Critters

I've been thinking about posting this for a while. I was watching a series on plane crashes. One was where a Mud Dauber made a nest in the tube going to the air speed indicator on a air liner and it reminded me it happens a lot on bikes too. I can't tell you how many times I've found spiders and other critters liveing in the vent tubes on carbs. If they sit for a long time, the chances are good you might have some squatters living in some tubing being overflow or vents. My bike sat with the fuel lines disconnected. I replaced the lines but I had one carb float not shutting off. I pulled the needle and seat and found a long spider web. My VM 33's have a screen on top of the seats but that didn't stop the web from getting past it. Now the seat is ruined no matter how I polish it and the needle. Not cheap at jetsrus. The float bowel was running dry too but only while running and it seemed like I was running out of gas at full throttle. The brass float developed a crack bouncing around in there. I slodered it but I need a new one plus the needle and seat. Ouch.
Something to look out for working on older bikes.
Steve

Steve nothing ever gets a chance to squat in my bike - compressor sees to that pretty well when i am giving it a dry clean - use very little water when i have to - i pull it apart fairly regularly to keep a good check on everything,
Mick

Yeah, me too now she's running again. Still there have been some posts here that made think of it too. I've even found flies in float bowels. Wasps are the worst.
Steve

Flies in the bowls - wouldnt the fuel dissolve them fairly quickly ?
Have seen mice nests in AG and Quad bikes.
Mick.

Mud Daubers are a nuisance here...in a few days they'll have a nest built in an unlikely place.

One of my clients had a free standing propane heater the kind they have at restaurant patios. Her husband couldn't get it to work. "It's only a year old and that moron can't get it to work. He can't even change the regulator, can you come and fix it?" It's 30 miles one way and I charge a 4/HR min. to drive there and back. When I got there, his wife was pissed and he was disgusted with himself. I tried to unscrew the regulator but it was ON THERE. I had to heat the fitting with my torch to remove it. Put the Home Depot one on, still wouldn't work. Norman said, "do I have to buy a new one for $400?" Hold on I said and started looking at the pilot system. Yup a Mud Dauber had made a tiny nest in the pilot tube. I cleared it, made $100 and helped him save face with his wife and the party guests. I told them the factory used thread lock on the regulator, he would never had gotten it off and a insect made a home in the heater unit.
Sometimes/A lot of times it's something stupid.
Steve

Now i know what a mud dauber is - we have something similar around the houses all the time trying to build nests on wall, windows etc.Luckily they rarely get a chance to get inside.
I do remember finding nests in overflow tubes years ago
Mick

I had a few extra bags of seed corn in a buddy's garage. Looked like mice had chewed their way into one of the bags. We started working on one of his bikes and we picked up the exhaust and it sounded like a rain stick. Those little b@stards carried corn down the head pipe and into the baffle. Pulled the sprocket cover and sure enough a stash of corn there to

There's SQUISH rat.
Steve