Squirrels’ Live-Wire Antics Can Leave Many In Dark Rodents Cause Frequent Major Power Outages

It’s squirrel season, and suburban dwellers are going nuts.

A surging squirrel population has pitted some people against their bushy-tailed neighbors whose arboreal antics and penchants for chomping on power lines have caused frequent blackouts in some areas around Albany, N.Y.

William Peterson and his neighbors on leafy Gari Lane in Guilderland lost power six times last month.

“I don’t know much about electricity or anything about squirrels,” Peterson said. “But I do know something needs to be done.”

In 1997, upstate New York suffered about 1,500 major power outages from animals nibbling, gnawing or scampering across power lines, according to Niagra Mohawk spokesman Nick Lyman. NIMO defines a major power outage as one in which service is disrupted for more than five minutes.

The suspect in most cases? Sciurus carolinensison gray squirrel.

They are either filing down their incisors, a necessity for all rodents, or touching their tails or noses on transformers, said Lyman. “Squirrels are a problem,” he said. “In New York City, I imagine it’s the same problem with the rats. A squirrel is just a rat by another name.”

Like coyotes and Canada geese, squirrels have adapted well to the pressures of urban and suburban living, said Ward Stone, state Department of Environmental Conservation animal pathologist.

“With bird food, pet food, all around there’s a lot of extra food supplies available to them,” said Stone, who estimated there are about 500,000 squirrels in the Albany area.

He added: “To compensate for a thin treeline, squirrels may throw telephone poles and wires into their routine. He’ll jump off the trees, over a wire, to get to another.”

For customers like Peterson, the squirrel’s agility is annoying. But there’s not much the power company can do, aside from physically removing the critters, said Lyman. When a squirrel chews on a live line, or touches a power transformer, the system detects electricity flowing where it shouldn’t and automatically shuts off. In the process, the squirrel is zapped by an average of 13.2 kilovolts and typically electrocuted.

“Squirrels standing on power lines tend to get one bite at a line,” he said. “Once they chomp in they get electrocuted, unlike phone or cable wires where they can nibble.”

If the problem persists in certain areas, the company may install a squirrel guard, or a spoke-like contraption that sits on a transformer and emits a low level of electricity to deter the rodents.

“They are designed to give the squirrel a tingly sensation so they think ‘I don’t want to go there,”’ said Lyman, who added that the company may install the guards in Peterson’s area.

Cable companies also report occasional damaged cables from chewing, which causes signal leakage, or a ghosty television image.

“It’s a problem the industry will continue to face as long as there are squirrels,” said Time Warner spokesman Peter Taubkin.

“Especially in areas with a lot of trees.” Since the early 1990s the company has used “armored cable” which consists of a steel coating over all outdoor wiring.

Stone didn’t think the squirrel problem was going to go away soon. “Some people hate them and some people love them,” he said. “But the squirrels are here to stay.”

And that’s not such a bad thing, Stone said.

“They’re bright little creatures. They’re attractive. They are acrobatic. You have to admire their ability to leap from limb to limb.”