Dead or Alive!
It’s Friday! Who works on Friday’s, anyway? Maybe I will make this a habit.
I thought I might tell you a story about some squirrels who moved in several months ago. I admit that I am not sure when they moved in because we live in a small log cabin on 30 acres of wooded land in Michigan and we have all kinds of visitors. (Many people say we live in the middle of nowhere, but that’s all about perspective, isn’t it.) In the fall, I heard something running around and I thought it was some mice coming into our rafters for the winter. I thought we got rid of them but through the winter we heard noises periodically. So who knows how long they have been an unwelcome guest.
I am going off on a tangent here but some people have called me an “environmental wack nut or tree hugger” whatever derogatory name people can think of for someone who loves, appreciates and honors the earth and exhibits this through their daily actions. For example, I bought a used Honda Insight (still the most full efficient car on the market – eat your heart out Toyota Prius) off Ebay in December 2003 before it became fashionable and “acceptable” to own a hybrid. I was definitely the butt of jokes then, “How many gerbils do you have under the hood?” “Where are your Flintstone sandals you use to get it started? I just grin and smile while I am getting 65 MPG and the SUV is at 10 MPG and laughing all the way to the bank.
So when I first moved out to this house 7 years ago, I was so careful about using live traps and I tried to think about how the animals and my family could live in harmony in the woods. It didn’t take too long before I started calling anything that invaded my space, “home wreckers” and if you were a “home wrecker” this means, war and I was taking you out dead or alive! I have never owned a gun or shot a gun in my life but last week I asked a friend of mine to loan me one. Remember in the cartoons when the crazy country person starts shooting up their house, if I had a gun I swear I would have been trying to shoot those squirrels through the ceiling and rafters.
My husband and I had tried to poison them and live trap them with no luck. It was time for the professionals! I called Barry from SW Michigan Pest Control. He came right out and got to work and set two live traps. Nothing! The next day he set a kill trap at the base of the tree and cut two holes for the squirrels to come in and out of with kill traps covering the holes. The bait was taken and one of the traps triggered but NO SQUIRREL. All the while, I can hear them running around back and forth, playing, rolling nuts, laughing and laughing...Ha, Ha, Ha! (This is really when the gun would have been a bad idea.) Barry came out the next day and said he had been thinking about this all night. I could tell because he was beginning to look a little disheveled. He was starting to look a little traumatized but I decided that he wasn't in need of a crisis intervention yet. He made a board to cover the holes with kill traps, covered any other place they could get out and put more bait in the traps. I could hear them again in the evening and SNAP! I run outside to see the kill trap has been triggered again! Really, I have no way of understanding how these squirrels could do this without getting caught. Barry is about fit to be tied and says, “You can fire me if you want, I have never been unable to catch an animal and you don't have to pay me.” (I think he wanted me to put him out of his misery and rid him of this hell job, but I didn't.) He noticed that somehow they have even gotten the bait out of the live traps, too! Ha! Ha! He had been at our home 3 times daily for 3 days in a roll. Barry noticed that they are making holes other places to get out and destroying our home even more, Home Wreckers!
So he decided to take the trap off the opening and set up other traps in the area. I noticed not soon after Barry left there was a lot of activity going on and I think I saw one carrying another squirrel…I haven’t heard much this morning and I am so hoping that they decided to move out yesterday! It’s War, Us against Them and someone has to win in the end and I am hoping it’s me and Barry!
I thought I might tell you a story about some squirrels who moved in several months ago. I admit that I am not sure when they moved in because we live in a small log cabin on 30 acres of wooded land in Michigan and we have all kinds of visitors. (Many people say we live in the middle of nowhere, but that’s all about perspective, isn’t it.) In the fall, I heard something running around and I thought it was some mice coming into our rafters for the winter. I thought we got rid of them but through the winter we heard noises periodically. So who knows how long they have been an unwelcome guest.
I am going off on a tangent here but some people have called me an “environmental wack nut or tree hugger” whatever derogatory name people can think of for someone who loves, appreciates and honors the earth and exhibits this through their daily actions. For example, I bought a used Honda Insight (still the most full efficient car on the market – eat your heart out Toyota Prius) off Ebay in December 2003 before it became fashionable and “acceptable” to own a hybrid. I was definitely the butt of jokes then, “How many gerbils do you have under the hood?” “Where are your Flintstone sandals you use to get it started? I just grin and smile while I am getting 65 MPG and the SUV is at 10 MPG and laughing all the way to the bank.
So when I first moved out to this house 7 years ago, I was so careful about using live traps and I tried to think about how the animals and my family could live in harmony in the woods. It didn’t take too long before I started calling anything that invaded my space, “home wreckers” and if you were a “home wrecker” this means, war and I was taking you out dead or alive! I have never owned a gun or shot a gun in my life but last week I asked a friend of mine to loan me one. Remember in the cartoons when the crazy country person starts shooting up their house, if I had a gun I swear I would have been trying to shoot those squirrels through the ceiling and rafters.
My husband and I had tried to poison them and live trap them with no luck. It was time for the professionals! I called Barry from SW Michigan Pest Control. He came right out and got to work and set two live traps. Nothing! The next day he set a kill trap at the base of the tree and cut two holes for the squirrels to come in and out of with kill traps covering the holes. The bait was taken and one of the traps triggered but NO SQUIRREL. All the while, I can hear them running around back and forth, playing, rolling nuts, laughing and laughing...Ha, Ha, Ha! (This is really when the gun would have been a bad idea.) Barry came out the next day and said he had been thinking about this all night. I could tell because he was beginning to look a little disheveled. He was starting to look a little traumatized but I decided that he wasn't in need of a crisis intervention yet. He made a board to cover the holes with kill traps, covered any other place they could get out and put more bait in the traps. I could hear them again in the evening and SNAP! I run outside to see the kill trap has been triggered again! Really, I have no way of understanding how these squirrels could do this without getting caught. Barry is about fit to be tied and says, “You can fire me if you want, I have never been unable to catch an animal and you don't have to pay me.” (I think he wanted me to put him out of his misery and rid him of this hell job, but I didn't.) He noticed that somehow they have even gotten the bait out of the live traps, too! Ha! Ha! He had been at our home 3 times daily for 3 days in a roll. Barry noticed that they are making holes other places to get out and destroying our home even more, Home Wreckers!
So he decided to take the trap off the opening and set up other traps in the area. I noticed not soon after Barry left there was a lot of activity going on and I think I saw one carrying another squirrel…I haven’t heard much this morning and I am so hoping that they decided to move out yesterday! It’s War, Us against Them and someone has to win in the end and I am hoping it’s me and Barry!
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