Problem: Squirrel in Fireplace Insert!

Take a wander past the fireplace section of your local home center. Chimney rain caps aren't that expensive for the amount of peace of mind they bring. Home Despot had stainless ones when I got mine...

--Glenn Lyford

big snip----->

Interesting report, Bob. Much like the one we experienced about ten years ago when we found a raccoon living in our chimney. It, too, went through a fire and survived. Congratulations of the successful eviction!

Harold

Dropping a rope down the chimney probably would have worked.

I once had to get a cat out of the neighbor's fireplace. Still can't figure our how it got in there--maybe tried to catch a bird, and fell in. The cat was atop the damper, and had been there for days before we figured out where the crying was coming from. It refused to come out, so we called animal control. He had a cable-noose on a pole, and managed to get it around the cat's neck, but the cat resisted, and pulling would have broken the cat's neck. So he left. In the meantime, my cat wandered into the room--when the cat in the fireplace saw my cat, it came down voluntarily, and went home.

So, you could say that my cat rescued the other cat.

If you have Real Audio, check out the "Squirrel Cop" story:

Ned Simmons

Well writ story Bob!

I put a Home Depot cap on our chimney in January of 2000 when, after living in our home for about 15 years, we got our first creature, a Grackle (a crow like bird), down the chimney.

What was really eirie about the event was that it occurred on the morning we were burying my mom. The Grackle was flapping around behind the fireplace glass and one of the kids opened the doors without thinking about the consequences.

We were due at the cemetary in the next town to us in less than an hour, and this stupid bird bird flapping around the cathederal ceilinged family room, bashing against the skylights trying to get out.

There we were, running around waving brooms and hockey sticks at it trying to herd it out an opened window. We were just about to give up and let it stay inside until we got back from mom's graveside funeral service, in company with twenty or so folks who would be coming back with us to pay a traditional condolence call.

The thought of the Grackle, even though it was appropriately dressed in black, flapping around and knocking over coffee cups and such wasn't something we were looking forward to.

All of a sudden the stupid bird spotted an unblocked window and took off through it to freedom. It was pretty tuckered out by then and had difficulty maintaining more than a couple of feet of altitude as it slowly flapped its way over the lawn and disappeared behind the homes across the street.

Needless to say, the unintended symbolism of seeing that bird leaving our home coincident with our family saying goodby to my mother for the final time will never be lost on us. We can't keep from thinking we watched her spirit heading off for heaven.

Regarding squirrels; While many homeowners hate the little "roof rats", the ones around or house know their place, and haven't invaded the premises yet. We enjoy watching the brighter ones learn to crank the kids' discarded gum ball machine which I converted to a corn dispenser. Some not too great photos of one doing that are up at:

(Click on the middle thumbnail in the first row...I can not tell a lie, I didn't take the last photo in the series..)

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

I enjoy watching squirrels from afar, but I've had too many close encounters with the furry rats to be kind anymore. If they threaten the house, I introduce them to the point and click interface. Sooner or later I'm going to stew a few when I find the time.

Oh yeah, we started getting all sorts of weird animal appearences after my father died. Squirrels, a rabid racoon, a sick crow (all of which ended up dead), and a whole bunch of neat healthy animals like a tiny owl and a hawk on the front porch.

GTO(John)

Quite a story Bob. In nice weather I wonder if a rope dropped down a chimney would get a squirrel to climb out?

I'm building a new house and have a very large flue (in a very large chimney) - there's a half ton slab of concrete as a rain cap over the whole thing and the thought of a coon getting in there was not very pleasant. To discourage the little buggers, I welded up a square frame of 1/8 x 1 inch strip, welded additional strips across the open frame and welded 16d nails, point up, on the strips. I welded on some brackets made from strips of angle on the sides so the whole thing sits in the flue with the nails pointing up. To keep the birds out, there's some chicken wire across the bottom.

I had a red squirrel fall down the flue in an unused fireplace in my current house. Beats me how he got in since the screen around the flue opening was intact, but it was amazingly hard to get the little idiot pointed to the open door (8 feet from the fireplace). This is an unused fireplace with no screen. When I opened the damper the little bugger bounced on the floor and took off. Maybe next time I'll let the cats take care of the problem.

Paul

(snip)

Some folks in Minnesota had a family of raccoons living under their porch, called the extension division at the U to inquire about a remedy. The fella at the U said to just put a place of lutefisk under the porch and the smell would drive the 'coons away.

The nice fella from the U called the next day to check on their progress.

"Well, ya, da coons are gone but now ve have a family of Norwegians living under da porch!"

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 00:02:48 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat" brought forth from the murky depths:

-snip of hilarity-

As do you! Thanks for a good story well told.

Glenn posted about a rain cap, but in many areas, a spark arrestor is mandatory. They do triple duty to remove fire hazards, keep rain out of your chimney, and keep nosy birds and squirrels out. Take a look at some to build for your squirrel catcher, eh?

--== May The Angst Be With You! ==-- -Yoda, on a bad day --

Ending Your Web Page Angst.

It might well have done so.

I remember once at the place I was working the guys in the drafting room heard scratching noises coming from the "whiteprint" machine before it had been turned on for the day. When they opened it up they found a bird jumping around inside the glass cylinder.

They thought they'd have to tear the machine apart to let it out, but our janitor, wiser than the rest of us, went outside and dropped a rope down through the "stovepipe" exhaust stack. Shortly thereafter that bird hauled itself up and out.

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

LOL!! Been there, done that! Squirrels, racoons, even a little screech owl. Make that a FAMILY of racoons. A whole row of beady litle eyes staring out at you is both cute and worrysome at the same time!

If it happens again, put a large diameter rope or a smaller one with knots down the fireplace to give the critter an out.

If it is a gray squirrel, he will probably remember what happened, he will steer clear of your place. If it is a red squirrel, you have my permission to do what ever you choose to the little b*****d.

I read the part for the nuke picture. That must be what those multiple smoke trails are on nuke pictures. They never show them very long on TV to figure it out. I was always thinking on the lines of wires behind rockets and the wires would toast for some reason, but they are just the smoke trails to get insturments at different altitudes close to the blast?

Well, yeah, at least on the above ground tests..(Ducking..)

Keith, who spearheads that "Atomic Vets" website:

ss a very nice guy. He's selling recently declassified videos of a large number of atomic tests from the cold war era for very reasonable prices. For old tymes sake I bought the one covering the series of tests I was involved with. For very understandable reasons, personal photographic efforts were verboten back then,

Jeff

I've told this story on some NG before but don't know if it was this one where I rarely post. I used to have a cat that came in the house through the chimney. The first time it near scared the daylights out of me (and probably the cat, too). I heard a rustle, rustle, rustle in the chimney and next thing I knew the cat streaked out of the fireplace (didn't have glass doors) with soot flying all over the place. I didn't have the ability to do anything about the chimney so that became the cat's way of getting in when no one was home. After several trips, she came through sootless as she'd swept the chimney nice and clean. Needless to say we never closed the flue. :o) Sue

>

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 20:02:03 -0600, Roy J brought forth from the murky depths:

Why knots? They climb up and down the strainght strings and ropes to squirr^H^H^H^H^Hbird feeders all the time.

Something like this?

've always loved that one.)

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Lucky too that it did not plug the vent pipe itself. A plugged vent can mean traps siphoning, bad odors in the house, and frustration trying to figure WTF is going on.

My "stuck animal" story involves a grackle, IIRC. I was replacing the gas water heater and in reconnecting the 4" exhaust pipe I discovered the very dead grackle inside it. Now a grackle is a pretty large bird and 4" isn't a very large pipe. It scared me to think how close we'd come to having that pipe blocked and fumes coming into the house.

Bob

I thought of that, but the roof is covered with ice. I wasn't about to climb up there. Can you say ski jump? Yeeeeeee hah!

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

Reminds me of the mouse we had at a friend's summer cottage that got thrown across the room and slammed into a wall by the mousetrap it was climbing over to get at the bait. Stunned it pretty bad, but it scampered into the woodpile next to the fireplace before I could dispatch it. Must have suffered some brain damage, though. An hour later or so it reappeared on top of the woodpile, and just watched as my friend administered a coup-de-grace with his shoe.

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)