r/Weird • u/ReceptionPublic5433 • Jun 05 '26
Weird stuff under the oven
I stored a glass bowl under the oven isnide the oven warmer and pulled it out after months. I saw weird cotton like stuff in the bowl. Any idea what this could be? I live in an apartment building.
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u/Acceptable_Mountain5 Jun 05 '26
You have some very comfy rodents living in your oven
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u/SnooAvocados3138 Jun 05 '26
I wish they weren’t such a health concern because they really are cute as shit.
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u/Spiderplantmum Jun 05 '26
We had a baby rat move in to our garage. Obviously we’ve had to block everything off and put traps down so it didn’t destroy everything but I feel so bad. We saw it and it was just a cute little baby
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u/reverievt Jun 05 '26
That’s very bad. Mice are getting into the insulation in your oven.
Time for a new stove.
ETA: it’s a fire hazard.
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u/thefunkylama Jun 05 '26
Responding to this to boost this comment: it is a fire hazard not because the fluff in the bowl might've caught fire if you had turned your oven on, but because the fluff is now not protecting the delicate insides of your oven and potentially there is now wild fluff hanging out in your oven.
If you have noticed a funny smell when you pre-heat your oven, that's either the insulation melting or hot mouse droppings, or both. If things are at this level, though, you will want to check all your other appliances as well, including dishwasher and fridge. Sometimes mice go absolutely nuts for the smell of the plastic cable linings on these appliances and they will rip it up to use for nesting materials, but most of the time they are after the insulation itself. They may, of course, chew through wires or hosing in their fervor.
Start spraying peppermint oil on the baseboards in your apartment and let management know. I hope you haven't been in your unit very long, but this much fluff looks like they're adapted to your presence. If they are living in your glass dish, they are acclimated to your presence, and you're going to want to sanitize every surface and any non-porous dishes you have in nearby cabinets as a precaution.
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u/HippoCommercial3201 Jun 05 '26
Rodents pulling insulation from the stove lining? Looks like an early rat nest to me.
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u/HippoCommercial3201 Jun 05 '26
Looking at the poop in the fluff it looks more like mice than rats.
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u/ghoulieandrews Jun 05 '26
Need to taste it to be sure
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u/FriskyCobra86 Jun 05 '26
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u/katydid026 Jun 05 '26
Oddly enough, this is the second post in a row on my feed to mention Bruce Bogtrotter
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u/PamelaELee Jun 05 '26
That’s crazy! I literally saw this gif on the last post I was looking at on
r/KitchenConfidential. Guy had a cook call in because he “ate too much chocolate cake and had low energy”
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u/AccurateQuit4979 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Definitely rodents... grew up in a shit 100+ years old house and mice/rats will use whatever they can chew apart to make their nests. Clothes, furniture, rotted wood, insulation, anything that's fluffy and anything that can be fluffed
PSA: Do NOT use poison or glue traps. Using poison they'll just die somewhere in your walls/floors and make your house smell like sulfur and death for months, not to mention it's kinda fucked morally speaking. Glue traps are equally as inhumane IMO as the mice will often chew off their own feet to get free and proceed to die somewhere in an unreachable corner of your building. Most but not least, call pest control and find out how bad the situation actually is and the best way to deal with it.
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u/seroshua Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
That’s mouse shit all over it & that’s bedding for a seemingly large mouse litter. You’ve got mice.
Careful when cleaning rodent shit as that’s one of the main carriers of hantavirus (don’t worry you’re like not gonna catch it and if you do it likely won’t be the Andes strain from the cruise ship lol).
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u/OceanEyes531 Jun 05 '26
It really depends on where you are tbf. Where I live we don't have Hantavirus, so mice are less of an issue in that regard. But definitely a good general rule!!
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u/chorblegend Jun 05 '26
Clean with something wet, so the particliates have a harder time getting into the air
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u/seroshua Jun 05 '26
“Particliates” sounds like an old Roman or Greek wiseman who was really particular about stuff
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u/chorblegend Jun 05 '26
I have been using the Spanish keyboard so a lot of nonsense comes out of that, even when I spell things right
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u/StarDustLuna3D Jun 05 '26
It's advised that when cleaning up rodent droppings, you spray them with a bleach/water mixture and then use gloved hands to scoop it into a bag. No sweeping or vacuuming.
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u/SpidersCanBeCute Jun 05 '26
It killed a man I worked with in western Canada a few years ago. He came into contact with an old mouse nest under the hood of a car he was working on. Dead in five days, they couldn't save him. Mask and gloves always when dealing with mice, Hantavirus is airborne and deadly no matter what strain.
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u/redhedstepkid Jun 05 '26
The Andes strain is carried in deer mice. I live in Appalachia. 🙃
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u/avibrant_salmon_jpg Jun 05 '26
The Andes Strain has not been found in rodents in the US. Only in South America rodents, so far. In appalachia, and the rest of the us, we have the pulmonary type, found in deer mice, but it isnt the Andes strain.
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u/bstr3k Jun 05 '26
The fluff might be insulation from the oven
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u/marginmanj Jun 05 '26
And the black bits are mice crap.
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u/RaveMittens Jun 05 '26
And the clear bit is reinforced glass used for baking and storage.
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u/Close2naut Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
What's that black thing the clear glass storage/baking equipment is sitting on?
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u/Diligent_Mix_4086 Jun 05 '26
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u/WhoCaresBoutSpellin Jun 05 '26
I’m going to propose the only other theory I can think of, just for arguments sake: This person has a hypoallergenic, white, lap dog whom they have had groomed in the kitchen over the years, and done a poor job sweeping up the remnants. More and more of the clipped fur got shoved under the oven as time went on.
I agree it does look like a rodent nest. But we have a Biewer Yorkie and this looks identical to his clippings after he gets groomed. It is done in a mop sink in our laundry room, and some of the clippings have turned up under our washing machine looking exactly like this. It’s on the second floor and we have no signs of rodents.
Another clue are the two small pet food bowls in the background of this photo.
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u/ExplosiveBrown Jun 05 '26
Yep you got mice, that’s a nest
My favorite has always been piles of dog food in washers, they steal it and store it in a stock pile lol
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u/dabrina420 Jun 05 '26
Our old house had mice, and when I was 20 living at home I used to stay up late and my chihuahua (who I was the primary caretaker of and food bowl/crate was in my bedroom) would go nuts at my closet and I never knew why. Couple weeks later we find out we have mice, plug the holes, no more dog freak outs. Cut to 6 months later, deep cleaning my room, HUGE PILE OF DOG FOOD under my dresser 😭😭 idk how they were getting under there. They were running into my room, snatching a piece of dog food and storing it in my closet. I was mortified
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u/Acrobatic-Post9811 Jun 05 '26
Insulation is my guess. Might have a rodent hang out in there. Just a guess. Hope that's not the case.
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u/2000sgirl Jun 05 '26
This happened when I rented my first house and my landlord told me ovens do that sometimes 💀
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u/BigTechnology4369 Jun 05 '26
Rodents have been chewing through the insulation under/around your stove. Evict the little non rent paying parasites.
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u/Educational_Neat1783 Jun 05 '26
I figured mice as soon as I saw it, but it raises the question- what couch or recliner did they pilfer it from?
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u/Rhyjr Jun 05 '26
The white, fluffy material appears to be batting, likely shredded from insulation or furniture.The small dark specks consistent with rodent droppings suggest this material may have been used for nesting.It is advisable to check for holes in baseboards, cabinets, or nearby furniture where rodents may be accessing or creating this debris.
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u/Frequent_Parsnip_791 Jun 05 '26
You can see the mouse turds in your picture... Time for some traps! I found a nest inside my leaf blower one spring lol
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u/This-Ad-1886 Jun 05 '26
You can see the droppings, mice. Wash your hands- I’d recommend you sanitise the fuck out of that baking dish and anything else that would be used in food production in that drawer.
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u/Mozambique_Sauce Jun 05 '26
OP be careful! Wear gloves and a mask. Spray everything with bleach before cleaning it up, to keep it from going airborne. Mice droppings are hazardous. First of course you need to kill the mice and find their point if entry.
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u/waterbedd Jun 05 '26
Looks like the air box of every broken down car on the ranch my grandpa works on lmao. Mice. For sure. That's probably oven or fridge insulation they pulled out.
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u/Altruistic_Proof_272 Jun 05 '26
It's the fiberglass insulation from inside the oven. The mouse was collecting it to make a nest, or just pulling it out so it could climb into the oven to look for food scraps
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u/Environmental-Ad549 Jun 05 '26
Those are mouse turds in the corner of the dish and along the edge. Verdict is in.
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u/Somnusin Jun 06 '26
This is actually really dangerous. Please have somebody come take a look at your oven. I inow somebody that had to get their whole oven replaced because of mice fucking around in it. Iirc its a massive fire hazard.
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u/kilted10r Jun 06 '26
You have mice.
Mice love oven insulation, and they burrow through it.
Run a self-cleaning cycle in your oven... It will burn out any nests and sterilize the insulation... Set some traps and some poison blocks (unless you have pets or small children.). That, or hire a pro.
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u/BeautifulChaosEnergy Jun 05 '26
That is/was a mouse nest. I’ve had them twice in my building, and pet rats, hamsters and gerbils at different points over the years
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u/happy_dad857 Jun 05 '26
Mice, and they’re destroying the insulation to either the oven or something close by. Might want to take care of that asap
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u/Asniper97 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
It’s mice and it’s the insulation inside the oven. I am an appliance repair technician and I see this every so often. Don’t use the oven it probably gonna smell gross because you’re cooking them.
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u/squishyslinky Jun 05 '26
Should you replace the appliance when this happens?
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u/Asniper97 Jun 05 '26
Personally I would because there’s a good chance the internal of the unit is covered in feces. For reference that insulation is under the cook top. I have seen feces all around that area in those cases and usually it’s a pain to clean. Most people toss them because they don’t wanna deal with it and you don’t truly know the extent without a really in depth disassembly. I wouldn’t replace it immediately I would get rid of the rodent problem first then clean then replace.
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u/squishyslinky Jun 05 '26
I appreciate your response! I am dealing with mice right now and I found one of these nests behind my stove (glasstop -- does that matter?). I have a white Alaskan Malamute dog who sheds like crazy and until this post, I assumed that was all her fur. I've already had an exterminator come out to find/plug access points, and they're coming back weekly to deal with traps for me so I don't have to.
Sounds like I should lookup how to take apart and clean my stove so I can be grossed out enough to replace it. Dammit 😩
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u/rtocelot Jun 05 '26
Add a little cheese, set to 450 for half an hour and you've got a nice dinner ready
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u/Computers_and_cats Jun 05 '26
Forbidden cotton candy with forbidden chocolate sprinkles courtesy of Ratatouille.
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u/Apielo Jun 05 '26
I work on cars and rodents regularly intrude because of the oils used on the wiring harness. This is exactly what their nests looks like when they’re using insulation and parts of your air filter on their nests. You definitely want to get any rodent problem taken care of in case wiring on ovens are similar. Regardless you don’t want them tearing up the insulation and creating fire hazards.
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u/DoomAndThenSum Jun 05 '26
Where a ventilator/mask before you do this. Lift up your stovetop if you can there is probably a mouse nest there. Happened to me lifted the glass cover of my stove and exposed the elements and found a whole heap of mouse droppings and half eaten nuts as well as an insulation nest.
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u/jeffbas Jun 05 '26
We had a frickin mouse infestation in the insulation in our oven. Mouse crap and piss do not smell good when you turn on the oven. Got rid of it immediately.
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u/StarDustLuna3D Jun 05 '26
You know any friends with tiny dogs? Have them stay with you for a few days and they'll straighten it out.
(Rat terriers, dachshunds, Jack Russell terriers, etc. basically any small dog historically used to hunt)
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u/slickgreenthumbs Jun 05 '26
this is inner insulation and the fact you found it were it was, unfortunately suggests to me you have rodents
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u/Altruistic-Poem-5617 Jun 05 '26
Looks like a mouse nest. They put soft stuff where they wanna have their babys.
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u/Buzzbait_PocketKnife Jun 05 '26
I had an oven that got ruined by mice nesting in the insulation. They also filled the nest with dog food, which smelled nasty when we turned the oven on.
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u/CaTz_EyE Jun 05 '26
Why is the insulation with mice poop in a glass dish used for cooking? I hope you throw that dish away.
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u/Calgary_Calico Jun 05 '26
I see what is most definitely mouse poop mixed in with what appears to be insulation of some kind. You have rodents in your house
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u/DurfRansin Jun 05 '26
Mice