As it turns out, it was rather fortunate I took the afternoon off to work on the Miata. I pulled it out of storage last week, but haven't had much time to do anything with it. (See the "Man this weather sucks" thread) I had a few small issues to work on, so I took it over to my dad's to work in a heated shop. One of the issues I was working on was the fact that the gas gauge had stopped working. A quick check of the innanets said probably the fuel sending unit or the gauge itself. I decided to start at the fuel sending unit. I pulled the carpet out and pulled the fuel tank cover. Uh oh . . . it had a bunch of acorn husks and other assorted rodent debris. When I went to pull the sending unit lead, I saw that all four wires had the insulation eaten off from them. . . on top of the gas tank. I'm taking this as an attempt on my life by the critters. There will be revenge.
Actual photo of me, right now: 
Found the critter still in my car.
I may also seek retribution on my dad's barn cats, who allowed this murder attempt right under their very noses.
Actual picture of them right now:
Mndsm
MegaDork
4/18/18 6:27 p.m.
I hear that throwing Ford escape rims at tree rats is effective.
More likely it was mice...
dculberson said:
More likely it was mice...
Could be, but the acorn husks would suggest red/"ground" squirrels. It doesn't really matter because I plan to be indiscriminate in my retribution.
Well, at least you got the skills to do the job goin' for ya, which is nice.
Nuke em from orbit.. it's the only way to be sure
kazoospec said:
Could be, but the acorn husks would suggest red/"ground" squirrels. It doesn't really matter because I plan to be indiscriminate in my.
Could you please send me a copy of your informative newsletter. .
In reply to Donebrokeit :
Mice haul in craploads of fluffy stuff, like the pic above. Chipmunks/ground squirrels/gophers haul in nuts, acorns, wood shavings, etc. like I found in the car. Thanks for your interest.
I'm betting rats or mice.
Rats and mice love acorns, pecans, pine seeds, and just about every other type of nut. They also love to horde that crap wherever they are living. I just cleaned a nest out from under the hood of the Polaris that was full of acorns and pecans.
bird feeder and electric fence transformer....
although.. for true revenge, you could up that to much higher power... perhaps some capacitors?
berkeleying rodents. Kill them. Kill them all. SHOW NO MERCY.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
My attic has winter squirrels in it!!! That’s 1500 sq ft of walk around space. 4 walk around n dormers make sure the darn things get plenty of light.
I have sprayed, trapped, used poison, and done everything short of nuclear war on them. All summer long they are happy climbing their trees and staying away. However the day after I seal up the attic door
Put that one you found on top of the fuel tank outside the garage on a stick as a warning to other rodents.
kazoospec said:
In reply to Donebrokeit :
Mice haul in craploads of fluffy stuff, like the pic above. Chipmunks/ground squirrels/gophers haul in nuts, acorns, wood shavings, etc. like I found in the car. Thanks for your interest.
Chipmunks are underground nesters; they dig enormous burrows and stash their food in special horde rooms they excavate. I don't think they store food in random places. I think they're interesting animals but also an enormous pain in the ass because they're always digging holes where I don't want them. They keep their burrows pretty neat inside, and even have drainage channels to keep them dry and their food rot and fungus free. Pretty neat stuff.
In reply to dculberson :
All I can think of with that picture:
It's less acceptable to do with rodents since the family doesn't like it when cute-ish animals catch fire.
In reply to The0retical :
Cutish? Squirrels are simply tree rats with fluffy tails.
They not only trash my attic. But steal the bird feeders completely empty in a few hours. If I’m real lucky we’ll get three hours of squirrels and 40 minutes of birds.
I guess, since the little sucker appears to have survived chewing up the wire, I'll never know exactly what it was. There wasn't really any "nest" in the compartment, just a bunch of shells. If this particular rodent were a dope dealer, my car appears to have been the "stash house", not the "crib".
In reply to frenchyd :
My grandfather used to keep his bird feeders on poles. About 4ft up the pole was an upside down plastic punch bowl.
Not much to look at, but kept the squirrels from the feeders
I've had reasonably good luck shooting them with a pellet gun. It usually doesn't kill them, but after the first couple get capped, they leave the area and all it takes is walking around pumping the pellet gun every once in a while. They are smart enough to realize that when they hear the rifle getting pumped, one of them is about to get beaned.
In reply to fasted58 :I absolutely love it, gotta get one.
And they got me again. Water heater stopped working, and had an error code indicating the blower motor wasn't working. Turns out they don't turn over that well with a dead chipmunk wedged between the blades and the casing.
Of course, it cost me a $140 service call to find this out. 
