Call the Landlord!

[selenite0]

Owning a house means tackling a bunch of nasty tasks which the landlord would do in a rental. Usually I'm fine with that. I'm starting to get more handy on minor repairs. When a professional is needed, such as when the furnace broke, I can make sure it's fixed to my satisfaction, not somebody who doesn't have to live here. And mowing the lawn is nicer when it's my lawn.

But this weekend I tackled another minor job, checking for an intruder in one of the air ducts. After a bit of fiddling I took the fan unit out of the bathroom ceiling and pulled out some feathers. There was definitely some junk in there. So I got my plumber's snake and ran it into the duct. Started working it back and forth to get everything out. Feathers, more feathers, was that a head?, feathers, ack! a whole dead bird, closer to pigeon-size than sparrow, went past my face. Uck. A definite "call the landlord" moment. But there isn't one, so I kept going.

I got all the stuff out of the vent, up to the bend. Couldn't get the snake all the way through, the corrugations in the duct kept stopping it. The outside opening is unscreened but I couldn't get through that way either. I tried going through another duct and some snaking in the gaps, but didn't find any more signs of intruders. Haven't cured the problem, there were more scrabbling sounds in the eaves. Thinking of just screening the outside openings to block them, but if one of them is inside when I do it that could get bad. I'm probably going to have to bring the pros in for this one. Anybody have any suggestions?

Comments

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Wow, forensic plumbing! Call Miles?

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Making our cats earn their keep would be a good thing . . . but the chickenwire is probably the better bet.

[archangelbeth]

We had a flying squirrel fall into a "dead air space" in our wall. We cut a small hole in the wall, snipped through the plastic insulation that was keeping it from getting out, and duct-taped a bit of hamster-tubing to it, with a cage with food and water at the other end. Didn't know what it was -- thought it would be a squirrel, but no, a flying squirrel. Very cute.

Do you have a half-eaten dead bird from there, or are birds getting in and that one got sick or stuck and died there? If it's small furry mammals, you could rig up screens, and keep an ear on the situation. If you hear scrabbling, get a cheap trap and some tubing and catch 'em.

If it's birds... I have no idea.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Trapping is a good idea. I hadn't been thinking of that because I didn't have any way into the eaves, but now that I've figured out how to remove the fan units I can put a trap in. If I combine that with screening the vents that could work. Thanks.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

We had problems with birds (both live and not) in a couple of vents. We got the professionals, esp when we found that one of the birds was dead!! Got them to put screen up too. They guaranteed the screen so that if we have more bird problems, they'll come back and fix it. Oh and one of the vents was from a second floor laundry room. Andrew didn't feel like finding a ladder tall enough and doing the work from said tall ladder.

[wolfrick.livejournal.com]

If you want to screen off the duct entrances, hang a largish square of screen-wire over the hole, but have it hanging loose fastened only at the top edge, so it acts like a flap with gravity to keep it in place.

Trapped critters will push it open and get out, but new arrivals will be rebuffed unless they have thumbs and/or pitons. And if they do, dude, you're SCREWED.

Then, a week or so later, tack it down all the way around, and you're done.
I'd also add mosquito screening under the 1/2" wire mesh, but that's just me.

~Rick

[selenite.livejournal.com]

We've had wasp nests so the bug screening is probably a good idea. The vents already have some spring-loaded doors blocking them, which obviously didn't work. I presume some smarter critters have learned to use beaks or noses as thumbs.