4 Strange Animal-Caused Power Outages

Animals cause thousands of outages every year, whether it's by chewing on a cord or wire in your home, gnawing on the electrical line that provides you power, or finding their way into a transformer or substation. Most of the time, squirrels are the guilty party as they are endlessly curious and always looking for a warm place to rest. But there are stranger animals that have caused power disruption. This article will discuss animal-caused power outages by some strange or unexpected animals, and how we can help stop it from happening in your home.

Monkeys

In many parts of the world, monkeys cause a great deal of power outage problems. For example, a few years ago, a monkey fell on a transformer in Kenya and knocked out power to the entire country.

Marten

A marten is an animal in the weasel family. One found its way into the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and shut it down by gnawing on a large power cable. If animals can shut down a $7 billion supercollider, is anything that runs on electricity safe from animals?

Chickens

Chickens are not the brightest animals in the world, and one caused significant problems when it found its way into an airport in Maui in 2013. It knocked out electricity to the entire airport and forced some passengers to depart their airline on mobile steps.

Beavers

Knott County, Tennessee, lost power to thousands of customers when a beaver knocked down a tree onto a power line by chewing through the tree. The beaver was unharmed, but it caused a lot of trouble!

How Critter Guard Products Can Help

Critter Guard's Pole Guard and Line Guard can keep animals off your power lines and keep the power flowing into your house. Not only do our products protect the animal, but the products also stop costly repairs on the power lines connected to your home. For more on how you can prevent animals from interfering with your power, contact us.