Critters in the flue... ugh!

Parent Cafe
1

<p>No way to make this long story short. Hopefully our experience will prevent someone else from all the detective work we’ve needed. Last winter, we noticed water running down our bedroom wall, from the return vent… this is just below where the flue runs through the attic and up to the roof. Then we started noticing a sound a couple of times a week that we eventually determined to be ice formed in the flue, detaching from the wall and falling down the duct work. A very distinguishable sound. So we knew that for some reason, ice was forming in the flue somewhere in the attic. There’s an elbow in the flue about five feet above the attic floor, and ice would hit that elbow, then eventually find its way down the rest of the duct work. Last month, we discovered that, the top of our water heater down in the basement was covered in what I could only describe, was dirty dried water, and the water. Some of that water dripped to the cement floor also. </p>

<p>So I had the HVAC people out, but over the holidays, we played phone tag, and my efforts got put on the back burner. After spending many nights trying to fall asleep to the sounds of a <em>drip </em> drip <em>**drip *</em>*drip, I put the project back on the front burner. The manager came out last week (after my complaining about their lack of follow up prior to the holidays), assessed the situation, and scheduled an appointment today with two other workers. They were prepared to try to replace (or fit a new one inside the current flue) the flue from the basement up, and if that didn’t work, start tearing down drywall to access the flue from the first and second floor. I was not looking forward to their solution.</p>

<p>About twenty minutes after they arrived, they headed up to the attic to see what they were up against. They removed the elbow to get a better look inside, and they found the flue had become a bird’s nest. It was packed with dried grasses from above the top of the elbow, through the bend, to the end of the elbow. So they sent a camera through the rest of the flue to make sure none of the grasses had fallen further and created another ‘clog’. Thankfully, none did, so they are now replacing the gross elbow part of the flue that is in the basement, just above the water heater, and they will be done.</p>

<p>They checked out the cap to the flue, and it’s in tact, but I guess the way it’s designed, there is perhaps an inch of room between the cap and the opening of the flue, and they say it must be some tiny little birds (perhaps wrens or something similar) that are still able to get in there. So that will have to be taken care of, but at least we know what the problem has been all along. I would have never guessed that birds could make their way into the flue, build such a large nest that would then create such problems. </p>

<p>They suggested we also get a fake owl and put it on the top of our fireplace cap… that it will keep the birds away. But we’ll definitely have to address that small opening in the flue cap now.</p>

2

<p>I’m glad your problem was determined and is getting fixed.</p>

<p>We had a critter problem with something living in my garage. I’d noticed that things were being knocked off shelves, cat food was being eaten by something other than the cat, and it was starting to get a rank smell in there. This went on for a couple of weeks and then one morning I opened the door to the garage and a foot away from me on top of the washing machine staring at me was a possum! Brave guy that I am I immediately jumped back a couple of feet and slammed the door shut. After a minute or so I opened the door again and the possum was nowhere to be seen. We had no idea how to find and get rid of the possum but then my W discussed it with some friends of hers. One of the friends went had gone to the ‘Rare and Wild America’ show at the Wild Animal Park (nearby) and remembers the trainer saying that if you ever get a possum in your garage you should take a large garbage can, place food in the bottom, and then wait for the possum to go in the can. When my W told me this I said “uh-huh, sure” perhaps somewhat cynically but she went ahead and set it up with the can, cat food in the bottom, and a couple of boxes as steps to make it easy to get into. She’d then go check it and sure enough, shortly after dusk, she came back into the house announcing “I caught it!”. I went out and checked it and there was the possum in the bottom of the can just looking up at me. I then carted the possum, safely ensconced in the can and apparently quite happy to be there since it had plenty of food, across the street to an area with a little gully and lots of brush. I set the can down, kicked it over, and jumped back lest the possum decide to attack me. However, the possum was indeed quite happy to stay in the can with the cat food. I then bravely went up and kicked the back of the can a couple of times to no avail. Finally I acquiesced and just picked up the can, turned it over, and dumped the possum out whereupon it finally scurried off. Fortunately the possum didn’t come back to the garage and we were much better from then on about not keeping our garage overhead door open after dark.</p>

<p>Then there’s the story about the 3 raccoons that would run around on my roof every Saturday night that I’d throw limes at…but that’s another story.</p>

3

<p>ok… I’ll bite, how did raccoons get on your roof?</p>

4

<p>I’m also curious - why would they do it on Saturdays only?</p>

5

<p>I have to say that I read this thread as “critters in the flute.” I was afraid to open it. Glad you got to the bottom of this.</p>

6

<p>

shoo fly shoo… ba dump bump</p>

<p>Seriously, critters in the flute would make a good thread, too.</p>

7

<p>The raccoons would climb up an avocado tree that had a branch overhanging a low part of the roof. They’d then walk up to the top of the roof (way up there) and chase each other and play and make a racket. It sounded like people stomping all over my roof. To try to incent them to get off of the roof I’d pick limes off of my nearby lime tree and throw the limes near the raccoons (but not try to hit them - not that I could anyway) but they’d just look over at the lime as it hit the roof, watch it roll down the roof, then look back at me as if to say “cool, what’s your next trick?”. </p>

<p>I cut that tree back so it didn’t overhang the roof and the raccoons now just went on my deck to play instead. </p>

<p>I have no idea why it was usually on Saturday nights but I assumed that was just ‘raccoon date night’ or something.</p>

<p>And then there’s the time the skunk chased me around in my back yard…
And the time I was physically attacked by a gopher…</p>

8

<p>We had the same problem, only our furnace is set up so that it won’t run if airflow is not sufficient. It was getting cold last fall, and the furnace appeared to be trying to run but never did. Repairman found a bird’s nest blocking the flue. It has a curve at the end designed to prevent this but said a screen wasn’t recommended because it blocks the airflow too much. We just have to keep and eye on it.</p>

9

<p>tango… I think that was one of their surprises, that the pressure switch didn’t blow out, thus preventing the furnace from even coming on.</p>

<p>One thing they did tell me I could do, is to periodically (a couple of times during the heating season) go outside and look up to the roof. If steam is coming out from the cap when the furnace is running, then we know enough flow is going through. If just a tiny bit of steam is coming out, then there’s likely an issue.</p>

<p>They did feel this buildup was years of birds nesting in the flue, so if by watching it in the future, we may be able to avoid the monstrosity of buildup we had. They said they’ve seen this before, but never as bad as ours was.</p>

10

<p>Swallows will go in chimneys as well.</p>

<p>My sister still twitches if we mention raccoons to her. She had a family of them living in the chimney. We they tried to get them out, the mama came up and out onto the roof. The babies were too small to make the climb. My sister and the chimney guy had to get them out of the fireplace in the living room and shoo them out the door. One managed to hide behind some curtains, wrecking the curtains and leaving a pile of raccoon essence.</p>

<p>With the raccoons gone, all the fleas that had been living on them (and the eggs that had hatched) moved into the house. No amount of flea bombs worked. She had to tear up all the carpet in the living and dining rooms.</p>

<p>The silver lining is the lovely hardwood floor she uncovered.</p>

11

<p>Years ago, we had a squirrel fall down our chimney. Luckily, the flue was closed but we could hear him scratching. My dh knows that he is not allowed to harm critters around me so he took a rope and threw it down the chimney. He tied the other end to a nearby tree. Ten minutes later, one happy but dirty squirrel was free to raid my bird feeder once more. We also had a bird fall down (you think we would have learned to screen the top). That one we actually caught with our dd’s butterfly net. It was quite exciting. Ahh, those were the days!</p>

12

<p>We had some small birds peck through a facia board on a gable end of our house and nest in the space between the roof and D1’s vaulted bedroom ceiling. We saw the damage but before we could repair it D1 stomped downstairs early one Saturday morning and announced there were little, loud, cheeping baby birds right over her bed. We had to wait until the babies flew and then replace the board.
That pales in comparison with my sister’s saga about opposoms sliding down into her crawl space and not being able to get back out. They have paid twice to have people come out and haul out the rotting bodies and seal up the vents. Critters managed to get past the screens the first company put in. Second removal group found one body, presented the bill and left. Turns out there were still 2 more down there. At this point, I would decide my crawl space didn’t need a vent…</p>

13

<p>We had raccoons one year in our chimney. They got onto the roof somehow, still don’t know how they did that on a two-storey house, the mother came down the chimney onto the top of our fireplace insert and had her babies there. We were away for three weeks on vacation and didn’t really discover anything until we were watching tv one night in our family room and heard little screeching noises. Then we could hear something moving around inside the fireplace (on top of the insert, so they couldn’t get into the house itself). We called a wildlife company who told us the babies wouldn’t survive if they were that young, so we left them there for about two months then had the company come back and remove all of them. The chimney was recapped and they moved on. We have photos of them sitting out in our backyard and those babies were really adorable but I was happy to have them out of the chimney!</p>

14

<p>We had our chimney (which is huge) cleaned out and the sweep found a mummified duck :O</p>

<p>We’ve had one or two live birds that have gotten in and flown around in our living room.</p>

15

<p>Okay juba, you win this one.</p>

16

<p>I think twomules’s sister wins :slight_smile: Raccoons and then fleas - what a double whammy!</p>

17

<p>The birds that sometimes fly into the house through an open window are a pain as well - especially the hummingbirds. I have some large fixed windows that are way high up in the house that the birds always end up at trying to fly out through the glass. I have to use a long extension pole to reach the window. But the hummingbirds are so little and fragile and I don’t want to hurt them so I try to ‘herd the bird’ to try to get it to an open window or door. If this herding goes on for too long the hummingbird will eventually quit flying and just sit there and I can pick it up and carry it outside. Again, I need to keep my screen and garage doors closed more often.</p>

18

<p>I have photos we took of a huge raccoon climbing up the two story brick chimney onto the roof. He had no problem climbing straight up. Then he’d tap dance I guess, because he made an awful racket. After several months of this he must have found better digs.</p>

<p>We’ve had rats chew through siding and move into the attic on several occasions. They knocked stuff over and made lots of noise, especially in the middle of the night. Poison is to be avoided at all costs as the rats eat the poison and die in the attic. A dead rat you can’t find in the insulation has a lovely smell right over the kitchen. The ratman finally trapped them and we haven’t had a problem since, but I still hear them on the roof sometimes. We put up siding that is made from concrete or something the rats can’t chew through. </p>

<p>We also have a possum that lives in the neighbor’s yard and sits on the top of the fence teasing the dog.</p>

19

<p>Be very mindful of the possibility of bird mites.</p>

20

<p>Obamas do need a dog:</p>

<p>[When</a> raccoons attack CNN.com](<a href=“http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/06/when-raccoons-attack/]When”>http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/06/when-raccoons-attack/)</p>

<p>

</p>