Just hit a smelly milestone in my basement reno

So I'm gutting my 1950s bungalow basement near Hamilton and I pulled out the old fiberglass insulation. The number that got me was the mouse droppings - I counted about 45 pellets in one small section behind the wall. That was way more than I expected and now I'm worried about the wiring they might have chewed. Has anyone else ripped out old insulation and found a rodent mess this bad?

2 comments

2 Comments

ruby_murphy20d ago

Hold on, 45 pellets is actually rookie numbers lol. I gutted my parents' place in Burlington a couple years back and found whole nests in the insulation, like actual mouse condos with shredded newspaper and everything. The wiring can be a serious hazard though - if you're worried, get a cheap outlet tester from Home Depot and plug it into every socket down there to check for shorts. Most of the time the mice just gnaw on the paper backing and leave the copper alone, but it's worth a closer look especially near junctions. Honestly, if you've only got that many droppings, you probably caught it before they did any real damage.

wendy_wilson20d ago

Used to roll my eyes when people talked about mice and wiring issues, but after seeing what you described I get it now. Found a nest behind my dryer vent last year and the wires looked untouched from the front, but when I pulled the insulation back there were chew marks all along the casing near the junction box. Bought one of those outlet testers you mentioned and found two outlets in the basement that were reading open ground. Definitely made me realize how easy it is to miss the real damage when you're just counting droppings. Your point about the paper backing is spot on too, I think a lot of folks assume mice only go for the wires themselves and don't check the areas around them. Still not as bad as finding a whole mouse condo in the insulation though, that sounds like an absolute nightmare to clean up.