RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

This time it wasn’t a big storm with hurricane-force winds that knocked out power for thousands in Fort Wayne.

It was a squirrel, likely an ill-fated one, that ventured into a power distribution station and knocked out electricity to about 4,500 homes and businesses Friday morning.

Indiana Michigan Power spokeswoman YaVonda Ulfig said the squirrel was found inside the distribution station, near Stellhorn and Maysville roads.

The critter had come into contact with electrical equipment and tripped a transformer shortly after 11 a.m.

Utility crews managed to restore power by 1 p.m., Ulfig said.

It was the second time in two months a squirrel caused a power outage. About 1,650 customers lost power and numerous traffic lights were out Aug. 21 near Southgate Plaza because of a squirrel.

This summer, windstorms swept through the area, leaving tens of thousands without power.

Ulfig could not say for sure whether the squirrel that caused Friday’s outage died, but she assumed it was a goner.

“Typically, when you have these kinds of situations, it doesn’t always turn out well for the animal that comes in contact with the electrical equipment,” she said.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

When a Clay County Sheriff's Office deputy pulled over a driver he believed to be driving under the influence, he found a man who claimed a squirrel was "eating him" under his shirt.

The caller stayed on the line reporting the driver's location until a Clay County deputy caught up to them.

As the deputy followed the possibly impaired driver, the report said he saw the passenger side tires cross into the grass shoulder.

The deputy stopped the driver, identified as 23-year-old Warren Michael III, after he nearly hit a stopped vehicle head on.

When the deputy went got to driver's window, Michael immediately told the deputy he had a "squirrel eating him." The report says Michael as this point pointed to a small squirrel wrapped under his shirt.

After a brief continued discussion on interesting facts about the squirrel, the report says the deputy noticed an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Michael and that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot. While talking to the deputy, about the squirrel and other questions posed by the deputy, the report notes Michael's speech slurred slightly while being "very talkative and frequently using profanity."

After Michael could not provide police with his driver license or registration, deputies asked him to secure his squirrel and exit his vehicle to take a field sobriety test.

While being tested, the arrest report says Michael did not perform well. The report says he appeared unsteady, leaning and swaying during the walk and turn. He also, according to the report, put his foot down twice during the one leg stand.

Due to his performance during the field sobriety test, the report says deputies had reason to believe Michael was driving under the influence.

Since Michael was being arrested for DUI, police called his girlfriend to come to the scene. When she arrived, the report says she repeatedly told Michael he was too drunk and should not have been driving. The girlfriend, who told police she had been dating Michael for over a year and knew when he was drunk, took possession of both Michael's vehicle and his squirrel.

Deputies took Michael to the Clay County Jail for a breathalyzer test. When deputies gave him the test, the report notes he blew two breath samples. One was a .145 and the second a .156. The legal limit in the state of Florida is .08.

Police cited Michael for DUI and driving without a seat belt. He was given a written warning for driving his vehicle in an unsafe condition.

Why did more than 3,000 Northern Virginians lose power on Wednesday? This time it's not because of a storm. It's because of a squirrel.

According to Dominion Power spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson, approximately 3,100 customers were affected in the neighborhoods surrounding Lee Highway and Glebe Road. Anderson said a squirrel made its way into the substation equipment on N. Culpeper Street, and caused a transformer to go out.

Dominion Power spokesperson Le-Ha Anderson tells The Huffington Post that all customers had their power on before 11 a.m., and that while squirrels sometimes survive their substation misadventures, "we did see evidence that the squirrel was killed in this particular incident."

A little over a year ago, squirrel misbehavior shut off the lights for more than 9,000 Arlingtonians. A Maryland power outage earlier in the summer was also attributed to squirrels.

As it turns out, squirrels are often responsible when the lights go out. Here's a 2012 white paper put out by TE Connectivity, finding that squirrels are a surprisingly effective foe to electricity users (and power companies):

The second highest cause of power outages -- estimated to be approximately 7 percent overall -- is caused by animals; mostly squirrels who gain access to substations. The cost to utility companies for recovering from animal-related outages is estimated to run between $15 million and $18 million per year. But, when commercial entities and consumer frustration are taken into consideration, the overall cost of these outages to utility companies can be much higher.

For every problem, there's a solution. And for every solution that happens to involve cute animals, there's a video.

Anderson says that about 10 percent of Dominion Power's outages are caused by animals -- among them snakes, squirrels and birds.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

A Florence, South Carolina woman was attacked in her yard by a squirrel last Saturday. Joyce Linton was in her front yard, minding her own business, when a squirrel ran up her leg and bit her.

“I walked under the big tree we have out there and all of a sudden, this squirrel comes at me and grabs onto my leg like a cat,” Linton said. “I started screaming and shaking my leg, trying to get it off of me. I was screaming to my daughter to get the children inside. I fell to the ground then finally got it off and went running toward the door, and it started chasing me. I don’t know why it came after me. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.”

Once Linton was safely inside she told her husband what had happened. Linton’s husband when to the front door and the squirrel charged up the steps towards him.

“He came at my husband like, ‘You want some, too?’ It was crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Linton said.

While her husband threw rocks at the squirrel, who didn’t budge, Linton called the police.

Linton was bitten and scratched on the back of her thigh. She was treated at a local hospital. Meanwhile, officers with the Florence Police Department and Department of Natural Resources were at her house, dealing with the squirrel that attacked her.

“The officers shot the squirrel, and it was sent to environmental services to be tested for rabies and other diseases,” Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.

Raines said squirrel attacks are definitely not a typical occurrence in Florence.

Fortunately, Linton said, officials with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control notified her Tuesday that the squirrel that bit her tested negative for rabies.

With the good news in hand, Linton said she feels better about the situation but is still a bit apprehensive about squirrels.

“I’m not going to let it scare me too bad,” she said. “I’m still a little nervous when I see one, but it’s getting better. It’s just one of those crazy things you don’t think would ever happen. I’m not going to let this make me crazy, but I’ll probably be a little more cautious around them.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Fat Squirrel Scarfs Down Entire Slice Of Pizza

We can all cry about the health ads on TV are telling us to lay off the fat and sugar, but when our squirrels are eating whole slices of pizza without compunction it's safe to say we have a problem.

Sure this proves that we live in a society of such overwhelming abundance that there are entire slices of pizza just lying around for woodland animals to enjoy. But it also helps to answer a question that has plagued philosophers for centuries: do squirrels eat pizza cheese first or crust first?

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Pennsylvania’s Purple Squirrel A Rainbow-Colored Riddle

A bright purple squirrel trapped by a Pennsylvania couple has experts offering all sorts of theories -- but no concrete answers.

Percy and Connie Emert from Jersey Shore, Pa., trapped the brightly colored creature while trying to keep the birds safe in their backyard feeder, reported Accuweather.com. They told the weather service they had no explanation for the rodent’s deep purple color.

"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple," the Emerts told Accuweather.

Experts queried by Accuweather had several theories for the unusual look, but no hard answers. Indeed, Krish Pillai, a professor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, told Accuweather he thought the coloring was dangerous for the animal.

I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration. - Henry Kacprzyk, Pittsburgh Zoo curator

"This is not good at all. That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel (possibly) has too much bromide in its system," he said.

Some AccuWeather.com meteorologists had their own theories. Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity thought it was merely an accident.

"The squirrel could have been looking for somewhere warm and fallen into a port-a-potty or something similar," he said,

Henry Kacprzyk, a curator at the Pittsburgh Zoo, said Thursday he thought it looked like a gray squirrel tinged in purple, after looking at a picture of the critter on an iPhone.

He knows of albino squirrels. Black squirrels. Gray squirrels. Reddish squirrels.

“But the purple coloration, from the purple I saw … it looked to me like this animal had come in contact with something with its fur and dyed its fur,” Kacprzyk said. The squirrel could have come in contact with a pokeberry patch, but pokeberries aren’t in season.

And strange as it sounds, he thought Margusity’s toilet theory might hold water.

“I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration,” he said with a chuckle. “I have no idea why … but I don’t think it was born that way.”

When asked about the suggestions by some people in online forums of the potential impact of fracking fluid, Kacprzyk said the composition of such fluids in Pennsylvania wasn’t known. “My guess there is if you don’t know something, is that there’s no scientific proof to that. … I would find it amazing that it had that kind of effect,” he said.

In general, purple is an unusual color for mammals, let alone squirrels.

“There are definitely birds that have coloration like this … but not mammals,” he said. “Mammals don’t normally uptake color, ingest something it goes through and (then) it comes out through their fur.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Squirrel Takes Out Power for Thousands

More than 4,000 Ohio Edison customers lost power for about three hours after a squirrel stepped on a substation bus and blew a fuse for a transformer covering the west side of Lorain and the east side of Vermillion.

According to FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Meyer, 4,123 customers lost power at around 11:17 a.m. when the rodent snooped too close to the electrical equipment.

“Whenever anything comes in contact with high voltage equipment, then something usually goes wrong,” he said.

The outage disabled traffic lights on Baumhart Road. A temporary stop sign was put in places for travelers turning on to Baumhart from West Erie Avenue.

More than half of the customers had power back 1:30 with the remaining customers powered on by 2:30 p.m., Meyer said.

The outage did not affect Mercy Regional Medical Center, he said.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Squirrel Pox Outbreak Action Plan in Place

Traps are being offered to the public in order to catch and kill grey squirrels in the area.

The virus has no apparent effect on the greys but is invariably fatal to their red counterparts.

Scotland is one of the UK's last red squirrel strongholds, with the south of the country seen as being on the frontline of conservation efforts.

The organization Red Squirrels in South Scotland said post mortem examinations had confirmed the outbreak around the River Tweed.

The public has been advised not to put out garden feeders as a measure to help stop the disease spreading.

Estates on both sides of the river have already removed a number of the animals.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Late night fire in a vacant home on Weller Road, off Bell Ave, in Elyria is believed to have started after a squirrel ate through wiring in the attic of the home.

When Firefighters arrived they found a moderate amount of smoke coming from the house and flames could be seen inside through the front windows. Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control within a half hour.

No injuries were reported.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Flying Squirrel Invades Hospital Emergency Room

Firefighters were needed stat after a flying squirrel went nuts in a New Jersey hospital's emergency room.

The squirrel kept launching itself from an 8-foot-high wall-mounted lamp into a glass wall after becoming trapped in a trauma room at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Rahway Tuesday night.

Fire Department spokesman Capt. Ted Padavano told The Star-Ledger of Newark it would climb up on a light and would jump off and glide.

A pair of firefighters threw a blanket over the squirrel and released it into a wooded area outside the hospital.

Padavano believes there may be a nest in the building because it's the second time in two weeks that a flying squirrel got in the ER.

Source = Associated Press

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA