My sympathies!

I once went away for a couple weeks. When I returned, the whole house reeked; huge flies, dead and alive, and larvae littered the living room. One or more ravens had entered the chimney and gotten stuck somewhere, probably above the smoke shelf. A strong lesson in the importance of securely capping all wood-burning fireplace chimneys.

Ha! Loved reading your story. Very descriptive and entertaining.

makes me want to move my washer and dryer to the outside wall in the new house.

it is mere feet, but may move it even closer :-)

One of the few benefits of our dryer venting out into the garage, then up out the wall near the top. It has a flap and a hood, pretty hard for anything to slip in there.

So, MrsPete, are you moving the dryer in the new house? Or putting a good hood and flap on it!

A friend of mine, an HVAC guy, helped me clean my dryer vent. (I had tried myself - not easy with my stacked washer and dryer - and couldn't get the hose re-attached.) While suctioning from the outside, he broke one of the little louvers on the vent cover. The very next day, birds started going in and out of the vent pipe. The broken louver must have given them the idea that there was something back there, then they easily lifted the louvers and got in - to the vent with the broken louver and the vent next to it. (It's a vent from the water heater I think.)

I ended up with a nest full of eggs in my dryer vent. I remember feeling very guilty pulling out the nest and eggs - it was on Mother's Day. But I was so worried about little birds hatching in there and falling down the pipe behind the dryer!

My friend came back and installed basket-like covers over all my louvered vents. So I avoided a problem like yours, mrspete, but I can see how easily critters find their way into our homes.

My Mom's split level house had a fan in the lower level bathroom. It seemed like it wasn't drawing any air out, so I took it apart. I found an ice cream pail full of bird seed - apparently a chipmunk had squeezed through the louvers on the exhaust (which wasn't far off the ground). After cleaning the duct, I put a screen over it, which solved the problem (since it was just air passing through, the screen wasn't an issue).

At least the chipmunk could make it out again.

Having been through a house fire, I never go to bed or leave the house with an appliance running. Especially the dryer.

Ouch, MrsPete.... Glad you could make this work out.

I never go to bed or leave the house with an appliance running.

One blazing hot Ohio summer day, we came home from cooling off at Van Buren Lake. As my father turned the corner onto our street in his shiny new '53 Buick Roadmaster, we were greeted by a host of fire engines and a small crowd. "Hey, that's our house!" It was a smoking mess, courtesy of an electrical fire originating in the refrigerator.

Totally agree with chimney caps!

I didn't know you could vent into the garage. Regardless, it wouldn't work for my floorplan. I do think, however, that I'm going to move my washer/dryer over towards garage /kitchen.

Bird's eggs? An ice cream pail? I'm thinking I got off easy.

I'm not sure a "basket" would've helped in this case. I'm pretty sure the culprit was a chipmunk, and it'd have to be a pretty small basket to keep him out. We have a large redtip right by this corner, and it's just full of chipmunks. And think, I used to like them.

I was in a house fire once, and I can relate to the "ran like sprayed roaches" concept. It was when I worked at summer camp, and my roommate became aware of the problem first -- she woke me up beating me with my floor mat, and I was literally outside, feet moving before I was fully awake.

Thanks for the sympathy, folks. Last night was not fun at our house!

We don't vent into the garage, the duct goes from the Laundry room through the wall into the garage, then it turns and goes out the side. I tried venting into the garage briefly, but it spewed moist dust onto the cars and everything else. Ick. Even as it is, our ducting situation is not good, but at least it's fairly critter-proof.

A duct passing from a house through an attached garage must be a minimum of 26-gauge steel and have no opening into the garage.

I realize this system is universally called a "dryer vent" by manufacturers, builders and consumers but that can be misleading since its actually a "powered exhaust". A vent allows gases dangerous to inhabitants to escape to the exterior of a building usually by gravity but a fan might be added.

The IRC calls it a "Clothes Dryer Exhaust" in Chapter 15, EXHAUST SYSTEMS. The ducts must be a minimum of 28 ga. rigid metal with no screws penetrating into the duct.