squirrels and nuts, 200 nuts

[Dave (imported)]

What happened to this car is nuts. 200 walnuts, to be exact

By Maddie Capron and Christina Zdanowicz, CNN

! Updated 6:38 PM ET, Tue October 8, 2019

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/us/squir ... index.html

After noticing a burning smell coming from their car, a couple found this surprise under the hood.

(CNN) — If you park your car outside, you might want to look under the hood every once in a while. You could end up with a little surprise from the critters in your yard.

The squirrels around Holly and Chris Persic's home seem to be stocking up for the winter by taking walnuts from their yard in Pittsburgh and shoving them under the hood of their car.

Holly was driving her car Monday when she thought it smelled like it was burning and was making a strange

sound. When she popped the hood, she found more than 200 walnuts and lots of grass.

"They were everywhere, under the battery, near the radiator fan," Chris said. "The walnuts on the engine block were black and smelt like they were definitely roasting."

Chris and Holly Persic found more than 200 walnuts under the hood of their car.

Holly had her car inspected last month but hadn't looked under the hood since then, her husband Chris told CNN on Tuesday. The walnuts started falling only a few weeks ago.

"The squirrels worked pretty fast!" Chris said.

They had noticed there weren't very many walnuts around the yard, given how big the tree is, but they said they didn't think they would find them under the hood of their car.

There were so many walnuts and so much grass under the hood of the car that it took almost a full hour to get the car clean enough to take it to a local auto repair shop.

Once they got the car to the shop, mechanics were able to put it up on a lift and remove the protective plate from under the car. Walnuts they couldn't reach fell out and covered the floor. There were enough walnuts to fill half a trash can.

"My truck may have had a squirrel chew through/pull out a fuel injector hose, and Holly's looked like they were storing up for the next three winters," Chris wrote in a post on Facebook. "Was absolutely nuts ... no pun intended."

There was no damage to the car, beyond it needing a cleanup.

If it weren't for the rain, Chris said he thinks this would have been less of a funny story. The grass under the hood was damp, but he thinks it could have caught fire if it wasn't.

"It was more or less just smoldering," he said. "Something crazy that happened, that could've turned out bad, ended up being a little funny."

Chris said people have messaged him that they checked under their hoods because of what happened to him, and he said he hopes people continue to check on their cars.

"Long story short, if you park outside, do yourself a favor and check under the hood every once in awhile," Chris wrote on Facebook.

[rogerwpbfl (imported)]

Squirrels are determined, industrious little rodents. There are a ton of YouTube videos showing how adept they can be at foiling the systems designed to keep them out of things. I love watching them. I'd have a pet squirrel if I could catch one.

[Dave (imported)]

I watch them run all over my yard and in the trees. That's close enough for me

[cutnbulls2ox (imported)]

I ve read that male squirrels sometimes castrate each other by biting off the opponent s testicles during battles to mate ! Imagine finding those nuts packed away somewhere by the victorious male squirrels that you see having hard earned mates and babies in your yard ? Or in the city trees outside wherever you live ?

[Dave (imported)]

Yesterday, I saw several squirrels running around the yard but i couldn't get a camera and get outside fast enough to get pictures. It's winter and the squirrels are packing away the fallen walnuts and hickory nuts and pine cones for the winter.

(BTW - - I can't "sex" the squirrels male or female from the distance they maintain. I see slightly smaller squirrels sometimes but not what I would call babies. Sorry.)