Vent Critter - Part III

My family and I were sitting in the living room watching TV early this evening. Our little visitor decided to start making some noise in the vent. Quite a bit of noise, actually.

I went to check on it. I opened the bathroom door and looked up at the vent. There he/she was. Sitting on the ceiling vent cover -- still in the ceiling -- looking down at me.

It's a small grey squirrel. Judging by its size, I'd say it's a young one.

I moved closer to get a better look and it moved back up into the vent pipe.

Now I figured we had a bigger problem. Seeing as how it can get past the fan, there's no way the exterminator will be able to haul it up the pipe and out through the roof where it got in. It now has a place to take cover.

I decided that now would be a good time to try and get it out.

My brother inlaw, Serge, came over and I explained my plan. Block off access to the rest of the house, open the front door, remove the vent cover and leave the bathroom door open.

Sandra didn't like that idea and went over to her sister's place.

We went back to Serge's house to borrow some plywood to block off access to the kitchen and the living room.

Then we played the waiting game. And waited. And waited. Once in a while we checked the vent and could see the squirrel peeking out from the vent pipe.

More waiting.

Serge suggested we bait it with peanut butter on a cracker, left on top of the cabinet beneath the vent. We did that.

More waiting.

Serge went home.

And more waiting.

Not a peep from the squirrel.

I guess it was just too tired and decided that sleep might be the best idea.

Sandra came home and we tried to figure out what to do. Do we put the vent cover back on or leave it off and close the bathroom door, with the hope that it'll come down? Or seal it up there again and be back at square one in the morning?

We chose option #1. There's nowhere for it to go once it comes down.

I closed the door and we blocked off the bottom with some plywood, and leaned a flat of water and coke cans against it.

With a little luck, the squirrel will remain quiet during the night. Regardless, I'm sure Sandra won't have a very good night's sleep. It'll no doubt be up early to continue its adventures. Hopefully it'll come down. If we can hear it moving around the floor in the bathroom, we'll block off access to the kitchen and living room again, open the front door and then open the bathroom door... and hope that it can see the way to freedom and take advantage of it.

God help us if it decides to hop over the plywood barriers. ;)

Sandra said if we can't get it out in the morning, she may stay home for when the exterminator arrives.

Vent Critter - Part II

We came home from work, hoping that our little vent visitor had managed to leave. Unfortunately, it's still there.

I opened the bathroom door to find at least twice the amount of vent dust sitting on the toilet seat.

As I stood staring up at the vent, I heard some movement. Not as much as this morning, but it's definitely still in the vent. I figure there's a bend in the vent pipe that runs horizontal to the corner of the wall and then goes straight up inside the wall to the roof. It's probably sitting in the horizontal section wondering "WTF?"

The exterminator comes tomorrow. Apparently, he doesn't need access to the inside of the house. He said to turn on the vent fan before we leave, and he's going to get at it from the vent exit on the roof. That's a long way up. Or down, depending on your point of view. How the hell is he going to get whatever it is out? Some kind of long grabber thingy?

I hope our little visitor stays quiet tonight. Sandra isn't happy at all, and I'm sure she's not going to sleep very well, even if it does remain quiet. Our cat, Sam, is going to go berzerk if she hears anything at night. She already walks around the house at night meowing at nothing in particular.

What's up... vent?

This is kind of how I was woken up this morning by my wife. (Hey... get your mind out of the gutter)

Sandra (loud whisper): Scott, wake up. I hear something in the wall. It's freaking Sam out. (our cat)
Me: Huh?
Sandra: There's a scratching sound coming from the wall in the corner of our bedroom. Sounds like... scratching Styrofoam.
Me: Huh?

I sat up in bed to listen. Nothing. Sandra is staring at the corner of our room. Sam is sitting in the hall at the top of the stairs, outside our bedroom, staring at me.

Me: I don't hear it.
Sandra: It's not doing it anymore. But it was loud. Like something is in the wall scratching. Sam was in here poking around the corner looking for it.
Me: Did you look behind the picture? (we have a large picture leaning against the wall in that corner.. it's been there for months, waiting for a spot on the wall to be hung up)
Sandra: No, not yet. Why are you chicken to look?
Me: No. (I was just asking so I didn't waste my time looking. Really.)

Sandra walked over to the picture and carefully pulled it away from the wall. Nothing was there. Not that we really expected anything to be there since the noise was supposedly inside the wall.

Sandra left the room and went downstairs to the main floor. I laid back in bed, listening for the mysterious noise. Seconds later...

Sandra: Scott! Come here.
Me: What?
Sandra: Come here. Quick.
Me: What is it?
Sandra: Just come here.

I dragged myself out of bed, threw on some track pants and slippers and walked down stairs. Sandra was standing outside the main floor bathroom

Sandra: Look in the bathroom.

I looked in. The toilet seat cover had dust clumps that had fallen from the vent above the toilet. (Hmm... yes... gotta get around to cleaning that vent -- again)

Ok... so we have something up in the vent. That would explain the noise from our wall, since the vent pipe appears to run up the corner of the stairs, inside the wall, in the same corner of our room where the sound supposedly came from earlier.

But what could it be? Bird? Squirrel?

Sandra closed the bathroom door, wrote a note -- DO NOT OPEN -- and taped it to the door.

We contemplated what to do. Do we call the condo corp? Do they deal with this? It's inside the house... stuff inside is supposed to be our responsibility. Stuff outside is their's. But clearly this came from the outside. The vent on the roof. That's outside stuff.

We decided to look in the bathroom again. I don't know why.

As soon as we opened the door, there was a loud scurrying, scraping, kind of sound coming from the vent. Dusty clumps fell again, joining their dust buddies on the toilet seat cover.

We looked up at the vent.

The sound stopped.

We turned on the bathroom light.

More scurrying sounds from the vent. More dust on the toilet seat. Sounds stopped.

Whatever it is, it sounded like it was just above the vent fan. Perhaps trying to (unsuccessfully) climb back up the vent pipe. I thought about turning on the vent fan. I decided that maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea.

Light off. Close door. Step outside for a smoke. Discuss options again.

Definitely call condo corp. Even if it's not their responsibility, surely this can't be the first time a critter has gotten into someone's bathroom vent.

We came back inside. I opened the bathroom door again. No sound. Turned on the light. No sound.

I turned on the vent fan. More dust fell, but there were no critter sounds. Where'd it go? Could it possibly climb back up the smooth inside of a sheet metal vent pipe and out the roof where it likely got in?

I turned off the vent, the light, and closed the door.

I checked the bathroom a few more times before we left for work. Not a sound. I even showed the kids what they were missing behind the DO NOT OPEN sign.

The critter has either:

1. Had a heart attack and died.
2. Fallen asleep.
3. Left the way it got in.
4. Or maybe it's trying to fool us into thinking it's gone.
   

Sandra called me at work later this morning. She said she called the condo corp and they're going to send an exterminator to deal with the critter. She was told that it's not easy for them to get squirrels out of vents, but they'll do their best as well as screen off the vent on the roof if it's determined that's where it got in.

But, it may not be today. O_o The lady said that they don't often go the same day that the work order is submitted.

So, now we wait. The exterminator will be calling Sandra at work to arrange the appointment.

Sandra said she won't sleep tonight, if they don't come today. I don't think we have anything to worry about. It doesn't look like there's any way that the critter can get out of the vent and into the bathroom. It would have to squeeze past the vent fan and chew through the vent cover.

I supposed we could leave the vent fan on all night. :)

Are we having fun yet?

Speaking of packed places...

Pushers

No, not druggies. These people are paid to pack as many people into the trains as possible.



The next time you have to ride on a packed bus, or train, remember these poor souls. :)

The Sparkle Lounge

Image via WikipediaDef Leppard's mini site for their upcoming release, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, is now up and running.

On it, they have previews of all the songs from the release along with the video for their new single, Nine Lives. At first listen, I like about half of them. But that's no unusual for me. More often than not, I tend to like songs the more I listen to them.

They also have a Guitar Hero III contest you can enter to win some prizes, I assume to commemorate the release of three of their songs on Guitar Hero III: Nine Lives, along with two live (older "classic" tracks) Photograph and Rock of Ages.

The general consensus on the Guitar Hero III forums is that the quality is crap. I downloaded the songs and I have to agree. The instruments on the two lives tracks are a little difficult to hear and the volume on Nine Lives seems to increased and decrease at various times during the song. I don't know what Activision did to the songs, but I know they don't sound that bad.

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Cool web site

I stole... err... borrowed this cool link from someone else's blog:

http://www.31337.com/

It's very informative.