In the early fall, I got a frantic message from my wife along with a video of something making a hell of a noise in the laundry room.
Came home unsure what I'd find, but I figured it was a small mammal of some sort. At first we figured it was something that had nestled into the laundry and was very upset at being tumble dried. Opened the drier door just a crack figuring we'd hear the thing trying to escape or at least snarling at us.
Nothing.
Determined it was in the dryer vent.
I had converted from the normal flexible dryer hose to a solid metal tube the year before because I heard it was more efficient and we were having some issues with our clothes drying.
(Ended up being lint build-up. Clean your dryers out folks. I had cleaned all the obvious spots, but there was heat shield that was completely caked with lint and effectively acting as a hot pad keeping the warm air from getting to our clothes)
Anyway, proceeded to take the dryer duct apart, figuring it was a mouse or something. Every so often we'd hear the thing start moving around, so I'd kick the dryer on for a second to keep it from going into the blower and trying to get out that way.
We were trying to rig up something to catch the mouse in when we finally did get it to come out the open end of the dryer tube. It's a tight space so that was easier said than done.
Ended up accidentally disconnecting the end of the tube that connects to the dryer while we were fiddling and figured the mouse had escaped into our house.
Heard whatever it was moving around in there still, so I kicked the dryer on to dissuade it from leaving the tube from the wrong end.
Heard a big noise, and all the sudden a bird comes shooting out the pipe. About shit my pants and took off running up the stairs. My little 3 year old son had been down there at the time and I didn't realize. He started screaming, which I felt real badly about.
Was trying to figure out how we would get a bird to peacefully leave our house. I assumed it wouldn't leave willingly.
Crept back down the stairs, and there was a little house finch, sitting on the inside ledge of the window in our entry way. It looked at me as if to say, "I want to be out there, please."
Came home unsure what I'd find, but I figured it was a small mammal of some sort. At first we figured it was something that had nestled into the laundry and was very upset at being tumble dried. Opened the drier door just a crack figuring we'd hear the thing trying to escape or at least snarling at us.
Nothing.
Determined it was in the dryer vent.
I had converted from the normal flexible dryer hose to a solid metal tube the year before because I heard it was more efficient and we were having some issues with our clothes drying.
(Ended up being lint build-up. Clean your dryers out folks. I had cleaned all the obvious spots, but there was heat shield that was completely caked with lint and effectively acting as a hot pad keeping the warm air from getting to our clothes)
Anyway, proceeded to take the dryer duct apart, figuring it was a mouse or something. Every so often we'd hear the thing start moving around, so I'd kick the dryer on for a second to keep it from going into the blower and trying to get out that way.
We were trying to rig up something to catch the mouse in when we finally did get it to come out the open end of the dryer tube. It's a tight space so that was easier said than done.
Ended up accidentally disconnecting the end of the tube that connects to the dryer while we were fiddling and figured the mouse had escaped into our house.
Heard whatever it was moving around in there still, so I kicked the dryer on to dissuade it from leaving the tube from the wrong end.
Heard a big noise, and all the sudden a bird comes shooting out the pipe. About shit my pants and took off running up the stairs. My little 3 year old son had been down there at the time and I didn't realize. He started screaming, which I felt real badly about.
Was trying to figure out how we would get a bird to peacefully leave our house. I assumed it wouldn't leave willingly.
Crept back down the stairs, and there was a little house finch, sitting on the inside ledge of the window in our entry way. It looked at me as if to say, "I want to be out there, please."
So I opened the door and he flew right on out.