Public Safety Announcement: Check your wires

Quick blurb from my day today!
If you have rodent issues, ever, I strongly recommend that you check all your extension cords. There's one flavor I had two of that were both gnawed on by mice. The issue is they're especially fond of the phase side, making it one hell of a safety issue.
They ate both of them, just phase on one and phase and neutral on the other. I discovered both when they (at different times) shorted to something.
Thankfully that something wasn't someone and there was no damage, but it could have been death/fire/etc.

So, if you have a rat/mouse issue or did at any point, I highly recommend you drag all the extension cables and such out and inspect 'em. Far better to discover a problem now and fix it than to discover it by zapping yourself.

bastages

great to see that it killed nothing external though and no harm to the family

If you can't hang them on wall hooks, then keep them always plugged in, so when they get chewed on you'll notice the dead rodent on top of them

You'd think so, heh. These were both live, I guess it's lucky (for them) they didn't chew both sides at once.

Ok. I believe it now.

There was an extension cord going to my cousin's laptop. It was literally destroyed (chewed) from many places.

It was told that it was a big bad mouse. I was like, how the hell didn't he get electrocuted?.

+1 to keeping an eye on extension cords/cables, as well as attic wiring.

The simple solution is to NOT leave pet or people food lying around, particulary pet food. I feed the dog and cats and once they've had their fill, I pick it up and not leave pet dishes full as many often do. All other food is kept in door sealed pantry or plastic containers. I can't name the number of times I've told tenants to follow this simple rule and yet once they're gone, so are the mice/rats.
On the building structure, make sure all eaves are closed except where grilled vents exist and seal around any plumbing protrusions which lead into the house, including under the bathtub where the tub trap box is located. Expandable foam such a "Great Stuff" is good for this application.
If rats or mice are present, set rat traps and mice bait, problem solved.

Then you have no rat or mice problems.

Amnesiac said:

Ok. I believe it now.

There was an extension cord going to my cousin's laptop. It was literally destroyed (chewed) from many places.

It was told that it was a big bad mouse. I was like, how the hell didn't he get electrocuted?.

Click to expand...

Might of got a tinge, wouldn't kill the thing, it would have a burnt mouth and go off to die because it can't eat anymore.

Any reason why they like eating plastic?, or do they just like gnawing gnaw gnaw gnaw?.

all the reasons