I got home from an 8-day vacation, and the house plants I set out in one of my zones were all dried up. This morning, I realized my sprinklers didn’t run their Saturday schedule. The Rachio app told me the rain/freeze sensor was triggered. I looked at the remote controller and it showed a low battery. I went out back and grabbed the sensor. To my surprise, it was all chewed up. (see pics).
I assume this is either rats or squirrels. What can I do to prevent this? I have it mounted on my fence. Do they make a small “cage” to put around them? I’ve had this for 5 years and this has never happened before.
I’ll bet it was squirrels. They’ve chewed up all the plastic latches on all my fence gates. One time they even ate through the natural gas line going to my grill (it’s totally covered in metal now!) - you might be able to fashion your own cage for it using a metal mesh of some sort. Spikes are good for the birds where I don’t want them roosting, but those squirrels are damn smart and they can jump pretty long distances. I’m thinking a metal cage of some sort would be the best. Probably easiest to make your own.
