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There's a dead mouse on my patio!


Ann

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Weird things I have found, and had to deal with, in a house:

 

About a month ago, there was a 12 inch thread snake in my foyer. I thought it was a huge earthworm, until the cat batted at it and it struck at her a couple of times. 

Extraction method: Empty box, which it eagerly slithered into, as it could get no purchase on the tile and was just moving in place.

 

At my mother's house, there was a ~4 foot rat snake. 

Extraction method: Rake

 

Also at my mother's house, there was a 2 inch scorpion I found crawling up my leg. 

Extraction method: The bottom of my shoed foot, over and over and over.

 

At my father's house, there was a sparrow. 

Extraction method: Fishing net

 

Also at my house, on 2 separate instances, I found ~2 inch Jerusalem crickets. 

Extraction method: Empty box

 

jerusalem_cricket_jj_web.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

 

On 10/23/2020 at 3:38 PM, Ann said:


I don't deal well with rodents. :scared3:

Honestly, this thing is tiny. He's gonna have to bag it and then toss it in a larger trash bag so we don't find it stuck to the bottom of the garbage can in a few months.

 

I shot a squirrel in our back yard with a pellet pistol, and put the carcass in the garage with the intention of dispatching it later. 

Why she did, I'll never know, because she never goes there, but my wife went over to that area and was revulsed by the carnage. 

Cleanup on Aisle 9 Hubby!

 

On 10/29/2020 at 7:38 PM, Hedge said:

Weird things I have found, and had to deal with, in a house:

 

About a month ago, there was a 12 inch thread snake in my foyer. I thought it was a huge earthworm, until the cat batted at it and it struck at her a couple of times. 

Extraction method: Empty box, which it eagerly slithered into, as it could get no purchase on the tile and was just moving in place.

 

At my mother's house, there was a ~4 foot rat snake. 

Extraction method: Rake

 

Also at my mother's house, there was a 2 inch scorpion I found crawling up my leg. 

Extraction method: The bottom of my shoed foot, over and over and over.

 

At my father's house, there was a sparrow. 

Extraction method: Fishing net

 

Also at my house, on 2 separate instances, I found ~2 inch Jerusalem crickets. 

Extraction method: Empty box

 

jerusalem_cricket_jj_web.jpg

We saw a black rat snake in our back yard and that thing was 8 feet long if it was an inch. It slithered behind our shed which gave me a decent means of guessing how big it was. They're endangered here and protected. Pretty amazing critter.

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My wife was heading out to the greenhouse this Friday and hollers at me to come out.

Two hot air balloons at tree top level passing over our property.

 

Last year, on a Sunday morning in Nov., there's a knock at the front door at 7:30 AM. I answer the door and a guys asks if they can land their balloon on our property. I said sure and when I looked, the things was about five feet above our grassy area.

They landed and we got to talking, and they had my wife and I jump in.

Took it up to about 50' then landed and they packed it up.

The balloon was the headline picture on the annual Christmas letter. 

You never know. 

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When I was a kid I lived on a farm.  There was a rat that got caught in a big trash can.  I took it out to the field, turned the can over and blew the thing apart with a 20 gauge from about 3 feet.  That's not even my best vermin murder story.  Ah, the life I've lived.

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leh-nerd skin-erd
On 10/29/2020 at 7:38 PM, Hedge said:

Weird things I have found, and had to deal with, in a house:

 

About a month ago, there was a 12 inch thread snake in my foyer. I thought it was a huge earthworm, until the cat batted at it and it struck at her a couple of times. 

Extraction method: Empty box, which it eagerly slithered into, as it could get no purchase on the tile and was just moving in place.

 

At my mother's house, there was a ~4 foot rat snake. 

Extraction method: Rake

 

Also at my mother's house, there was a 2 inch scorpion I found crawling up my leg. 

Extraction method: The bottom of my shoed foot, over and over and over.

 

At my father's house, there was a sparrow. 

Extraction method: Fishing net

 

Also at my house, on 2 separate instances, I found ~2 inch Jerusalem crickets. 

Extraction method: Empty box

 

jerusalem_cricket_jj_web.jpg

This is biblical level pestilence!  I’ve never even heard of a Jerusalem Monkey Cricket. That thing is beautiful! 

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On 12/5/2020 at 5:04 PM, Nanker said:

We saw a black rat snake in our back yard and that thing was 8 feet long if it was an inch. It slithered behind our shed which gave me a decent means of guessing how big it was. They're endangered here and protected. Pretty amazing critter.

 

I was on my riding mower a year or two ago when I noticed some neighborhood kids freaking out about something.  Then I saw the snake.  Took a brief detour and gave the kids a thumbs up, problem solved.

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Sometimes I hear screams from the laundry room in the basement...

 

 

No, you slobs -- it is because my family encounters these guys (we call them cave crickets).

 

 

image.jpeg.1f73446974cc0cf17b4ea76bde2fd4a1.jpeg

 

They hop high and far, but look like big jellybags with long legs.

 

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13 minutes ago, snafu said:

 

Sometimes I hear screams from the laundry room in the basement...

 

 

No, you slobs -- it is because my family encounters these guys (we call them cave crickets).

 

 

image.jpeg.1f73446974cc0cf17b4ea76bde2fd4a1.jpeg

 

They hop high and far, but look like big jellybags with long legs.

 

 

I find those things in my crawl space and every once in awhile one finds their way indoors

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Hitbyaparkedcar

 COVID year found me re-wiring the barn, as we added a couple dozen more chickens and will keep them through the winter. Feed disappeared one night, lid knocked off the container...no problem, set up the trap.  Three weeks, 10 raccoons, a possum, and one of the small hens later, I think the problem is licked. I've had critters all along, comes with the location, but that must have been the raccoon forest gang. Never before, hopefully never again, but if so, I'm gonna make me a hat, jacket, and socks out of the next ten :). It's an apocalypse I tell ya...

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3 hours ago, devnull said:

 

I find those things in my crawl space and every once in awhile one finds their way indoors

 

Every time I encounter one, I hear the weird X Files sound effect music whenever they encountered aliens.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Hitbyaparkedcar said:

 COVID year found me re-wiring the barn, as we added a couple dozen more chickens and will keep them through the winter. Feed disappeared one night, lid knocked off the container...no problem, set up the trap.  Three weeks, 10 raccoons, a possum, and one of the small hens later, I think the problem is licked. I've had critters all along, comes with the location, but that must have been the raccoon forest gang. Never before, hopefully never again, but if so, I'm gonna make me a hat, jacket, and socks out of the next ten :). It's an apocalypse I tell ya...

 

I saw a PBS special on suburban/urban raccoons.  They are solitary and each has a perimeter that they regularly follow.  It takes them two or three days to make their loop.  They have places where they congregate in groups to mate.  Sounds like your barn is seeing some "action". Your chickens have some stories to tell.

 

 

 

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Hitbyaparkedcar
1 hour ago, snafu said:

 

I saw a PBS special on suburban/urban raccoons.  They are solitary and each has a perimeter that they regularly follow.  It takes them two or three days to make their loop.  They have places where they congregate in groups to mate.  Sounds like your barn is seeing some "action". Your chickens have some stories to tell.

 

 

 

I'm gonna put them chickens under the lights and ring the stories out of 'em 🙂. Nothing like suburban here, all country, which makes it weirder. I assume they've been hovering for years, planning and plotting. When COVID hit, they saw their chance to storm the gates...

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On 10/29/2020 at 7:38 PM, Hedge said:

Weird things I have found, and had to deal with, in a house:

 

 

jerusalem_cricket_jj_web.jpg

When I lived in CA I found one in my apartment. I yelled WTF is this !That picture is  about 2X life size.  I beat it with book (only way I could kill it) and put it in a jar. Took it to work to ask someone what it was. They said  "A potato bug" . That's like no potato bug I had ever seen.

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Hitbyaparkedcar

Few years back, I stepped out our side door in the morning and turned onto the driveway only to see a black bear staring at me from about 12 feet away. We commenced the stare down, and I did my best Scooby backwards walk to the door. Bear snuffled and walked down the drive without a care in the world. I grabbed a bullet launcher jic and called the neighbors to warn them he's heading their way down the road. Walked right down the middle like he owned it, which he did at the time 😃. Still see some a couple times each year as they cut through my field to make their rounds, but no issues with them.

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  • 8 months later...

We have had a chipmunk problem for the last few years. Between an exterminator and dog, things had calmed down last year. The dog, unfortunately, passed away late last year. 😢

This year, we had not seen any chipmunks in the spring. My son brought his dog over 4th of July,  and in the lawn, a chipmunk had dug a very shallow hole to nest in, the dog went sniffing and pawing at it and came away with three babies in his mouth. My son and husband thought the dog has a squeaky toy at first. 

After rescuing the chipmunks (honestly, I was ok with the dog not destroying them as I was not interested in the blood bath), the chipmunk babies took off, and the hole got another dose of  poison. 

We thought all was well and then my son's dog returned this past weekend and found two more holes in the lawn. Another call to the exterminator has been placed. 

I'm ready for the dog to tear them apart. Cute little buggers, but so very destructive.  🐿️

 

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Keukasmallie
31 minutes ago, Ann said:

We have had a chipmunk problem for the last few years. Between an exterminator and dog, things had calmed down last year. The dog, unfortunately, passed away late last year. 😢

This year, we had not seen any chipmunks in the spring. My son brought his dog over 4th of July,  and in the lawn, a chipmunk had dug a very shallow hole to nest in, the dog went sniffing and pawing at it and came away with three babies in his mouth. My son and husband thought the dog has a squeaky toy at first. 

After rescuing the chipmunks (honestly, I was ok with the dog not destroying them as I was not interested in the blood bath), the chipmunk babies took off, and the hole got another dose of  poison. 

We thought all was well and then my son's dog returned this past weekend and found two more holes in the lawn. Another call to the exterminator has been placed. 

I'm ready for the dog to tear them apart. Cute little buggers, but so very destructive.  🐿️

 

 

Or, put a couple gallons of water in a five gallon pail, cover the surface of the water with sunflower seeds, prop a 4 or 5' board from ground to edge of pail, scatter sunflower seeds along the length of the board, check every few hours.  They're not good swimmers....

Edited by Keukasmallie
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