I went to go to the bathroom last night in the middle of the night. As I walked past the critter room I heard a low beeping noise. Opened the door to notice that my Herpstat alarm was going off. Confused, I turned on the lights and started plugging and unplugging the probes and shifting things around. When I pulled the probe cord out I was shocked to find it completely chewed to bits all up and down about a foot of it. Examining further, what I discovered was that there is a small gap between the floor and the wall in this particular room and at one spot behind my racks a mouse had chewed at this gap from inside the wall and made a hole just large enough to enter the room. Apparently the probe cord was close enough to this gap that it decided to pull the wire into the wall and chew it up. Thank god it wasn't an escape rat... (droppings by the hole were clearly mouse).
Why I'm glad I have a Herpstat:
-If you're like me, you probably don't look at the visual display of your thermostat as often as you should. This could have become a big problem for me without the beeping - I may not have noticed for days.
-If you're like me, you probably also don't measure temps in every tub as often as you should. This could have become a big problem for me if the default when a probe is malfunctioning did not shut off heat to the tape.
These two features made this an annoyance rather than a catastrophe. Thanks Herpstat!
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