[gardenia]

Let me start by saying, I am afraid of "little critters". So you can imagine the screech I let out when I saw a little frog, legs up, right under the air vent in my laundry room (Lily model built Nov 2010). I had just walked by that spot a few minutes earlier and coast was clear, now to my surprise, there was this little critter in the middle of the walkway in clear sight. Well, turns out I think, that just as the Villages Warranty person said to me when they came to my house at the end of the 1 year anniversay, "be sure to keep the outside drain spout from your heat pump system in an upward facing position because geckos and frogs climb in and could cause blockage to the drain line or get into the system". The outside PVC spout at the end of the heat pump drain line was indeed in an upward position when I bought the house and I always thought it was odd but never touched it, then I had my cooling unit serviced over a month ago, and when I went outside to check the spout after that little critter was using my floor as a cemetery, I was surprised to see that the spout was facing downward. Guess the cooling service rep turned it face down, and the frog came up thru the pipe and into the vent closest to the unit. So you can bet what I did: I put a wire screen mesh over the PVC spout outside and turned it face up again. I should put a "Critters not welcome" sign there too! Hope never to have a critter "fall" into my house again!

Anyway, I did read in some old posts a while back I believe about a similar situation but I think it was an entry thru the roof. But thanks again to this forum, the idea of screening the spout came to me from the suggestion to screen the vents on the roof.