Getting ready for varmint season

[iris lilies]

Our neighbors feed the raccoons, and I've watched a large raccoon try to get into their house when dinner was delayed (succeeded in opening the door and getting into the back porch, but luckily the door into the house was locked). Since they always have a trough of food out for the wildlife, they've had to hire an exterminator who sets out bait boxes for rodents, and we live right on the river with its great blue herons, eagles, etc. They love wildlife, but can't seem to connect the dots as to why they are perpetuating a problem.

I believe we have a skunk living under our shed, since there is always a faint aroma in that vicinity. We go to bed really early though, so we've never even seen it, let alone be troubled by it.

one of my neighbors feeds the deer at her country place, not here at home. Nobody around here had better be feeding the deer!

[early morning]

bae, i think you just need to move your target down and to the left a hair, and you'll be perfect (lol!!) I have a love/hate relationship with raccoons. They are soooo destructive. But it's hard to fault them for just living their best raccoon lives, and they are fun to watch. We've done a lot of trap and release (illegal here, btw). Some outright shooting. A few (unplanned) bashings when they have ambushed. One bit my sister a couple years ago and she did the whole rabies thing, since there's no way to tell if the bloody thing is rabid when it runs off after biting. They get into everything, just to see what's there. And don't get me started on squirrels - although they are pretty tasty. I do much prefer skunks, they are less pushy, and don't tear up as much stuff. Of all our frequent 4 legged visitors, possums are the least annoying, as they don't seem to harm anything, and are so ugly that they're cute.

Bae, I didn't know otters could be such a pain, we don't have them locally, and we're a bit from a river, in any case. We certainly couldn't afford repairs in that price vicinity, that's awful!

[bae]

We had a new neighbor a few years ago decide to moor his $800k boat to the mooring ball off his beach. We all warned him. He got all uppity about the warnings “it’s my mooring ball, I can use it all I want”. I think he thought we were worried about our views.

Anyways, as predicted, otters turned his boat into a party barge, and the damage was extensive, and expensive.

He no longer keeps his boat there except for short short periods of time.

[littlebittybobby]

o kay---last night, i heard an empty catt foodd rattling on the porch, and since my catts were already in, i had to see if it was a stray catt or whatt? But yeah---it was a possum. it scurried off, so i throwed some dogg food out there. The dry dogg food was gone in the morning. I don't want them possums goingt hungry. Nope.

[Rogar]

I once forgot to bring a baited squirrel live trap in at night and the next day a skunk had somehow crammed his whole body into the trap and was caught. Not to anthropomorphize a wild animal, but they. do have a rather kind looking face. Thankfully the internet directed me to a save disposal technique and he looked happy running free in the local natural area.

[rosarugosa]

o kay---last night, i heard an empty catt foodd rattling on the porch, and since my catts were already in, i had to see if it was a stray catt or whatt? But yeah---it was a possum. it scurried off, so i throwed some dogg food out there. The dry dogg food was gone in the morning. I don't want them possums goingt hungry. Nope.

Good job, I love possums. They are the sweetest!

[bae]

Good job, I love possums. They are the sweetest!

Especially if you feed them on corn a week or so before you fry ‘em up.

[rosarugosa]

Especially if you feed them on corn a week or so before you fry ‘em up.

They are such harmless environmental good guys. I prefer to get my protein elsewhere.

[Klunick]

We had a time with raccoons getting into our trash to where I would stick a cinder block on top of the can. I came out to my car one morning and suddenly the can lid lifted and a raccoon was staring back at me. Our neighbor feeds stray cats so we'd see raccoons going through our yard and into theirs to get the cat food or sometimes they'd be sitting in a tree waiting for the coast to be clear before coming down to get the food. Recently found out that the neighbor's son has taken it upon himself to shoot them. I was wondering why we haven't had trash issues lately. Not sure how I feel about it. I am glad that I don't have to pick up trash anymore but on the other hand, this guy's mom is part of the reason why the raccoons are coming around.

Years ago I did have an encounter with the cutest baby skunk. Came out to get into my car and heard something behind me. Turned around and it was the tiniest skunk I had ever seen. He started stomping his feet at me and then the tail came up. I took off running to the car because (1) I didn't want to get sprayed and (2) Momma was surely close by and she'd for sure get me.

[Rogar]

I used to see feral cats along one of my routes and would see winter warming cardboard boxes around for them, but haven't seen any for a couple of years. There seems to be a growing population of coyotes, which may have something to do with it. I've seen coyotes a couple of times lately and they have looked infested by mange, which is sort of sad. There are a lot of nocturnal critters that roam around when we're sleeping.

I put a small device from Amazon in my yard to deter coons. It has a motion sensor that trips flashing lights and a high pitched noise at night. I sort of doubt that it works, but the cheap technology is interesting.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1D7VWT7...d_asin_title_2