What kind of critter did this to my garage today?
 

Came home from Denver today to a garage covered in motor oily smears and prints. My wife swears none of it was there when she went to work this morning and it did look like it had been undisturbed since it happened.

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The mess is actually a lot more extensive than in these photos. I sprayed all the spots down with citrus degreaser and wiped most of it away. The critter turds are worrisome because Hanta Virus is a problem out here and can be contracted by mouse turds. I think it usually happens when they get dried out and people inhale the dust while cleaning them. Hopefully, these are fresh enough for this not to be a problem. I sprayed the turds down to also cut down on dust before I cleaned them up. No sign of entry, gnawing, escape, death and no smell. What the hell did this? Turds are too big for mice, too small for rats and there are no footprints anywhere. I think there are even some oil smudges on the hood of my 993 now. WTF?

a dead one

rabbit

Armadillo? A small one? Kaisen probably nailed it tho...tough to tell from the photos...tracks pattern not really clear in the oil.

"Dead one" probably true if it injested enough oil.

Yes, a rabbit would have turds about like this and feet that could do this. But how the hell did he get in and then back out? I'm not aware of any openings to the outside. If he ran in when my wife backed the car out this morning, where is he now? He didn't run out when we pulled back into the garage tonight. I didn't hear any noises in there and I have been around wounded rabbits before.

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Good one, Byron!

Tom

Byron, you think Eddie is in Rick Lee's garage??

Eddie:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1292042168.jpg

That's a lot bigger than a rabbit.

Eddie's not a rabbit, Hugh.

Coon, BTW, should have left out some anti-freeze instead. Those critters drop after drinking glycol!

looks like ex-gf

Squirrel?

Glycol poisoning is a truly awful way to die - crystal formations in the kidneys followed by rapid failure and bathing in the toxic byproducts of your own cellular respiration. Pretty cruel. At least a bullet is quick and humane.

Guys, this is ARIZONA, not the mid west. Aint no squirrels here, nor many rabbits and please do not say its an armadillo.

Don't forget EPA and a Hazmat crew to clean up the oil spill! I don't recognize the tracks, but they sure don't appear like any bunny tracks I'm familiar with. Since only the critter's "fingertips" appear to have made contact with the oil, I don't think we're getting a true picture of the "tracks". Not questioning Joe (I've only seen one armadillo in my life years ago in Fl.), but "could" it be a 'dillo's fingertips?

yep.ooks like ra-batt tracks to me. course you folks have critters out there we don't see here.....

I've seen lots of armadillos, but never one in AZ and they have claws. Whatever made this mess had padded feet. I still can't find any sign of life in the garage and no smell.

Rabbit.

Ian

I'm "kinda" seeing why you guys think Bugs was the culprit, but this is what I'm used too and the pattern just didn't seem quite right to me. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1292087918.jpg

I wonder if the rabbit drank any of the oil. There were some spots on the floor that looked a lot lighter than oil and had dried by the time I got home. Probably vomit. I just would have expected to see a lot more turds from an animal trapped and trying to escape.

It looks to me not so much like tracks but drips. I don't know how it got in to be big enough to walk away from the oil while dripping.

After finding a dead bird in a pan of old oil left out side, I always cover my oil now.

Yep, definitely a desert bunny. Go thru every nook and cranny of the garage with a flashlight, and make sure there are NO entry points/ducts leading into the house that Mr. Bunny could have gotten thru.

Speaking of ducts, you should have 1 or 2 square garage vents going to the outside. They are usually close to ground level. Make sure the screens in them are secure (could have been the entry point)!

I see rabbits around here all the time. Probably got in when my wife opened the garage door to go to work yesterday. The only vents I've seen that go to the garage have covers on the outside and they're a lot more robust than screens.

Why would a rabbit drink oil, even if stuck in a garage for a day or two? I thought that an animal would find the taste to be really bad. A rabbit getting into the oil some because it doesn't know the container is open, that I could see.

Chupacabra...


KT

my thoughts exactly. beat me to it..

rac-a-coon?

Found it. Looks like a chinchilla. But it's also hard to tell because its nose is covered in oil and I think he got pinched by a mousetrap in the garage, which was also just sprung.

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I saw him dart across the garage when pulling back in from an errand. I cornered him behind my tool chest, but didn't know what to do other than to try to shoo him out with a push broom. He ran under my wife's car and we can't find him now. We left the garage doors open and put some lettuce out by the driveway. Now I notice he crawled all over my 993 and there's oil on the hood. What a PITA.

that looks like a domestic bunny (Euro. rabbit) - may be some kid's pet

Yeah, I'll go check over by the mailboxes in a minute. That's where all the kids put up notices about their lost pets. Too bad I gave away my 6' Boa before I came to AZ. He'd have found and made very short work of any living thing in the garage.

When I described it to the neighbor, he said it had to be someone's pet. Other neighbor has two little girls, but he said they don't have a pet rabbit. I don't know what to do other than keep the garage door open. If it's a pet, it will not last very long as soon as the coyotes get wind of it and I don't want it living in my garage.

Rick - You're such a a meanie!

Best,
Tom

Hey, all God's creatures have to eat and the wild ones go after the low hanging fruit. A domestic pet that's never even been outdoors is not going to last long in the desert. Coyotes and rattlesnakes run the pest control business out here. And it's sunny and 73 deg. out today.

Don't you own a pellet gun Rick?

Did I ever tell ya about the time a rabbit got in my garage and drank some gasoline out of a parts cleaning pan?

I had BB guns growing up, but no more. I need to get another one, especially since I have a bird problem too. The little effer knocked a wire off one of my garage door sensors, so I couldn't even close the garage door to hide my crime, had I chosen to use a round of .22 short on him. But I was able to chase him around to the point that he was so exhausted, he just stopped resisting. I got him into a pickle barrel and drove him out to the desert about a mile from the house. I'm sure I made some coyote very happy.

Rick... I've got an extra trap I'll sell you cheap. Fun to see what shows up in your back yard at night.

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Joe... we do have squirrels here, but they're called antelope squirrels. They look like chipmunks with long tails.

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