| !@#$% Squirrel So I have been doing battle with one of Gods most devious of creatures, I hate to admit it but I am losing.
This all started about 2 months ago. One of our sites started having some off issues with sporadic latency/slowness, no good explanation. Did the usual course of troubleshooting. Finally one day our network manager couldn't get on (he happens to be on this POP). He had a great signal, just terrible response. I planned a service call to his house since he has an integrated radio that I converted to connectorized, I assumed it had failed.
The boss suggested checking out the AP's on the way since there was a history of it having turned.
So I get there and start climbing (this is a 100 foot concrete grain bin with a leg extending above it, it has a straight shot rung ladder up the side). The last time I had been there a squirrel was on the top rung not letting me pass, and I wasnt about to get in a fist fight with a squirrel 90 feet in the air, finally i screamed enough at him to get him outa the way.
About half way up this trip, I look at the cable, theres a few knaw marks in it, at aout 3/4 up I see that hes chewed o all the cables, hes exposed the cat5 and ate through the LMR 400 braiding. So I get to the top and see that the cable on the leg is good for the most part. I do see that the data pair on the back haul is chewed up, luckily we have a spare so I put ends on it and cut the radio over, no power, hed chewed that cables power pair somewhere. Luckily this is a site with two tranzeo backhauls, so I put in a 24 volt power supply and daisy chain the radios, all is good for the temporary fix.
We start planning on moving our box from the ground to the top of the structure. In the mean time the radio I piggybacked dies, I just assumed since its tranzeo it blew an ethernet port.
We push all the traffic through an alternate route to the other backhaul which works for like a day. So we scramble and get some armored romex to run power up to the top. We scrape together the goods we need and head over to the site. When we get there the squirrel has gone ape !@#$ on our cable, the daisy chain cable is completely destroyed along the entire length, and hes gnarled up most of the cable going up, its like he got mad we would dare even think about changing his stuff.
It takes the better part of the day to get our box moved up to the top, power ran, and cables replaced. by this point my partner has to skip out to his next gig and I starttying everything down and cleaning it up. While Im doing this the squirrel comes out of the grain leg and starts swearing at me in squirrelese. I could tell by his tone he was mocking me and talking some serious trash. He ends up going to the ladder and is there talkin his trash until I get fed up and throw a wrench at him, he just squirrel laughs at me and climbs down.
So I get done with the top and head down. I start tidying up the bottom and the squirrel shows back up standing on a another bin mocking me and taunting me. He finally goes away and I continue on. My phone rings and its the network manager, his connection is crap again. So I stop cleaning up and get out the good ol laptop. Latency is going up and down and up and down. I start getting concerned that we damaged some of the bottom ends or something when we pulled the box up. The squirrel had come back at this point and is talking trash to me. The whole time im troubleshooting hes behind me smack talking. I end up stting up a subscriber and linking up, my latency is great to the switch. The boss is testing from the shop and his is great to the backhaul.
That little SOB squirrel had gone up and chewed the cable to the backhaul when he disappeared for that short time. By this point its dark. So I prep a new cable, and go up and replace it. The squirrel at this point is inside the grain leg talking smack to me. So Im up on top of a elevator in the dark with a squirrel talking smack replacing the same cable for the second time that day. I was saying some pretty nasty things to this squirrel about what I was going to do to him and his family and his friends, if the wind carried my voice, the neighbors had to think some pretty strange thoughts about the guy up on the elevator.
Finally I get it complete. I get home at 930 that nite...grrr.
About a week later, the radio goes dead and is inaccessible. It goes on my list to do, but the other backhaul is still providing srvice so it gets back burnered to more pressing issues. That is until saturday when the site that the first site is backhauling froms other backhaul goes down, the squirrel dead radio is the rendancy for this other site, which also feeds another. So I have three sites down to start a monday (I had got the second site back up temporarily on a 6mb link which went to crap at 2mb)
So here I go again to fix the squirrel site, but I stop off at the farm store to get a pellet gun. Of cours the whole time Im there today, no squirrel, he was probably off in a tree laughing at me. But let me just tell you what this little bastard had done. First, he chewed off every single tie strap, so all our service loops had come uncoiled and were flopping in the wind, the routed cable was wrapped around the grain leg, it was awful.
The cable I had already replaced twice had a bite taken out of it every two inches for the entire length of the cable like he was just saying "Oh yeah, you think. screw you biped" (I replaced it with armored cat 5 this time. When I went to start tying cables back up, I find hes chewed everything else, luckily it was mostly superficial. I went through a boatload of electrical tape (took three hours just to tape all the bite marks) He even knicked the lead off one of the sectors which is made out of some odd sized cable we dont have ends for so couldn't have repaired it (he will get it soon enough).
This little squirrel has costed us over a grand at this point, and hes not dead. I have permission from the farmer to poison him, but I cant cause he lives in the grain leg so if he dies int here he will contaminate the grain. I cant set live traps because the wind will trip them. If anybody in the area is bored this weekends and wants to come sit with me on a grain leg with some pellet guns, Ill bring the soda and cigarettes.
This was a very long post, but its been a very long adventure with this little bastard, and I dont see it coming to an and any time soon. As I type this, I know hes jsut chewing away. I did pee in his nest though. Im pretty confident that a guy pissing in your house should get the point across that hes not pleased.
I am going to kill one of gods creatures, I dont feel bad about it. |
|
 aSicapplication specificPremium
join:2001-05-17
Wakulla, FL | lmao!
I nominate the above as best post ever. I can just visualize that little bastard cussing at you in squirrelese!
--
Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say. |
|
robbinPremium,MVM
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX
kudos:1 | reply to shorthairedp
I don't believe a word of it -- only superdog  could have something like this happen to them! |
|
| reply to shorthairedp
Holy S$%t, that was the best read ever. LMAO. I am so sorry, but so well visualized I can't stop laughing. I had a racoon incident once. But know where near as good. Although try chasing one of those up a grain leg  The cooneese is interesting as well. LMAO But I did shoot that bastard with a pellet gun. It didn't phase him though. Just talked smack right back at me LMAO |
|
EquisPremium
join:2005-03-18
Australia | reply to shorthairedp
LMAO!
Have you named him yet? |
|
 superdogI Need A DrinkPremium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA | reply to robbin
said by robbin:I don't believe a word of it -- only superdog could have something like this happen to them! Hmmm....I have had issues with squirrels in the past. They can be a lot of fun. I'll bet that nest smells really good right now, LOL! 
--
»www.wavecrazy.net
|
|
 screavic4Premium
join:2006-08-11
Paron, AR
kudos:1
2 edits | reply to shorthairedp
Sorry missed the last paragraph about the live trap so I'm editing this to remove it.
Rat trap? The big mouse traps put some peanut butter on it.
Also one way door trap might work
»www.livetrap.com/cgi/search.cgi?···ay+Doors |
|
| reply to shorthairedp
This reminds me of Caddyshack |
|
 koitsuPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
kudos:14 | reply to shorthairedp
What an awesome story. My favourite part:
quote:
This was a very long post, but its been a very long adventure with this little bastard, and I dont see it coming to an and any time soon. As I type this, I know hes jsut chewing away. I did pee in his nest though. Im pretty confident that a guy pissing in your house should get the point across that hes not pleased.
I really needed a good laugh. (I've had a severe toothache for the past 3 days and amm going in for a tooth extraction in a few hours...) Thanks much.
P.S. -- Get some photos of the bugger, if he's on the ground of course.  |
|
| reply to shorthairedp
1. Buy a live animal trap, such as this:
»www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/···0_988790
2. Bait it with a nice, big dollop of peanut butter in the back of the cage.
3. Transport the trapped squirrel(s) at least 5 miles away and release.
4. Sleep well. |
|
| reply to shorthairedp
A heavy concentration of rat poison and peanut butter should get the bugger.
|
|
RonN
join:2002-09-08
Westlake Village, CA | reply to posthaste
Naa. Don't put peanut butter in there. Just put some cable in the trap. |
|
 Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA
kudos:2 | said by RonN:Naa. Don't put peanut butter in there. Just put some cable in the trap. WIN!
Just make sure to get some CAT5, LMR, and something else to give him nice variety! |
|
 SteveI know your IP addressConsultant
join:2001-03-10
Yorba Linda, CA
kudos:5 | reply to posthaste
said by posthaste: 3. Transport the trapped squirrel(s) at least 5 miles away and release. ... at the base of your competitor's tower
--
Stephen J. Friedl | Unix Wizard | Microsoft Security MVP | Orange County, California USA | my web site |
|
|
|
| reply to shorthairedp
BB gun. Problem solved. |
|
 Doctor FourMy other vehicle is a TARDISPremium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX | reply to shorthairedp
Squirrel must be one of those wi-fi nutcases (no pun intended) that always complain whenever a nearby tower goes up saying it is radiating excessive EMFs and causing health problems.
I wonder if PETA put that squirrel up to this?
--
"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
|
|
 james
join:2001-02-26
CWCville USA
1 edit | reply to shorthairedp
So, I'm this squirrel, and I was chilling in my new home on top of a grain bin, eating some expired licorice that the last tenant forgot... All of a sudden this guy comes and corners me up on top of the ladder leading up, I was yelling at him "No! Get down from there human! You are not a squirrel! Look at you you look so silly!" but he really wanted to get to the top so I backed off.
Anyways, I see him messing with my licorice so I really get mad and yell at him for a while. FINALLY he leaves and I notice that he left me some new licorice, as he's climbing down I take a couple nibbles and go down to thank him (even though it tastes the same as the old stuff)...
What a nice guy! |
|
| reply to shorthairedp
Thank you for giving me a chuckle today. Sorry you're having problems with the critter, but at least you seem to have some humor left. |
|
 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to Steve
said by Steve: 3. Transport the trapped squirrel(s) at least 5 miles away and release. ... at the base of your competitor's tower ROFL!!!
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
|
|
| reply to shorthairedp
Trap the varmint Squirrels (rattus arboreus longtailus) are obnoxious pests. We haven't had much trouble with squirrels chewing on our wires, but we did have one get into our storeroom once. What a mess! Like many rodents, they simply don't have spinchters, so they just poop all over -- especially when they're scared. And they can carry disease, so it's not good to have all of that, er, detritus around. They are also extremely good at avoiding predators (which they consider us to be).
In our case, the squirrel kept on hiding behind and under things, and we couldn't flush it out or lure it to the outside. So, we went to the county weed and pest division, who warned us that rat traps usually don't work on squirrels. (Apparently, the bail doesn't hit in quite the right place on a squirrel, so the trap doesn't kill it. What's more, squirrels are fast learners. After one encounter with a rat trap, a squirrel won't go near one again.) They also said rat poison doesn't work on squirrels unless they get a large dose -- an amount you could probably only feed to the varmint after you trapped it and starved it a bit.
We followed their advice and borrowed a live trap from them -- the same kind you'd use to trap gophers. We put some peanut butter on the bait pedal, left the trap in the room, came back in an hour.... Sure enough, we had one neatly packaged and very, very annoyed red tree squirrel.
I suggest that you do the same. Once you've got the squirrel in a trap, you can let it loose miles away or kill it; it's up to you. |
|
