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Denver Airport Overrun by Car-Eating Rabbits
It turns out the soy-based wire covering on cars built after 2002 is irresistible to rodents. Nobody knows this better than those unlucky enough to park at DIA's Pikes Peak lot. The rabbits surrounding the area have been using the lot as an all-you-can-eat wiring buffet. Looks like it's time to break out The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
I played bass with a drummer that lived far out in the country a few years ago. He was having problems with his brand new Matrix car and when we popped the hood, the spark plug cables leading to the distributor caps were gone. Completely.
Someone was playing a prank on him and I asked him if anyone in his family wanted him stationary for some reason recently. Or perhaps he had upset a neighbor by playing drums late into the night?
No, he told me, groundhogs stole into his garage and crawled up around the engine manifold and ate the cables. Now that was some Car Talk quality humor. I took him to a salvage yard to pick up used cables on the cheap -- the whole way there he described in great detail a groundhog leaving his garage with cables in tow. I figured he was playing quite the elaborate joke, had done something to the wires himself and was embarrassed to admit it or perhaps took more than just tea when he played drums.
Guess I owe him an apology.
My work here is dung.
Death awaits you all big nasty pointy teeth.
Rabbits are actually lagomorphs, not rodents. I realize that mice are mentioned as a problem too, but the number of references to rabbits as rodents is quite offensive.
If you let them chew on a cable or wire with a little but of current running through it, the rabbit usually stops chewing on wires. Our family had rabbits as pets for a while. One of them liked to chew wires. He chewed the lamp wires. After the shock, he stopped chewing on the wires. The rabbit was alive (he lived another 9 years). His whiskers were a bit singed and shorter. We did have to replace every lamp cord he got to.
Its only 'hot' to you if your body completes a circuit to ground. Its perfectly possible to cut a hot wire if there is no chance of the current going through you to ground. Its how high voltage linemen who repair high tension lines via helicopter do it. The problem occurs if they get too close to a mast ( which would form a ground circuit ), or the other 'cold' conductor.
Yes, you are right. I would like to amend my post to say:
If the rabbit is wearing proper protective gear, including insulating rubber shields over his teeth, a dental dam in his mouth to prevent saliva from wetting his teeth and tongue, rubber booties on his feet to insulate him from the ground, and a full-body rubber jacket to prevent any part of his body from contacting the floor, in those circumstances, the rabbit may be safe from electrocution if he chews through the hot wire. In normal conditions found in most homes, with the normal clothing typically worn by rabbits, he'll likely provide a good enough path to ground to feel a shock when he chews through the hot wire.
Oh, and if the rabbit happens to be in a helicopter that is properly bonded to the power line...in those conditions he may also chew through the wire with impunity, though I would recommend that he wear the proper fall arresting gear.
Black is Neutral. The white ones are the hot ones (or red in 3-wire). Green or non-insulated for Ground. Unless a dipshit who doesn't follow code wired your house.
Nope. Please to not ever be working on house wiring in the US, kthxby.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.