Wednesday

Critters need to be warm too, but they gnawed through my....



All the cold weather from the Northern States came down to Florida this past two nights.  We went down to 27' and it was cold enough for me to put on the central heat in our house.
My sister and I thought this might be a good day to warm up in front of the slot machines at the Hard Rock Casino.


 We got in the car only to be greeted by the "Check Engine" light and I thought better of driving the hour to get to the casino and instead took my car to the mechanic.
 Well once I got there and they looked into my hood,  all the guys started  laughing and told me that a critter did some damage.
 Seems Squirrels needed some refuge from the cold we were having and they climbed under the hood of my car to get warm. They then began to gnaw the censer wires.  The wires were no longer connected and this caused the "Check Engine" light to come on.
 They then started gnawing on  anything they could get their little buck teeth on. 
Like my 'air filter'.
They then started gnawing the panel that is closing off the engine from the inside of the car cabin. The mechanic told me, they chewed into my glove box and started nesting.  He also found the feminine napkin that I kept stored in the box, chewed to bits inside the engine.
I was amazed at how much damage the little critters did in just a few hours during the night!
 
 I took the advice from my mechanic and went to the Home Depot and got a bottle of pest spray that will last 30 days against critters.  I sprayed the entire engine area and am sure I used much too much spray.  
They will not do that again!  
Now I'm a Squirrel lover and every day I toss peanuts out on the back deck for my many critters.  
If their little escapade did not cost me so much money, to repair the damage, it might have been funny!
What kind of problems has the first winter weather caused you all this past week?
'Stay Warm" 
* * * * *
I'm joining Jenny @
Alphabet Thursday




19 comments:

Rocky Mountain Woman said...

We have these ugly little critters called "Rocky Mountain Trader Rats" that love to nest in my truck engine.

I absolutely hate them!

Stay warm....

Judie said...

I have had a pack rat in my car, and he kept setting off my perimeter alarm, so I couldn't open my car door without the key!! Then we had one in the wall in our home office! I made Rod set a trap in the attic, and we caught him, and released him 5 miles away!!

21 Wits said...

Wow, that's completely amazing...in one night they chew quickly! My grandfather had some issues with Kangaroo rats I think they are called....but he took care of it quickly!

My name is Riet said...

Great post, stay warm. Even cold in Florida?wow

Betty said...

I've never heard of squirrels doing that to a car, but 27 degrees must be really cold for Florida. If it got that cold here the pipes would freeze and possibly burst. Right now we live on the south side of Houston towards Galveston and it's gotten down to freezing a few times, but barely. When we lived north of Houston it got down in the 20's and the pipes froze. We were lucky and ours didn't burst, but some of our neighbors weren't as fortunate. By the way, I stopped feeding the squirrels and birds when I discovered that rats liked the nuts and bird seed too.

EG CameraGirl said...

I'm so sorry a squirrel caused so much damage! I hope they find a better place to stay warm!

Susan said...

Yikes! What a mess. I never would have thought they could do so much damage. My only inconvenience this winter is having to cover my plants and bring my orchids in.

Pondside said...

Oh dear - that was funny but then, not so funny. We've had torrential rain, and some of it found a way in a crack somewhere and has caused some damage to a wall. We really can't do much until the rain stops.

Teresa said...

I just had to chuckle over this~sorry. I guess I can thank my squirrel-eating cat that I don't have those problems. We seem to have your weather while you are freezing. Hopefully, we can trade back and let our dormant trees actually get a good winter's sleep.

anitamombanita said...

I'm sure I won't be popular for saying this, but I've always thought that squirrels were just rats with bushy tails. Cute until you realize how much damage they can do. Sorry you had to experience that. Hope the new year is good for you!

dollygk said...

Lets hope that Critter Ridder really works!!

Lola said...

When I lived in LA, rats nested (ugh!) in my car's hood & did some damage too - I can sympathize!

Great post – and thanks for stopping by!

Unknown said...

I didn't realize they made a product to get rid of squirrels! I think they were smart to head for the glove box.

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness -when I read your story, I told hubby, and he had heard the same thing. Even, the the critters get addicted to gnawing on the wires - so maybe you need to take some precaution:(

Abby said...

oh my gosh, who knew squirrels could do so much.

Pat said...

I would have been beside myself seeing that damage...

In my first garden, we had chipmunks go down the entire row of potatoes and take a bite out of each one...it was endless warfare after that. Then in our new log house, porcupines tried to destroy a main support log on the front porch.

Bears and deer I can handle, but little furry rodents or critters...no, no!

Unknown said...

How crazy is that??? I thought the squirrels in my neighborhood were pranksters & pains in the butt! I'm in Minnesota, I guess they are used to the cold here so no gnawing into the car or anything but they did once gnaw their way into the attic from the roof! Crazy critters!

Ames said...

After living under 9 Live Oaks in our last house and bagging 100 - 36 gallon bags of leaves up every yer, we decided we didn't want trees around our new house. At least not close to the house. But where I am going with this is that our neighbor has a lot of oaks in her yard and the squirrels seem to be over populated this year. There is one in particular that must be sick or she is constantly giving birth to more babies because she comes over to our house and sits on the down spouts and bleeds everywhere she backs up to our house. And another runs horizontally around the house tormenting out two Chihuahuas. I would never feed squirrels anywhere near my house. Once they find a way in, you really have problems.~Ames

Jenny said...

Oh no! I've had squirrels chew up wiring the house but never anything the car.

That would make me awfully growly...and mechanic stuff is always so ridiculously expensive.

I'm glad you found a solution to gnawing. I wonder if I could spray that on chocolate?

Thanks for a Grand link for the letter G.

A+