Squirrel fell down the chimney tonight...

[Cannonball888]

The squirrel falling down the chimney actually pushed the flue open. Fortunately it was contained in the fireplace by the screen. I killed it with a .22 pellet gun by sticking the barrel through the screen opening and shooting it in the head. I had previously thought about trying to net it but didn't want to miss and have it escape and run loose in the house. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[DF357]

yup, twice. They both got into the house. Had a heck of a time catching them.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

Squirrel fell down the chimney tonight...

this one line made me laugh so hard.

 

[3006mv]

time to get a chimney cap. vermin carry fleas don't want those in the house.

 

[sharkhunter2018]

Never had a tree rat, but I've had chimney swallow chicks fall out of the nest and into the wood stove in my basement. Its really annoying when a chick falls and they don't actually get into the stove and they stay in the pipe. So, I have to pull the pipe off to get it out. Also, recently I had a bat end up in the stove as well.

Occasionally a bird will fall down the chimney and into one of the fireplaces. Ash gets thrown out onto the floor, but they always manage to get back up.

 

[mbt2001]

HAHAHAHA

That is awsome... Had that happened to me, the dog would have been all over the fireplace, most likely would have let the squirrel out trying to get in and made an awful mess...

You did the right thing bustin' a cap in Mr. Bottle-brush tail. Squirrels are nice and fluffy and all, but, I dunno, maybe they start daring each other to do stupid things. The higher the population density the more nutty things can happen. I keep an eye on them, mark the "bold" ones / the "perps" among them and put a cap in em. So mostly I haven't had any issues...

The cuty did a sewer rebuild in our area a few months ago and I kid you not, I was like John Wayne in Rio Bravo standing on my deck with my crossman dusting rats... Rats as big as squirrels at that.

 

[usp9]

Squirrel fell down the chimney tonight...

Was it dressed in a red suit and have a sack of gift wrapped nuts?

 

[Treo]

I don't recall John Wayne shooting rats in "Rio Bravo." Maybe you're thinking of the Buffalo hunting scene from "The Searchers"

 

[Pocomoke]

Huh. You're lucky it was only a squirrel and you had the screen in place.

Had a bat fly down the chimney into the unused and unscreeded 3rd fl. fireplace in NJ. Opened all the casement windows and turned out all the lights but the plug night light by the stair landing. Took almost 2 hrs of trying to drive it towards the window with a bath towel. Finally tired the rodent out and snagged it with a waste basket. Little bastid hissed pretty darn loud as I launched it out the window. Glad Youtube wasn't around then, there was altogether too much laughing from the family.

 

[Cosmoline]

I don't recall John Wayne shooting rats in "Rio Bravo."

It was "True Grit."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gVtIWQMPCQ

 

[KiltedClaymore]

Huh. You're lucky it was only a squirrel and you had the screen in place.

Had a bat fly down the chimney into the unused and unscreeded 3rd fl. fireplace in NJ. Opened all the casement windows and turned out all the lights but the plug night light by the stair landing. Took almost 2 hrs of trying to drive it towards the window with a bath towel. Finally tired the rodent out and snagged it with a waste basket. Little bastid hissed pretty darn loud as I launched it out the window. Glad Youtube wasn't around then, there was altogether too much laughing from the family.

y'all don't have fishing nets/tennis rackets(spelling?) up there? the tennis thing is made for hitting something airborne.

 

[Pocomoke]

Kilt,

Tennis racquets, what's that? ;>) I was thinking of using my 1858 but then I would have been in the dog house cuz of the smell.

Didn't want to hurt the AWOL bat. Just wanted him to get back to his job of eating bugs

 

[Deanimator]

A friend once had a squirrel get between the chimney and the liner and rattle around for a while. It could never get out, so he built a fire hoping to kill it. It died, but despite being very well cooked, it still managed to stink abominably for a while.

I live in an apartment with a hood over the stove. In the last few years, I have had numerous problems with birds getting into the ventilation duct, resulting in bird crap, feathers, twigs, straw, and the occasional dead bird in the in the grill over the stove and on the stove itself. I've repeatedly complained to the landlord, who claims to have put screens over the vents. After my fourth or fifth hazmat operation, cleaning everything with bleach, I just gave up and recently wrapped the grill with tin foil to keep stuff off of the stove. It still stinks from time to time. I of course can no longer do any cooking beyond boiling water for tea, since there's no ventilation. All of my "cooking" is now confined to the microwave.

 

[Cannonball888]

Well, I took the dead squirrel out to the trash last night, but there was a gallon of soot in the fireplace this morning. It seems he dislodged a lot of build-up as he was clawing during his fall. He actually may have saved me from having to get a chimney sweep.

 

[oldfart]

We had squirrels in the attic awhile back. I shot two of them with Super Colibre ammo and sealed up their entry holes before I found out there were more of the little bast__s. So I bought a bunch of D-Con rat poison. That just dries them into little mummies that don't stink. A week or so later I was cleaning the ashes out of the chimney and found one more in the bottom. I haven't seen any since then but I keep my eyes and ears open. We have a big walnut tree in the yard and it acts as a squirrel magnet when the nuts come on.

 

[tigre]

Had a squirrel run loose in a classroom in college once - our TA was teaching us how to tag small mammals and it got away from him. Even with 25 wildlife biology majors in the room it took about ten minutes to catch the little sucker.

 

[ScottsGT]

I want to see a photo of that cuty installing the new sewer rebuild

All we ever get in my area is a bunch of fat middle aged guys like me

EDIT: To add that I know it was supposed to be City.

 

[bogie]

Deanimator, you're not doing it right.

Gitcherself a dead bird or something from the vent, and take it to landlord's office.

Tell him the next one is going to the health department.

 

[Cougfan2]

Had a Robin fly into the house one summer when it was hot out and we had the back door and windows open. Had to corral it with an old WWII helmet liner. Also carried some wood into the house in late fall and then went to go to church. When we came back, the cat was tweakin' like mad and had ashes all over her. Turned out I had carried in a little Garter Snake that had been hibernating in the wood and it warmed up and came out. The cat patroled the fireplace for a week after that!

 

[slow944]

When we first moved into new (to us) home in the Lochwood section of Dallas, I was watching the ball game one nice sunny afternoon with the patio door open. I hear this scratching noise like dogs or cats do when scratching their ears, so I look at the dogs on the patio, they're both asleep, as are the cats on the other sofa, so I say to myself that I must have a squirrel down the chimney. I climb up on the roof and look down the chimney and there's the biggest raccoon laying across the firebox I've ever seen. So I call animal control, since it's illegal to shoot a firearm in the city and I don't want to scare my new neighbors, and they send out the Fire Department. Thay want to run a 2" line down the chimney and flush the raccoon out. I tell them "No Way" do I want gallons of water in my den, I'll try something else. They leave and all my neighbors want to know whats going on with the firetruck at the house. Anyway my nextdoor neighbor says that when he was in Panama, all kinds of critters would get down the chimney and they used heavy metal from a boom box to get rid of them. Long story short, Put my daughters boom box with some Metallica in the fireplace and turned it up really loud and the raccoon left. I guess he liked classical music better.

 

[doc2rn]

I have had two bird fall the chimney, catching them with a gloved hand and tossing them out the door is quite an episode of comedy. When no one else is home I just shoot them with a bb gun. Funny thing is we have chimney caps.

 

[Old Grump]

Critters in the pipe

Had chimney cap and a Franklin stove but no screen. Had a sparrow, unnumbered swallows and half a dozen bats all find their way into my house. The birds and bats I just opened the front and back door and let them find their own way out. The squirrel met Snowflake and Snowball our 2 half grown cats, (sisters and white hence the name from 5 yr old girl child). Happened so often nobody thought twice about it, we weren't the kind that gets to excited about critters running around loose in the house except Norway Rats, Skunks and Raccoons. At least we could eat the Raccoons. Who says its boring in the country?

 

[Dan M.]

The wife of a good buddy of mine found 3 baby possums in her toilet bowl one morning. Best we can figure is they were looking for mom (whom a neighbor had shot the day previous) and for whatever reason they thought the vent thru the roof (2 story condo) was a good place to check. Ended up coming all the way down past whatever other connections were on the 2nd story, through the trap and up into the toliet bowl. Another neighbor lifted one out and all three came out in one furry, clinging, shivering ball, and my friends wife got it all on video. Told her she to send it in to America's Funniest Home Videos, but she never did.

 

[feedthehogs]

As a kid before AC was even common I was staying one summer at my grandparents. That particular grand dad liked to drink and becasue it was so hot, all the windows were open.

grandma cooked constantly and many small animals used to climb thru the non screened windows.

Well late one afternoon two squirrels got in the house.

grandma grabs me and heads out the door to the root cellar. As We approach the steps I start hearing shots.

Apparently grandpa tied one on and was chasing the squirrels thru the house with a .22.

We had to wait till he ran out of ammo.

Never hit the squirrels, they eventually went out the same way they came in probably laughing the whole way.

I always wondered why there were little holes in the walls(plaster) and wood work.

 

[Flopsy]

No, but I once had a field mouse stow away in the laundry I brought in. My fiancee and I spent a half hour chasing the damn thing all over my apartment before she finally caught it.