OT: Chimney Swifts | The Boneyard

OT: Chimney Swifts

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Anyone run into an issue with birds in a chimney? I don’t believe there’s much I can do at this point other than to put a cap on my chimney. I didn’t have a cap on and had the chimney sweep done in earlier winter but for some reason the guy gave me an excuse as to why he couldn’t install the cap and of course I never followed up.

anyway to appropriately deal with the issue?
 
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Anyone run into an issue with birds in a chimney? I don’t believe there’s much I can do at this point other than to put a cap on my chimney. I didn’t have a cap on and had the chimney sweep done in earlier winter but for some reason the guy gave me an excuse as to why he couldn’t install the cap and of course I never followed up.

anyway to appropriately deal with the issue?
Get the fireplace going?

Edit: definitely get that cap, money well spent. Keeps critters and rain out of your chimney.
 
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Touch a button...oh wait...that's chimney sweeps...
 

Hans Sprungfeld

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Get the fireplace going?

Edit: definitely get that cap, money well spent. Keeps critters and rain out of your chimney.
PS - Fun memories of the time a sooty, smoky, dazed, and frantic squirrel came down the chimney & into the living room...and the chaotic 'all hands on deck' efforts to quickly & safely get it back outside. In its aftermath, a few oddly positioned & patterned black smudges on some living room curtains were the only visible trace of the drama.
 
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We had a bat in our bedroom and then years later 2 flying squirrels. The flying squirrels were harder that the bat to rid of.
 
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PS - Fun memories of the time a sooty, smoky, dazed, and frantic squirrel came down the chimney & into the living room...and the chaotic 'all hands on deck' efforts to quickly & safely get it back outside. In its aftermath, a few oddly positioned & patterned black smudges on some living room curtains were the only visible trace of the drama.
Have a listen to This American Life about squirrels on fire coming out of chimneys - act three. The first two acts are pretty funny too.

Fiasco! (2013) - This American Life
 

CL82

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PS - Fun memories of the time a sooty, smoky, dazed, and frantic squirrel came down the chimney & into the living room...and the chaotic 'all hands on deck' efforts to quickly & safely get it back outside. In its aftermath, a few oddly positioned & patterned black smudges on some living room curtains were the only visible trace of the drama.
Well that sounds vaguely familiar...
 

Hans Sprungfeld

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Missed this thread on its first run. Kudos for a nice telling of an indeed familiar story.

My lengthy tale requires pivoting toward the multi-year saga that did finally result in eliminating raccoons from busting through soffits and breaching the eaves, with threats of terrorizing the nearby attic space in a craftsman-type home.

We used Hav-a-Heart traps several times and caught squirrels, possum, and something else I can't remember, before we got our first raccoon. But the familiar sounds would then return, and the openings at various corners of the house would appear.

We used ammonia-soaked tennis balls, nailed-in plywood, mesh wire, and more. Then, we hired pest removal people who baited with peanut butter and liverwurst.

According to city Animal Control, official policy was that trapped animals could not be euthanized, and were to be released not far from their home. There were tales of animals finding their way back from remarkable distances. Catch & release seemed insane.

When we were still in DIY mode, I returned home one day to find a trapped raccoon who had been tagged with a bright pink-purple Rustoleum spray to help identify it, in order to learn if a later-caught animal was a returnee.

The 3rd guy we hired was the roofer, who had built up trust from his other work, and spoke with confidence. He finally did the right combination of sealing off entrances without having sealed a pregnant mama and/or babies inside, and fortifying with enough strength to repel, by then, fully expected new attacks.

It was a tension-producing, lengthy process, with ongoing aggravation and financial expenditure that added up - no deaths though, which might explain why I skipped the death smell thread, or never went far enough into it for me to comment something akin to, "Mi hermano" when yours was posted.

I did hear that several years earlier when the house was purchased out of foreclosure and had been uninhabited for nearly a year, 17 squirrels had to be removed.
 
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I thoughts this was going to be a recruiting thread. Great name.
Without an "OT" before it, that has to be the only appropriate way to interpret the thread before entering. Quite disappointing.
 

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