its head, so I took my binoculars and saw that there was some amount of leaves stuffed in.
Today I climbed up the roof, evicted the guy and removed a big plastic bag of leaves and branches, some black and scorched.
If that stuff had caught fire, we would have had the beacon of Gondor up there...

We are not burning 24/7. but still I'm amazed that the guy found it comfortable up there.
Oh well. I guess I have to get stainless steel mesh now.

Barney

 

[wvstriper]

2 years ago in June I was going to clean the stove/chimney out. I cleaned the chimney and then proceded to work on the stove. This stove was a VC Dutchwest with no glass doors. When I opened it up it looked like I had already cleaned it, except for on small burnt log laying on the grate. That "log" was a dead dove!. The bird must have fallen down the chimney and worked his way to the stove. He thrashed around in there and in turn, knocked all the ash into the ash pan! I felt bad for the bird, but I didn't even have to vacuum the stove!

 

[wahoowad]

Your little squirrel could come back. I've had problems with specific squirrels getting focused on certain areas. It's liek once they find a "good" area to them they want to try and use it. If it was me I would have put a pellet in him. I had to dispatch a couple epsky squirrels that were repetedly gnawing at my attic louvres. Other squirrels did not fill they void they left once I dispatched them.

 

[Shane]

Had a live squirrel in an open fireplace once. Opened damper and squirrel bolted. Cute little paw prints all over white carpet and furniture. They didn't want to buy a cap the year before "we've lived here xx years and have never had an animal in our chimney". DOH!

 

[HalJason]

Before we installed the insert, we had set of fireplace doors. One day the dog (half black lab, half walker coonhound)
was obsessed with the fireplace. I opened it up to see what all the fuss was about, and out jumps a squirrel.

While she cornered it, I grabbed a cardboard box and my welding gloves. Scooped the (scared half to death) squirrel
up in my hands, put it in the box, and went for the door. Before I could get there, out it jumped, and the chase was on
again. I didn't neglect to close the top of the box the second time.

The whole process (from the squirrel getting out of the fireplace initially, to getting it safely outside) took about 2 minutes.
I'd still be chasing the damned thing (3 years later) if it weren't for the dog.

 

[got wood?]

I've had a good 4 or so birds fly down my flue and can't get back out (past the 90 degree bend I'd imagine). Luckily they kick up so much ash that I notice them before starting a fire and fish them out...two of them I had to smoke out as they went into the reburn chamber/plate and wouldn't come out. I have to say all made it out alive tho!

 

[wg_bent]

I thought this thread was going to be about over firing of a Morso stove.

 

[elkimmeg]

There is a lot of catching up missing a week on the forum
Craig has dead mouse smell problems in this concealed walls
I had a duck come down the fire place chimney one day.
Too warn at the time to be Santa. Ended up flying into the bathroom
with my wife in the shower. Her screaming must of scared the hell out of the Duck
Grabed a towel finally caught it released it outside. No milk and cookies for that guy.

Squirrels Pesky buggars; First rental house my wife and I lived in, they chewed there way into the overhang
Every night they created a racket woke us up. I would go outside with a broom stick and bang the over hang.
That quited them a few minutes and they would act up again. It got so everytime I went out that door I rapped the over hang to discourage them and make them want to leave. I love animals and hate killing except mice,
What to do. This will expose my age, but I duct taped a cherry bomb on the broom stick an lit and inserted it in the entry hole.

BOOM they came falling out the hole smoke singed and doing cart wheels on the ground. Completely dazed
I cut out the overhang trim board and replaced it ending their entrance. All the while these squirrls acted like they were drunk.
They never came back

 

[Sundeep Arole]

Elk I am glad you are back. My wife and I lost our battle with squirrels the last time we planted a garden. Pretty much destroyed it all. My wife was so ticked she refused to plant anything last year.
If you were able to beat them - all I can say is that is awesome. I must have trapped and relocated around 30 of them, but they just kept coming back.

 

[elkimmeg]

I now have a secret weapon 80 lb Chocolate lab loves to chase squirlls.
Unfortunately he has been sucessfull at catching them. Then I have to chase him around the yard to extract the
squirill from him. It's not like he wants to hurt them but he plays a little rough, By the time I get the squrill from him
I end up digging a hole to deposit them. The dog is quite smart.
There was one squirril that sat in a tree about 10' up
and taunted him. My dog stopped paying attention waited for the squirril to decend the tree grabed him in
mid air as the squirril attempted to jump to the ground, He two ended up in a hole under ground.

 

[Shane]

I have one more squirrell tale.

Went to give my 5th grade teacher a bid to fix her chimney. The crown had caved in and I suppose through the water damage through the years a brick was missing from the chase giving squirrels access to the garage attic. The little buggars stole every last bit of fiberglass insulation, replaced alot of it with there own little "pellets" as well.

 

[houblon]

Both flues are capped with SS caps. There is no danger that squirrels get into the flue. But they keep building a nest in between the caps, its warm and dry because there is a slate covering all. I'm not surprised they would build in summer, but during the heating season I had expected that it would get a bit too hot.

The two big stores carry only galvanized chicken wire. Any idea where I might find something better?

Barney.

 

[webbie]

Both flues are capped with SS caps. There is no danger that squirrels get into the flue. But they keep building a nest in between the caps, its warm and dry because there is a slate covering all. I'm not surprised they would build in summer, but during the heating season I had expected that it would get a bit too hot.

The two big stores carry only galvanized chicken wire. Any idea where I might find something better?

Barney.

Try McMaster-Carr or someplace like that....although I hate to get you addicted to McMaster-Carr....
Wow, they have EVERYTHING an engineer or wanna-be-one could want......

http://www.mcmaster.com/
(435,000 products in stock!)

Elk, do you ever buy stuff there? It's great for screws and hardware......I have a friend that says the US Government should let McMaster-Carr run the ship......you'll see what I mean if you check out their web site or order.....

 

[BS-N]

Yes. Yes. Very popular with the mechanical engineers at work.

 

[fbelec]

chalk up one more reason to read this forum. not only can you get educated on wood and coal stoves and how to set them up but you can get a good laugh too.

those squirrel stories were great
LOL a cherry bomb. that was very funny

 

[aerodark]

My first post is a funny squirrel story. It happened about six years ago

I had the pleasure of hosting a family of squirrels in my attic. The suckers bored a hole through the siding on my house and then bored their way up the wall into the attic. The standard rustling and other noisy activity. I started eradication by replacing a portion of the siding that they had damaged, and purchasing a RAT ZAPPER online. It is basically a battery powered execution house. I placed it near the repaired former point of entry.

I was at work and I had a contractor doing some work inside the house. I came home and looked down at a closet door that was adjacent to the thoroughfare that the squirrels used for their ascent into the attic. The corner of the door had the bottom chewed completely off and the resulting sawdust would have filled a pint container. Apparently the squirrel had come in through the open front door while the contractor was doing his work, and tried to make an alternate entrance to his vertical passage.

I went upstairs to my bedroom and to my surprise there was a squirrel on my floor dead as a doornail. I am guessing that he got zapped and had a somewhat frenzied chew session, then ended up going upstairs before succumbing to the lethal jolt from the RAT ZAPPER.

I have never had another squirrel in the house. They surely like my wood stack for nesting now, though.