Ducati Monster Forum

so,........ noticed this morning a headlight was out in my truck (i actually do a walk around when i havent driven it for a while...). jumped on my bike, picked up replacement bulbs (always replace in pairs)

when i went to istall the new bulb, i found that the problem was actually that my wiring had been chewed up by the local varmints. went back out, got a replacement wiring kit for the headlight. only mildly pissed at this point.

got it wired up, headed out for the local home depot for some stuff....

WTF!!!

1. Speedometer = not working
2. ABS = showing the warning light
3. Turbo (its a power stroke) = not working

look more closely under the hood. those little mother make the beast with two backsers chewed up more wiring than i know what it goes to under my hood.  >:( >:( >:(

luckily, truck still runs, brakes work, etc... just not exactly right.

changed plans. drove to local sporting goods store. purchased high power pellet rifle. stopped for a 12 pack

been fixing the root of my problem for the better part of the day :e:v

i cant wait to see what ford is going to rape me for to get this fixed :P

You gonna post pictures of the "big game" you are shooting?

this is what they look like through the site...

(http://www.cvmvcd.org/information/nuisance/clr_grd_squirrel2.jpg)

dont think it would be too PC to post the aftermath. not much to see actually

I shot me a nester just yesterday and am hunting it's mate as we speak.  Buggers get under my eaves and inside the roof, make babies and I can't sleep past 4am for 6 weeks.    I have a hard enough time sleeping as it is.  Last year we also had pigeons make a roost over our guest quarters roof.  Talk about noisy and messy- sheesh.  Our neighborhood also has eagles so if one o' those decides to make a home in my yard I'm screwed.

I haven't had Herm's problem with wiring being chewed but I did catch 2 mice in a zapper trap that were getting into my grass seed.  And then found two more who supped on some spare laundry detergent.  That must've been a gruesome way to go.

i have 5 acres of the little make the beast with two backss.
each of my neighbors does too.
cant poison them....too many birds of prey around
they arent going away, but this will be therapeutic for me

btw- i had a woodpecker last year who pecked away at the wall righ outside my bedroom for over a month.......every morning 1/2 an hour before my alarm went off.

Won't it be so much better to be living back near Boston?  ;D

Paging Howie!!

 :)

I keep tellin yaall!  It's a war out there!

http://www.anti-squirrel.com

i figured howie would appreciate this thread

Howie are those tree rats bothering you in the city?

Or do you have an upstate casa?

Da Bronks, borough of terrorist squirrels.  They harrass the neighborhood cats and dogs.  They also throw things at my wife if she sits under the magnolia tree.

herm... that really sux  >:(
normally, i might shed a few tears for the lil guys,
but not this time.

i have had issues with cute lil field mice getting under the hood of the audi.
they built a nest near the air filter  >:(

one actually lived in the cab of M's tacoma and chewed halfway through the passenger seat belt  >:(
we saw him hanging out on the back window ledge... so we knew he was still in there.
set a trap, but never caught him.

well, weeks later, the audi was in the shop and i needed to borrow the tacoma.
on my way to work, i thought i saw something move, i look over, and that lil bugger was sitting on the passenger seat floor.  :o
i don't like mice, so i pull over, and he dissapeared..... again.

from that day on... i can't help but feel a little weird in that truck.  :'(

I'm a huge fan of varmint hunting and think the predicament is hilarious.

Not the cost of repairs. But that those little buggers are responsible. Now you have a reason to get them.

Reminds me of Caddyshack and ....gophers.

not that funny.

trucks in the shop right now, estimate so far is 700.00  [bang]

i should set up some kind of high voltage electrical current under the hood of my truck when its parked

i wonder... [evil]

I know its not really that funny, and if it had happened to me, I'd be really mad.

And that estimate is not pocket change.   :-[

Awesome story! Has me laughing.   [thumbsup] [thumbsup]

not me dude...  :-\

i'm not fond of mice

Pellet gun?

I'd get some hollow point .22 varmint rounds, and set up a sniping point with my bolt action. 10x scope and 11 round mag, the littler buggers wouldn't stand a chance.

'Course that would attract "attention" if you live in a populated area...

Yeah, get a cheap 10/22 and some CCI Mini-Mag's (my plinking ammo of choice).

If you have cash and think plinking will be fun, and varmint hunting will be useful, a 17HMR dedicated rimfire rifle (teeny round) is designed to liquefy the guts of a squirrel.

yeh, if i got the gun before they trashed my truck, i could have afforded the gun. now, not so much....

i live out in the sticks, but do have enough homes down range ( i live higher on the hill than anyone else... king of the hill i guess) that i need to be very considerate of where i aim.

gonna try some hollow point pellets here soon though.... i hit one today and it went right on through. i could tell he was hit, but he went down the hole before i could finish. i dont like that...

I almost forgot about my rodents-in-the-car story... My family used to have an Audi 4000S Quattro, and one day when we opened the glovebox we discovered it was completely filled with a mouse nest made of insulation and newspaper. We tore it out, and never did find the inhabitants...

I often hear stories of bikes left in winter storage... When spring comes around they try to fire it up and it won't run properly. After some messing around they open the airbox to discover a huge nest blocking the air filter. Seems that the mice like crawling into intake ducts.

NO, for the love of beer man. You could end up harming one of the squirrels natural predators like this poor SOB:

http://www.kcra.com/slideshow/news/16180430/detail.html (http://www.kcra.com/slideshow/news/16180430/detail.html)

they're still in there... lurking  ;)

All this stuff reminded me:  My friend's cat made a bed beside the serpentine belt of her mom's car once...once  :-X

that's awful  :'(
poor kitty...

grrrreaaaat... today my neighbor told me that she and two others have found that they have rats in their houses.  this thread has me paranoid.  tomorrow I must don the respirator, gloves and duct tape a flashlight to my pellet gun while crawling under my house to spread some rat-ppetizers.  maybe I'll pour a six pack into my Camel back and just sit down there with my semi-auto .22 rifle and 50 round banana clip. 

or you could start a snake farm [thumbsup]

there is no question in my mind...
snakes are worse than rats....

no.... rats are worse....


no. snakes, definitely snakes  :-[

Snake farm...  Sounds kinda nasty...    Snake farm... It's just plain nasty...

JM

lol

Try these:
http://www.airgundepot.com/beeman-crow-magnum-177.htmll

Hey,
What year is your Powerstroke?
I thought Ford discontinued that peanut butter flavored wiring back in '03. ;D

that's why I'm laughing.  not long ago my wife and daughter came running upstairs to wake me up in the morning terrified of a little mouse.  I was groggily stumbling down the stairs saying, "alright, alright... where is it?"  "IN THE KITCHEN... EEEE!!!!"   
"No it's not.. It's right there."  Little brown face looking straight at me.  Wife and daughter running in panic "EEEEEEEEEE!!!!"  Your story reminded me of that.  My brother and I used to terrify my Grandma with little cat toy mice on fishing line.  We weren't called 'the Rotten Kids' for nothing.  I don't know how many mice I've had to chase down or feed to school pet snakes.  They're quite harmless and very gentle if you're calm with them.  Just got to get over the whole pooping on your hand thing but that's what gloves are for.  I always feel bad when I catch one in a trap.

its a 99. first year for the current (i think its still current) body style super duty
peanut butter flavor wires and manual only hubs

I've got a '97 Dodge Cummins. Noi critter infestations yet(knock woody) But with the price of diesel these days, it sits a lot. Any ideas on critter repellants?
Jeff

I would go with the .17hmr bolt action.. I have a savage with accutrigger. shoots like a f'n laser, liquefy the guts.. hell, it liquefy's half the damn tree rat.. they won't feel a thing. you can pick one up for about $200, then add a decent scope.

it would be safer then a 22 because the rounds fragment so much there is absolutely no chance for a ricochet... miss and it'll blow up in the dirt, hit it and it blows up along with the squirrel and its more accurate.

only down sides are the cost of ammo, and the noise...

17hmr and 17hm2 are some cool rounds.

17HMR is my round of choice.. hell just watching coke cans filled with water vaporize at 100yrd is worth the price.   [evil]

I thought seriously about a 17HM2.. but I can't find the ammo in town any where.. it is cheap though and supposed to perform pretty well.

Fortunately I found no evidence of Mortimer and his pals throwing a party under my house.  Nothing like climbing into a crawl space so small that you've got to go legs first, knowing you've only got 36" of space to wriggle around in with no clue what's waiting for you.  I went loaded for bear, a round in the chamber and "treats" for all my friends.

(http://i26.tinypic.com/hwlbba.jpg)

As a renovations contractor in an area with a high water table(no basements), I know exactly how that feels.

I also know that this is the before pic. ;D

oh absolutely before... I had no idea if I was coming back without some version of the bubonic plague.

You sir get big respect points from me for going up against these varmints regularly.  I'm not generally afraid of critters having seen some of the very biggest available in the wild, but I've also seen some big friggin' rats that for some reason scare me more than Kodiak bears.  I can thank my year in Baltimore for that.

Ah, yes, Bal'mer, I know it well. Went to UMBC and Towson State.
     I don't go under the house looking for varmints, I go to run or fix the plumbing or electrical. The rat crap doesn't bother me, doesn't even register anymore. No, it's the ones without doors on the crawlspace entry that the cat has been using as a bathroom for the last few years that get to me.
I charge extra for that.

"gee dear, the litterbox has been clean for three days now, but I still smell something, Where's Fluffy?
"Oh, I think I saw her go under the house.  Isn't it about time to get the den wired for that big screen?"
Yeah, lets call this guy, it says he gives free estimates."
 [bang] [bang] [bang]