Found a squirrel living in a pedestal in Bakersfield

I popped a pedestal on a service call yesterday in Bakersfield and this fat squirrel had built a nest out of old coax shielding and chewed through two drops. It just sat there staring at me like I owed it rent, nut shells everywhere. Anyone else deal with wildlife in the box or is this just my luck?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleyflores3d ago

Haha no way, that's wild! But hey, you're kinda off on the droppings thing though. Squirrel poop is super acidic and it'll eat through the plastic housing over time, not just the splice trays. I've seen it corrode the inside of pedestals worse than the chewed coax ever could. Plus they love to stash nuts in there and that brings in more critters later, like mice or even roaches. So it's not just a quick fix, you might end up swapping the whole box in a few months. Still a fun story though, I'll give you that.

cole_murphy3d ago

That squirrel probably had a better setup in that pedestal than half the people renting in Bakersfield, so I'm not sure I'd call it a problem. Chewed coax is annoying but that's like a 20 minute fix and you got a story out of it. Now if it had chewed through a fiber line or left droppings in a splice tray, then yeah, different deal. Half the pedestals in this valley have some critter living in them, so I'd say you got off lucky it didn't bring friends.