Rodents in my Stuff!

[jmlee]

We live out in a suburban village, and it's wildlife galore here. Pheasants all over the place (we call them the lawn chickens), deer, the odd coyote, and so on. And we have rodents...

So, the other day I go out to the garage where I store most of my bigger gear and brought an Eden CX112 cab that I hadn't used for a while into the house as practice gear. You guys likely know this cab: nice 12" coaxial driver in a tall, narrow cab with *a long port on the bottom that's open to the world*. Well, I sat the cab down in the basement and noticed what looked like half-shells from sunflower seeds inside the port. I vacuumed them out and then thought...I wonder... So I took the cab into the shop, took off the grill and the four bolts out of the speaker, lifted, and...the whole inside was littered with mouse turds. *And* the mice had made off with about half of the yellow fibreglass batting that Eden had used inside. I guess it's ended up in some mouse's well-insulated (R3?) home.

All this comes on the heels of an incident where my Subaru Forester died on the highway. Got it towed to my dealership and when they opened it up, they found that a squirrel had eaten through the plastic wheelwell liner and it had then eaten away a good part of the wiring harness in the car! After some arguing, my insurance agent concluded that my policy did not specifically exclude rodent attacks and I was covered. In a separate incident, I opened up the hood of our Honda CRV to discover an enormous grass squirrel nest on top of the engine. Got some great looks from a gas pump attendent as he saw me heaving handfuls of grass out from under the hood.

So, to folks designing cabs with open ports...please always make sure the grill material covers the port too. My Avatar and Ampeg cabs are fine.

[dog1]

Sorry for your loss. I never use the driver sized grills for my cabs. They look cheap, IMO. And now, I have another reson not to use them.

[BurningSkies]

If you want to retain your port tuning and the look of your cab, look into stapling a wire mesh screen across the BACK side of the port...you know that mesh that's a bit tighter than chicken wire, but not as fine as window screen.

[jgroh]

I think the correct pronunciation is "guitards"

[bobcruz]

I live near a bay and there are mice and rats everywhere. Rats have nested under the hood of my van and I had to gingerly remove the babies (about the size of big mice) with rubber gloves and set them free in a field. Cleaning out the nest, trapping the parents and spraying the interior of the wheel wells with bleach where they nested discouraged them from coming back. In my garage where my speaker cabs are, I get mice all the time but so far they've never nested inside a cab. My little dachshund mix usually alerts me that they're present by getting all excited and sniffing around the dark recesses of the garage, so I set out the traps--last summer was the record when I trapped seven; this summer it was only three. I've recently tried to better seal the openings around my garage doors so I hope that will exclude them in the future. Good luck, Bob

[dog1]

Holy smoke!!! I have seen stuff on TV where they speculate that when humans are gone, only rats and mice will survive. Is this the end???!!!

(just kidding)

[eno50]

Yea I had the mouse problem,I would find the 55 gal heavy duty grabage bags and set my cab in to keep the mice out,when I had to store my cabs outside in the storage shed or garage,them cabs make a nice crib for the mice,you can't get the stink out once they make it there home.
But I tell you what worse than a mouse bed... I stored an 810 cab at a friends shop ,for about six months... he had a tom cat that I did not know about that marked it daily,I had to dismantle the cab,scrub her down,used a gallon or two of freebreeze and everything else I could think of,and new grill cloth,I liked to never got the smell out of the cab.
So wrap the cab up if you ever have to store it ...

[jmlee]

Originally Posted by BurningSkies

If you want to retain your port tuning and the look of your cab, look into stapling a wire mesh screen across the BACK side of the port...you know that mesh that's a bit tighter than chicken wire, but not as fine as window screen.

That's a *great* idea!! I thought about putting steel wool or something in there, but that would kill air movement. And putting mesh at the front would be nasty looking.

Been pulling out all the old fibreglass, vacuuming and bleaching the interior. When I put new felt over the walls, I'll add that screening. Thanks!

[Bredian]

In California, we would call that habitat and your garage would be a protected zone.

[eno50]

Originally Posted by Bredian

In California, we would call that habitat and your garage would be a protected zone.

That's California for ya!

[jmlee]

Originally Posted by Bredian

In California, we would call that habitat and your garage would be a protected zone.

And the mice would all be driving the fiberglass home in a Prius.

[murphy]

Originally Posted by bobcruz

I live near a bay and there are mice and rats everywhere. Rats have nested under the hood of my van and I had to gingerly remove the babies (about the size of big mice) with rubber gloves and set them free in a field. Cleaning out the nest, trapping the parents and spraying the interior of the wheel wells with bleach where they nested discouraged them from coming back. In my garage where my speaker cabs are, I get mice all the time but so far they've never nested inside a cab. My little dachshund mix usually alerts me that they're present by getting all excited and sniffing around the dark recesses of the garage, so I set out the traps--last summer was the record when I trapped seven; this summer it was only three. I've recently tried to better seal the openings around my garage doors so I hope that will exclude them in the future. Good luck, Bob

Wow, That is touching that you would show such care to save the babies..I am impressed

[Clark Dark]

I hate those meeces to pieces

[blubolt]

so, you gonna get yourself a "RAT" pedal?