Squirrels gone wild?

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Squirrels Gone Wild

I'm thinking someone pulled a prank or this is staged for publicity...not saying critters can't get into your engine compartment but I'm just having a hard time believing this was done by a squirrel and not a human.
 
Agreed. The cones on the passenger side there seem awfully tightly packed, and would seem to come so incredibly close to the hood when closed, that I can't believe squirrels could have done it. Too neat.

Nice looking pine cones, though. The kid version of me would have a field day playing with those.
 
I mean what are the chances a squirrel could stack those pine cones just perfectly so that none dropped out?... and yeah, i don't see how some of the cones, especially around the headlights where it's a tight fit, could get under the hood like that.
 
There does seem to be some inconsistency in the picture. It's a bit too fuzzy, but they appear to be Norway spruce cones. Norway spruce ripen and open in the fall (Sept.-Oct.). There are some tight unopened cones on the drivers side and of course opened ones on the passenger side. Squirrels tend to collect and cache cones in the fall before they open and release their seed.

Maybe this car sat undriven since last fall??

Who cares?
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
They did that but with Cholla Cactus under the hood of my dads Valiant. Could not even see the engine.

As a kid we had a big open field and gophers and rats would get in/nest in the engine compartment of my father's car. If we forgot to check under the hood before rolling out, there'd be a smelly mess sometimes.
 
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I can't speak for all squirrels, but I have squirrels, and pine cones, and the squirrels do not collect them. They only store things edible, and usually it's by burying them not making a hoard (that some other rodentia do), and even if it were a hoard it would be at their tree/burrow/etc living area not in a car. Possibly a squirrel might eat the seeds inside but they are gone once the pine cone has opened, so I call this fake or human-made.
 
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Looks like a fake news set up. Anyone else wonder how they got the hood prop up without disturbing those neatly stacked cones?
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
I can't speak for all squirrels, but I have squirrels, and pine cones, and the squirrels do not collect them. They only store things edible, and usually it's by burying them not making a hoard (that some other rodentia do), and even if it were a hoard it would be at their tree/burrow/etc living area not in a car. Possibly a squirrel might eat the seeds inside but they are gone once the pine cone has opened, so I call this fake or human-made.

They love conifer seeds: https://www.google.com/search?q=squ...RtKCAEQ_AUIESgC&biw=1920&bih=925
 
Don't worry about those things. Worry about Mickey doing a job on your wiring harness. Since many of them tried to go 🤨🤢Green with wire coatings made of soy it's gotten to be a real problem. Toyota for sure and I'm not recalling the others. I just velcroed a battery powered mouse chaser right on top of the underhood fuse box on mine. Supposedly good enough for 1400sf 🤥. I only want it to work for under 10.
 
Originally Posted by Driz
Don't worry about those things. Worry about Mickey doing a job on your wiring harness. Since many of them tried to go 🤨🤢Green with wire coatings made of soy it's gotten to be a real problem. Toyota for sure and I'm not recalling the others. I just velcroed a battery powered mouse chaser right on top of the underhood fuse box on mine. Supposedly good enough for 1400sf 🤥. I only want it to work for under 10.

Now rats (which I've personally seen do) and mice nesting in the little nooks and crannies of an engine compartment is not unheard of. And yes, they'll even gnaw on the wiring insulation to keep those incisors trim.
 
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Originally Posted by PimTac
Looks like a fake news set up. Anyone else wonder how they got the hood prop up without disturbing those neatly stacked cones?


^This
 
I can believe it. Two years ago I noticed my 05 Civic was starting to bog down on acceleration. I had not changed the air filter for a while so I decided to check it. The entire housing was full of maple keys. Some were dry, some were green. A small squirrel or chipmunk must have been busy. I threw out his winter stash and changed my air filter
 
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