Trap and Kill

What is it with folks who think predatory animals should be stopped from hunting?  I have read more than one comment on blogs about nature shows where someone is saying they think the photographer should discourage the lion, tiger, whatever that is hunting.  And do what?  Offer them a carrot???

So, I am back again complaining about the deer and the rabbits.  And the red squirrels.  And chipmunks.  All very destructive animals.  Not just to your yard, but to your home.  Just ask me or anyone who has had these destructive squirrels and chipmunks find their way into your home.  They actually chewed through the cement foundation wall!

The deer were not supposed to eat sedums.  So I planted them in the front yard.  Now, they love sedum.  And they even left a huge pile of deer poop next to them.  Disgusting, to say the least.  Last year I cut down the hedge in the back of my fence after they destroyed everything below four feet - the browse line.

My backyard is fenced to keep them out.  Unfortunately, the rabbits have found a way to tunnel under the fence.  So, I closed it up.  I go outside the other day to see some hostas literally torn to pieces.  By what?  So, yesterday, while standing in my kitchen, I see a rabbit in the yard.  I go to chase him out and I see him jump through the shadowbox fence.  How is that possible?

Well, here is how.

They chewed the wooden fence boards.  So, now I have ordered more rolls of chicken wire and will have to attach it all the way around on the outside of the fence to keep them from chewing.

My trapper guy says that it is next to impossible to get them into a live trap, you have to use a leg trap, which he will not use.  Where is Katniss Everdeen when I need her?  The other idea is to get a dog.  But a terrier would likely do nearly as much damage running through the plants to get the rabbit.  I know.  I have owned several dogs.

Another problem is voles.  They destroy the crowns of plants.  I read online that in some states it is illegal to kill voles.  Really?  They serve what purpose?  And one pair can produce 100 offspring in one year? 

And I am not the only one suffering.  I saw a garter snake in the flower bed - minus the end of his tail.  I wonder who did that to him?  Actually, snakes I do not mind.  And I have toads all over the place.

I love my yard.  But I am just about ready to move into a condo and let someone else deal with the animals.  This is getting beyond ridiculous.

Chip and Dale are not so cute when they are destroying your Home

I am battling with chipmunks.  I have had problems with them for several years. 

About ten years ago we had a horrible stench in our basement.  I called a pest control company and after two hours and a few hundred dollars for his time, he discovered a hole in my concrete foundation wall where the chipmunks had burrowed through.  They, along with a few moles, had entered and died in the insulation.

A few years later, I went to change my furnace filter and wondered what was blocking the removal of the filter.  Turned out that a chipmunk had chewed through the outside vent opening for air, traveled down the vent pipe and landed 'kerplunk' on the floor of the filter cabinet and killed himself.  YUCK!  (Maybe that is slightly better than having a squirrel die in your sanitary vent pipe.)

This year I have holes and tunnels all over my yard.  I couldn't understand why one of my window wells was full of water since we had very little rain.  Turns out that  they had tunneled under the lily of the valley all around the well wall.  So, every time I watered the plants, the water would run into the tunnels and into the well before the plants and ground could soak it up.

I remember several years ago when I was working at town hall we also had a problem with chipmunks.  Our maintenance man was live-trapping and releasing - who knows where.  As he was coming back to our 99-acre complex, there was a resident at the entrance releasing his live traps of chipmunks.  Does not exactly solve the problem.

When my children were little I had one of those kiddie pools on the patio.  Many a morning I found dead chipmunks floating in it.  The lady at the garden center said she uses a five gallon bucket filled half-full of water with sunflower seeds on top.  She's caught over 20 so far this year.  Her son thinks she's cruel.  The last exterminator I hired (to trap a HUGE groundhog) told me he took over 100 chipmunks out of someone's attic.  (It was a very large home.)  EEEWWW!

I have set rat traps around the yard, but they get pretty good at not setting them off.  This morning I was on the internet and found this article on the problem.  Anyone know where you can find a carbon monoxide chamber?