guess that rubbish (ex-chair stuffing) below the cable could have gone up in flames had not a RCD taken the circuit out.
-&-
Second, disconnecting switches ...
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failure here. The blighter is obviously confused to the difference between a torpedo light switch and a nut! I found the switch elsewhere in the garage. Perhaps keeping for later burial.
The place is now full of bits of shredded cardboard, a bit of cleanup job is required tommorow :-(
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've spent much of today sealing up entry holes around the building, replacing cable, and also had a few cheeky visits from the intruder. I find squirrels in the garden fascinating to watch, but when they get inside, ermmmm ....
My next door neighbour of some time back - a very keen gardener who did wonders with such a tiny London garden - had one get in his greenhouse once and wreck everything he was growing for the coming year. Couldn't believe such a small animal could wreak such havoc.
Possibly, but I can recall in the distant past my mother getting an electric shock from the cooker. When the electricity board investigated it was found that a rat had eaten through the twin and earth cable leading to the cooker, allowing the earth to contact the line. The 30A fuse didn't blow and there was no sign of a fried rat, just the teeth marks on the cable.
rats dont have nerves in their teeth past a few mm at the very top, their incisors are a good inch or 2 long, so are pretty insulated as they grow constiantly and are designed to be worn down... and sharpened by them grinding their teeth side to side.
they'd only get a shock if their lips touched the live wires (and rats lips are behind their front teeth, so they can chew on stuff that may be poisonous and not risk swallowing any),
they seem to be attracted to the magnetic field in wires or something like that, i keep pet rats, and had one of them decide to bite into the modem cable once, heard a crack and a squeak, net went down, 10 seconds later another crack and a squeak as the little bugger had wandered a foot up the cable and snipped it again, it being a small cable he'd managed to snip all the wires at once and get a shock, the shocks didnt deter him, a few days after i'd replaced the cable, i hung it out of his reach i thought, but them buggers can jump 3 feet with ease, and he jumped and hung onto it, then nibbled thru it and swung to the ground tarzan style,
I think it's the plasticised PVC - just the right texture for gnawing teeth on to wear them, as is required by animals whose teeth grow continuously.
Having once cut through an unexpectedly live T&E cable, and having a copper plated thumb to show for it for a couple of days, I have this vision of a rat with a gold tooth, or at least, a copper plated tooth from the vaporised copper resulting from the arc flash.
If you want to catch him to release somewhere less of a problem like the local park just get a squirrel cage (I have one I use for rat catching) and catch him to release later rather than suffer more damage
i'll see if Ruby will let me take a photo of her lips then if you like,
they have facial skin over their mouth, but the actual lips are behind the front incisors, as mentioned, they are like that so they can gnaw on stuff and not swallow it/fill their mouth up with shavings.
if they come accross something new that they think might be edible, they will nibble on it without swallowing (hence the handy lips behind the teeth) then wait a while to see if they get an reaction to the potential food source, if they do, they will lay a pile of turds on or by the poisonous stuff to warn others,
if it's ok with the gnaw test, they will then swallow a little and again wait, they cant puke so anything bad has to go it's full course through them and out the other end,
they get caught out by the rat poisons because they dont produce a reaction untill it's too late, and it's in grains that they are used to eating, it usually takes a few meals of poisoned grain before it gets them (hence rat catchers can tell when the poison is being eaten as the green will show up in their turds)
They are very cautious to new foods, i've introduced rat kittens to older rats, and they would only eat the food the breeder supplied, it took them a while of watching the older rats eating stuff they'd not seen before before they tried it.
Rat's dont actually 'need' to gnaw on stuff to wear their teeth down, their teeth are made up of a hard enamel surface on the front and a softer substance on the rear, when they brux (moving their teeth side to side against each other) they wear down the rear softer stuff, sharpening the hard enamel to a chisel point, and every now and then they will brux front to back breaking off excess enamel if needed.
i've kept fancy rats since i was 11 (am 34 now) so have had plenty of time to study their habits, and i can get up close to them and see things you just wouldent do with a wild rat, like look in their mouths.... heck, some people think rats only have the 4 front teeth, they have a set of molars, but they are right at the back of the jaw.... spaced further back due to the lip position and you wont see them unless the rat willingly opens it's mouth wide to open those lips, They grind all their food to a paste before swallowing, hence they can safely eat chicken bones as they will never swallow a splinter of one like a dog can.
anyway, enough of the rat 101, you can tell i love the little buggers, but it's the fancy rats i like (who are as loyal as a dog), the wild ones are a different matter, i dont hate them but dont appreciate the dammage they can cause, and as i now have an aviary, i need to keep wild ones away,
(one) He'll be back. (two) He may be followed by Mr Plod, anxious to talk to you about releasing alien animals into the UK. Seriously. It's an offence.
Mine is back alright, He's crawling like spiderman around all the outside walls of the garage looking for a way back in!
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Interesting link on the particulars of the animal, thanks :-)
Just been reading this about someone who got fined £1500 last year for killing a grey squirrel, by drowning it.
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say if I catch nutkin in a cage, and by trial of the crime of 1) messing up my garage and 2) being a caught grey squirrel; I offer him the death sentence, how do I give him an adequate blow to the back of the head without bludgeoing the poor critter to death, and risking counterattack? I don't have a gun. I'd probably have to feed him rat poison, the effects of which won't be very nice to observe...
Makes me want to build a big wire cage, and keep him as a pet in life imprisonment.
You're going to hold down a wild squirrel with ONE hand while attempting to club it to death with the other? Can you _please_ get somebody to video this? And arrange for them to post it while you're having your wounds dressed ;->
My brother in law steps on their skulls (while I throw up) but he's a river/game warden, rufty, tufty country type. Ask down the pub for a competent air gunner - not the local kids - one who is preferably a club member and/or vermin controller too, one shot, all over. Or borrow an air pistol.
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