A spider costs you $99!
A short explanation:
Heat pump quit cooling yesterday. Air handler would run, but outside unit would not come on. Called service guy. Turns out to be a charred spider between the contacts in the relay that energizes the compressor. Damn bugs! I'm going to grab some toxic chemicals and have my revenge! Muuwahahahahaha!
Get a helmet, and gopro it. Mass bug genocide seems to be popular video fodder here.
Found a big mouse in a fuse panel once. He was right between the 2 incoming mains. At least the little guy went quickly. Xtra creepy thing was that he was facing out at eye level when you opened the door.
Found two dead baby volls in there S13.
Snakes used to knock out substations all the time.
I recommend wasp & hornet killer for spiders, works great. Some spiders shrug off the regular ant/roach sprays.
I did witness a squirrel short out a transformer, nothing left of it but fur, no body to be found. Little bugger jumped the main terminals, made one heck of a boom and the power lines were bouncing up and down all down the street.
You know you have class Monday 100 miles away when you try fixing the caster issue on your car Sunday night and end up tearing down the front suspension to replace the strut mount you broke a bolt off in.
Q: What's worse than finding a rat in a starter box?
A: Finding half a rat in there.
Part of my job is doing thermography on customer switchgear, so I get to see lots of issues. Spiders are not usually an issue. Snakes are. They get in places you might not believe.
Some substations in West Texas have electrified "snake fences" around the switchgear, with bare wire on insulators, just above the ground.
Birds are also a big issue, especially on air switches and pole-mount transformers. The larger birds' wingspans can short across the phases.
One of the scariest finds, though, was a beehive in a disconnect/starter box in the oilfield near Odessa, Texas. Right when they were telling us that Africanized bees were found in the area. No place to run, long ways to the truck. I don't know why they didn't respond to the disturbance. The electrician just gingerly closed the panel, and we left.
81cpcamaro wrote: I recommend wasp & hornet killer for spiders, works great. Some spiders shrug off the regular ant/roach sprays. I did witness a squirrel short out a transformer, nothing left of it but fur, no body to be found. Little bugger jumped the main terminals, made one heck of a boom and the power lines were bouncing up and down all down the street.
I have personally seen this myself. Vaporized is a good word to use.
Ants are a common problem in heat pumps around here. PITA.
One Sunday morning, the power went out in the house. I noticed because I slept under a window with a massive fan in it. I went out to check the lines, and noticed a squirrel there on the ground, in the classic "Oh, that high voltage line" pose. Out from under the house comes one of the colony of feral cats, sniffs around the ex-tree rat, and carts him off for brunch.
So the morning wasn't a loss for one of us, at least.
Was at the Mercedes shop one morning, there was a bang and the power started acting weird. Discovered that a squirrel had been bouncing around on the transformer and shorted it out, blowing a big fuse for one side (that's why the power was weird). The squirrel looked fine- till he turned his head. Half of the skin was blown off. 
What, no pics?
Found a snakeskin in my jeeps glove box. Glad he wasn't hanging out there when I opened it up. I don't hate snakes, but don't expect to see them in a vehicle.
Tractor ran for a bit, then started flooding out. Smelled bad, too...
In reply to Appleseed:
No, but the funniest part was the office manager came out to look, saw the poor critter, ran back inside and barfed.
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