Recently about a month back, I opened the pike to several first time visitors. As I was turning on the lights (240 track light pots), I heard…“Mr. Zane you had better come in here” Well their shock was nothing to my 9.8 on the Richter scale. In the center section were 6 ceiling tiles lying on top of two crushed structures and around 50 demolished Super Trees. What I could guess is that one of my cats gained access to the basement, climbed up the up to where scenery hits the ceiling, then pushed a 2’x 4’ ceiling tile up so he could climb between the dropped ceilng and original ceiling. I only wish I could have seen the expression on the cat’s face, but I don’t even know which of my six cats did the deed.
Point:…a new vulnerability to be aware of. Everything was fixed within the first week and a new ceiling was installed. I do have what I thought to be a foolproof cat door???
I was once going to host a group of friends to inspect my layout area, followed by an evening of railroad slides. The day before they were supposed to be there I noticed a putrid odor. Somewhere in my very expansive suspended ceiling something had gone to die. It took a while but eventually I found a decomposed mouse. What a mess. I bombarded the basement with spray de-odorizers but there was no mistaking the aroma when my friends visited. We moved the slide show upstairs by necessity.
“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” - Douglas Adams
Doesn’t exactly fit the situation, but it came immediately to mind.
Actually the door is cat proof and well designed…just today one of my cats ran under my legs as I was entering…my guess is this is how the culprit pussoid got into the basement last month.
Usually, when you find one mouse in your home, there will be more…many more if you can’t find where they’re getting in. Plugging the small hole(s) using steel wool is quite effective.
If, on the other hand, you find a cat anywhere in your house, simply get rid of it. Chances are that somebody unwittingly let it in, not realising the consequences.
If you have a non-attached garage and gasoline in your locale is not too expensive, carbon monoxide is apparently very effective and painless, too. [swg]
Had a similar problem with my shop vac. Got that bad smell every time I used it. I must have left the open end of the hose laying on the floor. The entire mouse family walked up through the tunnel of love and then fell into the great canyon of death.
Similar experience with stinkbugs and a vacuum. A few years back I vacuumed up with shop vac a solid wall of these bugs. Feeling like a real wiinerr, I put the vac down and congraulated myself on the victory when right before me was a column of twos of these stinkbugs marching out in close formation from the long hose.