I had something weird happen last week, and I want to show you what it was in a series of three photos. Each one is zoomed out a bit, and the third one clearly shows what happened.
The d*&% squirrels chewed on my battery, while it was in the engine compartment!
I went out to start my car and go to the grocery store, but it just made a clicking sound and wouldn't turn over. Cars are John's area of expertise, so he used his voltmeter on the battery and only got a reading of 7.9 volts. The voltage should be close to 12, so I clearly needed a battery. When John took it out of the engine compartment, it was clear why I needed a battery.
The squirrels have chewed through the wood of our roof cornice three times and nested in our attic. They have demolished my outdoor hanging Christmas cactus, pulled leaves and buds off of my potted hibiscus plants, and broken branches on my mandevilla. I have never liked the varmints and now that they've reached this strange level of destruction, I like them even less. I'm not a violent person but I may have to rethink that policy when squirrels are involved!
Yikes! But also I'm laughing at bit (not at your inconvenience, of course) because after all the dental bills I've had this year, I am thinking about what that chewing must do to the squirrels' teeth! We've had issues with squirrels getting into our crawl space, too, and several years ago one electrocuted itself (and short-circuited some of our lighting) when it chewed through a wire in our dining rooms ceiling. All I can say is that they don't appear to be very bright, so perhaps they get their own karma for all the stuff they chew on.
ReplyDeleteHoly Cow! Or Holy Squirrel! I remember when a squirrel went down the chimney of our neighbor's house when I was living with my parents. That squirrel went right down into the fireplace and then proceeded to do damage in the house. I like watching their antics in our back yard, but I understand why Fletch's Mom kept a BB gun handy to shoot them in her yard!
ReplyDeleteThe issue that the squirrel has is that their teeth grow continuously and they have to chew to keep them "manageable" ... I read that leaving large broken shards of unglazed pottery (think a terra cotta pot here) works by giving them something to chew... instead of them chewing what they should not. I am not certain this will help your Christmas Cactus, Hibiscus, or Mandevilla... but, it might save your new battery! (FYI... I tried the pottery thing but I have not noticed them chewing the shards yet... but they are not chewing on the bird feeder any longer!)
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of squirrels, but I have never had this level of destruction, Bonny. That must be infuriating! Squirrels have to continually chew on something or their teeth will grow into their lower jaw or skull, so they will chew on anything. I wonder if there is some way you could give them something else to chew? This will require research on my part. They have chewed my wooden windowsills, my composite birdbaths, and chewed the insulation off my power lines. That one electrocuted himself and hung there like a gymnast for many months. We nicknamed him Sparky. I had to get the power company to replace my neutral!
ReplyDeleteWhat??? I've never seen that before. We had a red squirrel eating our grill cover of all things. Goodness the destruction!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't had that problem with squirrels, but a couple of years ago my sister visited her daughter in Chicago and either squirrels or rats chewed up her battery in a similar way. Good luck luck with your efforts to keep those pesky squirrels away!
ReplyDeleteA couple of commenters mentioned that squirrels have to chew on things to keep their teeth manageable, so at least I know there's a reason for it. Kat suggested broken terra cotta pot pieces so I may give that a try.
DeleteThat is just crazy! And expensive, too! I'm seeing these comments about squirrels needing to chew on things or their teeth grow too long and I had no idea about that.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Squirrels have destroyed my planted pots and even chewed through strands of Christmas lights in the backyard. Fingers crossed the PA ones haven't heard about chewing on car stuff...
ReplyDeleteOh, my. That's a mess. When I brought my brand new 2001 Mini Cooper home in early fall, the one I special ordered and waited 8 months for, a mouse family decided to chew up the lining of my hood for a nest and then gnaw on all the wires one night. I was NOT happy.
ReplyDeleteThat's bizarre!! One thing I know about squirrels is that they're tenacious little beasts. We had one (or more?) claw their way into our attic via some compromised trim boards on a window. Rusty replaced the damaged wood (once we evicted the squirrels) and they did it again!! Maybe they used their teeth, too, I'm not sure... but they DID IT AGAIN!! Then Rusty covered it up with a piece of sheet metal, which was up there for a couple of years before he repaired it again (in a way more pleasing to the eye... especially to the eye of his wife), and so far so good (it's been several years but I'm still knocking on wood).
ReplyDeleteThe amount of destruction those darned squirrels can do seems to be unlimited. They have made a mess of our deck and they like to chew on the metal gutters on the house. We are worried they will eventually chew their way in. But under the hood of a car? !!!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness!!! For the past several weeks, we've been hearing the squirrels at work on our neighbor's eaves/something at their roofline. They are so destructive!!! (The squirrels, not my neighbors.) Squirrels got into our attic space last fall (luckily, it's a very contained attic space and Tom got them out) due to that DAMN terrible roofer we had a couple of years ago. We had everything repaired and "tightened up" over the summer, so I'm hoping it doesn't happen again this year. But I fear my neighbors may not be so lucky . . .
ReplyDeleteOutlier here. We have gray squirrels and red squirrels that were acrobatic enough to get to the bird feeder hanging from the eaves. Smokey was so fascinated with them that he bought a squirrel feeder and put it on the deck railing. Red squirrels, although significantly smaller, are feisty and can defeat a gray squirrel in a squabble about just whose feeder it is. Happily, they have never caused automotive or house destruction here; I think that tends to happen in urban areas.
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