[bwdbrn1]

There are lots of things I wonder about from time to time, like this one. Why do critters like to get up under the shroud on an engine and leave the shells or hulls of what ever they were eating under there? I mean, of all the places they could go, why on top of an engine for crying out loud?

I got my mower out a couple of weeks ago to get it started and ready for the new season. I was happy that it started up on the second pull or so, ran fine, and everything looked good, so I pushed it back into the shed to wait for another day to change the oil and sharpen the blades and check the rest of it out.

Went out to the shed to get it out today, and saw hulls from sunflower seeds all over the top of the deck. When I pulled the rope, another batch showered out from all around the edges of the engine shroud, and darned if it wouldn't start. I pulled the shroud off to see if they'd made themselves a little rodent condo, and luckily they hadn't. No signs of chewing on the wires, and all the rest of the hulls had flown out when I pulled the rope. But I'll be darned if I can figure out why they've got to crawl up under the shroud.

 

[Austen]

Haha,

Finding a nest behind the shroud of an old engine that hasn't been touched in a while is kind of one of those norms, isn't it? Yeah, I've wondered before why there of all places critters like to go and most of all, how on Earth do they just seem to come out of nowhere and find those spots?! They must just really like the hidden shelter, or, looking to get fried when you start the engine.

It reminds me when I pulled the air bath cover off of my Eclipse mower when I was getting it going for the first time and found cockroaches and earwigs floating in the oil. Definitely took me by surprise!

 

[Wayne195]

A few months ago I bought a 11hp B & S engine to put in my Craftsman rider. It ending up that it didn't fit preferably in the tractor so I tried to clean it up a little and resell it. When I removed the engine shroud it was completely packed with fiberglass insulation particles and straw that some mouse had dragged in. Furthermore, when I got it cleaned out I found that the spark plug wire had all the wire insulation chewed off of it. I did have another coil there that fit so it wasn't too much of a problem though.

 

[bwdbrn1]

Same thing with that little Jacobsen I got recently. There was enough insulation stuffed under that shroud that you could barely turn it over. I questioned if there was room for the critter himself in there! It had to have drug it from somewhere else to get it into the engine, so why not just fluff it up where it is and call that home?:dunno:

 

[Mark / Ohio]

So far I've never had them go up in any of the small engines. But a few years ago I had to clean a big mouse nest off the top of the engine under the plastic cover on my mother's 1995 olds 88. Mom said it had an odd hot smell so I went looking for something leaking and discovered it. Lucky they had not chewed any of the wires or plumbing and the mess was setting on the intake manifold rather then exhaust manifold.

Since then we have a number of cats from neighbors roaming around here. Been several years since we've had anymore mice in the garage. After that incident I went to tractor supply and bought one of their best electronic pest repellers for barns. I've never been real convinced about the effectiveness of the electronic repellers but figured it could not hurt. On the other hand cats in the yard or not I don't recall that I've caught a mouse in the garage after plugging the repeller in. :dunno:

 

[bwdbrn1]

Silly as this might sound, but you figure these critters communicate with each other some how, so what, does one of them say "Hey, I wonder what's under here? Boy this is cozy, what a nice quiet neighborhood. Let's build our home and raise a family here." The one day "Hey, what's that sound? Where we going?" then, "Whooooa, help I'm spinning!"

Looking at that picture of Austen's it looks like there should have been a sign warning that no life guard is on duty, and they didn't listen when their mom told them to stay out of the deep end of the pool.

I just don't get it. What can they be thinking?:dunno: