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A Great Battle Took Place Here

By
Home Inspector with A House on a Rock Home Inspections LLC NACHI11122403

Call me crazy, but I absolutely love my job.  I get to observe the craziest, funniest, scariest and most peculiar things that can be in a persons home.

I was under a house the other day, in a crawlspace, and I ran into a fairly common situation.  There were areas of the insulation that had been damaged by mice. Whenever I see this, I start pulling down some of the insulation to see how the bad the infestation is.  The mice love to make humble little abodes on top of the insulation paper. It keeps them warm and comfy, but at your expense.

Generally, I'll see piles of poop, scores of pee stains, and the little nests that the mice make out of the insulation. It's gross, but I enjoy the investigation.  If it's really bad, I'll leave a note for the owners, because they will want to call a pest control company immediately.

Well during my investigation, I found something that for some crazed reason, made me chuckle. Here it is...

Snake eats mouse

 

If you look closely, you can see that nature has taken its course. Look around the the insulation mouse cottage.  You can see snake skin! HA! The little guy was probably taking a quiet nap in, warm on his kraft paper bed.  The big bad snake attacked him in his own home! It looks like the little guy put up a fight, but in the end, I think he became lunch.

That is how these things progress in your crawlspace. You have a few openings on the outside of your home, and some standing water in the crawlspace.  The mice come in and make a community of homes using your insulation.  All of the mice attract the snakes. Before you know it, you have a whole ecosystem of critters in your crawlspace.

:)

 

Posted by

Juan Jimenez

A House on a Rock Home Inspections LLC

God. Family. Home.

804-269-4321

juan@ahouseonarock.com

The Richmond Home Inspector

Comments(21)

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Charles Buell
Charles Buell Inspections Inc. - Seattle, WA
Seattle Home Inspector

Ahh! The "order of the universe" in action---love it!  And of course when the snakes have nothing left to eat they go to the neighbor's crawl space

Sep 27, 2013 02:06 PM
Juan Jimenez
A House on a Rock Home Inspections LLC - Richmond, VA
The Richmond Home Inspector

Tom, little big horn is fact happening under our feet :)

 

Charles, I love it too! I think that makes us weird though.

Sep 28, 2013 05:55 AM
Margaret Goss
@Properties - Winnetka, IL
Chicago's North Shore & Winnetka Real Estate

Isn't there a tiny chance the little fella got away??

 

 

Sep 28, 2013 09:15 AM
Jill Sackler
Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY
LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

oooh! Glad you got a chuckle out of that one. Survival of the fittest?

Sep 28, 2013 10:35 AM
Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

Juan, after that description, I think I'll move to a home on a slab. Thanks.

Sep 28, 2013 01:47 PM
Jay & Michelle Lieberman
Keller Williams World Class - Agoura Hills, CA
Creating Calm in the Buying and Selling Chaos
Wow. It is like a complete story of survival of the fittest in the little bale of insulation.
Sep 28, 2013 04:55 PM
Kat Palmiotti
eXp Commercial, Referral Divison - Kalispell, MT
Helping your Montana dreams take root

Definitely survival of the fittest, but I'd rather not have that going on in my insulation.  I mean who is going to come kill the snake?

Sep 28, 2013 09:13 PM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.WarrenCountyOhioRealEstate.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Juan, We've seen in our attic how the mice love the insulation.  They're smart enough not to come out on the main floor where our cats would enjoy them as a play toy and then a snack. 

Sep 28, 2013 10:25 PM
Joshua Frederick
Home Inspector for ASPEC Residential Services, LLC - Defiance, OH
Home Inspector in Defiance & all of Northwest Ohio

And the insulation is actually installed right!

Sep 28, 2013 11:15 PM
Nina Hollander, Broker
Coldwell Banker Realty - Charlotte, NC
Your Greater Charlotte Real Estate Broker

Nothing frightens me more than snakes! I had an inspector who ran across two copperheads in a crawl space in a home he was inspecting for me. Needless to say, we asked sellers to get rid of snakes before inspection was completed.

Sep 28, 2013 11:25 PM
Juan Jimenez
A House on a Rock Home Inspections LLC - Richmond, VA
The Richmond Home Inspector

Margaret Goss, I certainlly hope the little guy fled before his demise. However, I didn't see any mice, but I saw a couple of snakes. It didn't look good.

 

Jill Sackler, I did get a chuckle out of it. Does that make me weird?

 

Tammie White, that is a good idea. After all of the crawlspaces I have seen, if I had one, I would be checking it every week.

 

Jay and Michelle, it absolutely is!

 

Kat Palmiotti, that was actually the point hidden in my post. You definitely do not want this going on in your crawlspace.  A pest control company will be needed, and a contractor to replace the insulation.

Liz and Bill Spear, they are smart little creatures!

 

Joshua Frederick, yep! The insulation is installed right, for once.

 

Nina Hollander, snakes scare a lot of people.  I would definitely want them gone before moving into a home.

Sep 29, 2013 12:50 AM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

I am terrified of mice and snakes. I am going to be careful when I show homes with crawl spaces.

Sep 29, 2013 01:18 AM
AJ Heidmann ~ CRS
McEnearney Associates, Inc. - Alexandria, VA
YOUR Alexandria & Arlington, VA Real Estate Expert

That's one heck of a forcible eviction for the mouse.  Thanks for sharing.

Sep 29, 2013 03:34 AM
Juan Jimenez
A House on a Rock Home Inspections LLC - Richmond, VA
The Richmond Home Inspector
Gita it's not a problem with all crawlspaces, but a good inspection is needed to find out. I was born in Philly by the way and lived in bucks county :) AJ. Haha. I wish I would have thought of calling it a "forcible eviction" Ha!
Sep 29, 2013 03:44 AM
Dwight Puntigan
DRP Realty, LLC - Saint Peters, MO
Dwight Puntigan

Crawl spaces need a swinging door to let a weasel in to eliminate the snakes.  When the weasel is out of snakes he will leave until a mouse draws in another snake.

Sep 29, 2013 05:24 AM
Alan May
Jameson Sotheby's International Realty - Evanston, IL
Home again, home again...

remember the alamo!

Sep 30, 2013 04:00 AM
CA COASTAL ESTATES Lauren Selinsky Perez CRS
California Coastal Estates - Aliso Viejo, CA
"Your Real Estate Broker" #oclauren
Ick!! As the photo was downloading.... I wasn't sure I wanted to see that! Good thing for home inspectors!!! ;)
Sep 30, 2013 09:58 AM
Silvia Dukes PA, Broker Associate, CRS, CIPS, SRES
Tropic Shores Realty - Ich spreche Deutsch! - Spring Hill, FL
Florida Waterfront and Country Club Living

Hi Juan, love your humor!  Nature comes with its own extermination system!  :-)

Sep 30, 2013 08:36 PM
Jennifer Monroe
Indigo Home Team powered by Compass - Charlotte, NC
Real Estate REALTOR®/Broker/Designer

I'm going to be very careful to come over to your blog only during daylight hours. This is just yucky and creepy! But I'll certainly be back. I wonder what that says about me?

Sep 30, 2013 10:04 PM
Sharon Parisi
United Real Estate Dallas - Dallas, TX
Dallas Homes

Juan, I live in a pier and beam house and you are one brave man!  After seeing this photo, I will feel doubly bad about sending anyone under my house to complete repairs.

Nov 17, 2013 01:27 PM