What is this growing in my fuse panel?

[pete_c]

I have not looked at my fuse panel in a couple of months and noticed this today.  Is this the result of some sort of arcing?
 
It is on one of the terminals of one phase of the electric.  I touched it with a piece of plastic and it is firm / hard.
 
I have never loosened or tightened the main ingress wires.  I have removed the ground wire and put it through a filter.
 
Never have seen anything like this before.  
 
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1334]

I have left a large old fashioned horseshoe (1-2 Ibs) magnet attached to the top of the fuse panel. You need to pull the magnet off with two hands which I just did. It is very old and I put there just to store it a few months ago. The magnet was about 10" away on the top of the fuse panel.
 
Would the magnet have caused this little growth on the ingress terminal?
 

 

[wkearney99]

Sure it's not a petrified critter that got into the box?

What ever it is I'd be calling a licensed electrician.  I wouldn't want any mysteries about the main feed into a panel.

 

[LarrylLix]

I have not looked at my fuse panel in a couple of months and noticed this today.  Is this the result of some sort of arcing?
 
It is on one of the terminals of one phase of the electric.  I touched it with a piece of plastic and it is firm / hard.
 
I have never loosened or tightened the main ingress wires.  I have removed the ground wire and put it through a filter.
 
Never have seen anything like this before.  
 


I have left a large old fashioned horseshoe (1-2 Ibs) magnet attached to the top of the fuse panel. You need to pull the magnet off with two hands which I just did. It is very old and I put there just to store it a few months ago. The magnet was about 10" away on the top of the fuse panel.
 
Would the magnet have caused this little growth on the ingress terminal?
 

Haha! Get a very old piece of cheddar...actually maybe a dead piece of cheese and he'll come out for it!
 
This is quite common. They crawl into an electrical box and sit there slowly frying until they are fully dehydrated and stops leaking trickle current. We found one snake in a meter base posed to strike at the meter tech pulling the meter off.

Drop the main switch and dig it out with an insulated tool. You may want to wear a filter ask and other PPE. Some mice carry a deadly disease. We were warned about that. Can't remember the details but Deer Mouse rings a bell.

 

[pete_c]

The fuse panel has been open now for over a year and it sits next to my work bench.  Noticed it right away sitting near my workbench.
 
Actually have tinkered with the house fuse panel for many years.  Adding new circuits 
 
Did have a field mouse issue in the house a few years ago but have not had the issue now for a long time.  \
 
Will do a closer picture.  It sort of looks like steel wool.  I was just going to clean it off with a wire brush.
 
Looking again at a zoomed in picture it does appear to be a totally fried mouse.  Probably coming in via the electric meter conduit.

 

[Edge540]

On my screen it looks like a bat

 

[TrojanHorse]

Agree. Wuhan bat...
PPE as suggested,
to avoid the CCP virus

Good luck.
MAGA dawg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pete_c]

 
Yes looking closer at it this morning it appears to be a rodent.
 
None the less removing it today and ordered some duct putty for the service entrance electrical ingress.

 

[pete_c]

Removed rodent with chopsticks and surgical gloves.  It was a bat.  I have never seen a bat up close.
 
Guessing it was living inside of the service entrance (where the electric meter is). 
 
We did have a couple of hour long power outages this week and maybe it crawled in to the electrical conduit and got fried when the electric came back on.

 

[LarrylLix]

Removed rodent with chopsticks and surgical gloves.  It was a bat.  I have never seen a bat up close.
 
Guessing it was living inside of the service entrance (where the electric meter is). 
 
We did have a couple of hour long power outages this week and maybe it crawled in to the electrical conduit and got fried when the electric came back on.

Use the sterilise cycle on the dishwasher for the chopsticks.  :rofl:

 

[pete_c]

The chopsticks were disposable one time use.
 

 

[LarrylLix]

The chopsticks were disposable one time use.
 

They are the best when made from wood. We go to a local sushi restaurant every week and they have tried to push the plastic chopsticks on the patrons. Terrible to use and the metal ones are even worse. They are too slippery to pick up small bits between two slippery point contacts.
 
With the wooden ones I can eat rice without too much problem. I haven't caught any flies though. LOL

 

[pete_c]

No plastic chopsticks around here.  

 

[LarrylLix]

No plastic chopsticks around here.  

Well our restaurants have reusable ones so turtles in California can't eat any oriental foods.

 

[pete_c]

Got the duct putty today. 
 
Geez one day with Amazon. 
 
Going to use it inside.   
 
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1335]
 
Outside will seal the conduit with duct putty so I will be pulled off the meter then sealing (using calk) the enclosure to the brick.   
 
Will do some pictures if anyone is interested including a better picture of the bat.
 
This is the first time I have done this to my fuse panel service entrance and never have seen this in any homes that I have owned.

 

[LarrylLix]

Hey Batman!
 
Mice will sometimes eat through the putty and they seem to love insulation. Mix some Mouse Treat into the putty. LOL
Cover any exposed wiring outside. I found I could split ABS (maybe CPVC and PVC also)  pipe and heat it with a heat gun, bend it open and back around openings, and it hardens like I remembered it before doing the wiring. LOL
 
Rule of thumb is to only seal at the cold warm end to keep condensation down inside the pipe, and dripping into the building..