Something is in the furnace flue. Bird, squirrel, chipmunk? Been there three days. We're goin' in. Wish us luck.
Update: It's a squirrel. And the little tree-rat crawls back into the chimney. He's left souvenirs inside about 6 feet of angled-upward exhaust duct: grit and droppings.
We can't shoot anything energetic up the duct, so drop that idea right now. Air rifle? .177, hand-pumped, is all we have -- and that needs to be a clean hit.
UPDATE: We had some good looks at him, the rotten little rodent, but not hits. (Tam has more on Facebook). So...after talking to the pros of Butler M-K, I have made and installed a hardware-cloth (1/4" square galvanized steel mesh) "squirrel screen" as close to the chimney end as I could, held in with sheet-metal screws. They'll have a look at the situation in the morning.
And just think, back when the weather was nice and the days were long, I could've installed a nice squirrel excluder over the top of the chimney!
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
25 comments:
This ought to be a GREAT blogpost.
Plan ahead. Leave a trail of nuts from the fireplace to the open front door.
And perhaps it's best not to have the cats as an audience to the proceedings. :)
Hold ma beer and watch this ...
Good luck!
Ooo boy. Can't wait to hear the report on this one.
leaf blower.
Rat trap with a string tied to it? (In case it only grabs a leg.) Or if you want something more humane, a live-catch trap?
http://youtu.be/K16fG1sDagU
Is the goal to get it dead inside the flue (bad idea, ask my parents how they know), or to encourage departure?
A few pounds of dry ice and close off the bottom end will encourage shuffling off this mortal coil; a good shot from a CO2 extinguisher shouldn't kill but should encourage leaving...
I look forward to the followup.
TRY NOT TO PUT HANDS WHERE YOU CANT SEE THEM BUT IT COULD SEE YOU AND TAKE DEFENSIVE ACTION AGAINST YOU REQUIRING A SUDDEN VISIT TO AN EMERGENCY ROOM
AGREE WITH SHERMLOCK AS TO SEQUESTERING THE FELINE DEPARTMENT OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD
BEFORE COMMENCING OPERATIONS
IS THERE A SMALL ANTI RODENT FRAGMENTATION GRENADE?
Anything that shoots a pellet might damage the flue too.
Gopher grenade at the bottom of the flue. It is potassium nitrate, sugar and sulfur. The hydrogen sulfide should drive it out. Most garden stores carry them.
1) Make sure the bugger isn't in there, and then
2) put wolf urine around where it's been coming in.
Only problem is collecting the wolf urine. Suggest large amounts of water.
Roberta,
Possible to use a very lightly loaded .22LR (thinking Super Aguila here...) ~500fps at the muzzle....silent from a rifle.
Just a consideration.
--Jim
We want him to leave and not return! I think he crawls down the flue shortly after the furnace has stopped, to get warm, and then retreats to the chimney when it is actually running.
I like the "rat trap on a string" idea, combined with a squirrel excluder. I don't want the creature to suffer overmuch -- but we have no shortage of squirrels.
High volume, high pressure air.
Think squirrel cannon.
BGM
Actually, I with thinking hairspray followed by tossing in a match and slapping a coffee can in the duct, but I decided the back pressure would do the water heater no good.
firecrackers. Detach from the bundle and use them one at a time. Won't dmage flue or chimney, nor skwirrel
Scare him gone for good, it will.
I have an old stone fireplace at each end of the house, and living out in the timber, over the years I’ve have had an assortment of varmints in them.
A 8X8 glass pan with about 1/2 inch of Bo-Peep ammonia a little updraft, and they can’t get out fast enough.
("I with thinking?" I lithp when I type now? Make that "I *was* thinking..." But not about what I was typing.)
No fireplace at Roseholme Cottage and but a single flue.
just went thru this with Archie and his Raccoon.
9mm Flobert? Now you have an excuse to buy another oddball at the fun show.
Could be worse, my parents had to fish a (still alive) female mallard out of the chimney pipe when I was 5 or 6.....they never did figure out how she got in there!
So far, so good: no scrabbling since the second pellet.
I don't think Tam got him, I think he decided the neighborhood was too rough.
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