Awesome Possum Article, Debbi

[Celeste Stewart]

[Debbi]

Thanks! I have some others in mind about similar pests in the home. Thanks for putting the idea in my head

[eek]

Debbi - Saw you just sold the one about training a dog to catch a frisbee! Isn't that the one that was stolen a few weeks ago? Congrats. Sweet vindication.

I read your possum article too and enjoyed it. Read it to the end! (what better compliment can there be?) I started an article on skunks last summer, and it's mostly finished but for some reason I pushed it to the back burner. Wouldn't it be nice if the recently sold tide would turn slightly more toward animal/nature related content?

Emma

[Debbi]

Emma,

Yes! The twice-stolen frisbee article finally sold! I'm glad it's gone, frankly. I did write that one in about 10 minutes straight from the experience of teaching my dog Gretchen (on my Profile page) how to catch a frisbee. I am doomed to toss the frisbee to her at least 1/2 hour a day now, at 11am and at 2:15 (when we wait for the school bus). She's a champion at it and frisbee is the fastest way to wear off her never-ending energy. She's about 18 monhts old, 60 lbs, and though not as clever/crafty as my dachsunds, she's pretty smart.

Yes! I wish animal/wildlife/nature articles were more popular. I was originally going to write the possum article more from a natural history slant, but thought the pest management aspect would sell better. I still preached a bit about relocation as opposed to elimination so I got my two cents in.

Can't wait to see your skunk article. Is it in the same vein?

Debbi

[eek]

Sort of, but the main gist was more about dealing with skunk spray on animals, a house, and oneself, and I devoted a smaller section describing prevention. If I can finish up some other stuff I might dig it out. It was inspired by actual experience, unfortunately. We left cat food on the porch one night, and either the mama cat or one of the kittens got in the skunk's way. Then we naively opened the door, after it was all over to see what the fuss was about, and whoosh - the smell permeated the house.

Anyway, I think the pest control angle is a good idea, and a fun topic to pursue, at any rate! I may try a few next month, based on experience (unfortunately). Snakes, rodents, brown recluse spiders, crickets/grasshoppers... Did you know cats will catch and eat crickets, grasshoppers & moths? Or maybe ours are unique.

Your Gretchen looks like a sweetie.

[Debbi]

My dachshunds love to catch and eat grasshoppers. Crickets always make them puke for some reason. Gretchen doesn't seem to care. She's too focused on frisbees, balls, and squeaky toys. My 10-lb weenie dog, Hansel is the pest control around here. He's killed rats, mice, frogs (not a pest, dangit!), millipedes, and anything that moves really.

I may need that skunk spray advice some day. I haven't seen any on my property but my son's family is always finding skunks and racoons on their porch where they leave the cat food for their 12 cats. I keep telling them to take it in at night but so far the sight of a skunk or racoon in the cat dish hasn't persuaded them. I think the racoon was even killing their chickens and stealing their eggs. They live right next to a canal where the wildlife roams, including coyotes. Their dogs are all behind separate fences, thank goodness, since racoons can do a lot of damage to dogs and skunks can, as you know, stink up the place.

Where do you live? You had a brown recluse in your house? They say that there aren't any in NM but I'm not sure.

[eek]

Well. (flexing fingers) You may be sorry you asked. We live in rural Missouri. I don't know what the range is for brown recluse spiders, but I read a statistic that 70% of homes/buildings in our area have them. During warm months, I easily see one or more daily. I'm obsessive about checking bedding and shoes and keeping something on the feet, shaking out clothes, and preaching all of this to the children. No one's been bit, thankfully, and my initial horror/fear has ramped down quite a bit to where I'm nearly complacent. We've been waiting to exterminate because for over a year our home had large sections that were unfinished and just a general storage/organization nightmare. I've since learned that an outdoor shed is full of them, so if we exterminate it will have to be an annual thing. I really don't like the idea of chemicals in the house, but this is one bug I'm not willing to live with.

Tell your kids to get Tecnu outdoor skin cleanser if they ever have a skunk run-in. It removes poison ivy/oak oils, but works on skunk spray really well, better than the traditional tomato juice. It's safe to use on pet fur and won't bleach it like another peroxide formula commonly found on the web. I used it on the door/wood porch, but I honestly don't know if that is what took care of the smell, or if we just got used to it and it faded over time. I read a horrible story on the Internet about a skunk that was caught in one of those removal traps under a house. The skunk sprayed continually until the professional came to pick it up, which was a looooong 15 hours after being caught. Can you imagine? We've learned to peek out the door now before opening it in the early morning hours, lest we trip over some wild animal. My husband has nearly done so several times.

[Celeste Stewart]

Debbi,
Did you see the Hunting Dogs request? Yay, your wish came true!

[Debbi]

Yes! All things come to those who persistently beg and whine and wheedle, hehe! I'm looking at that very seriously though I wish it offered a bit more for such a long article. Still, it is a subject I dearly love

[Debbi]

Emma,

Thanks for the tip on skunk de-smeller! I passed it along to my son today.

I went to Missouri one summer on a trip to Kansas for a family reunion. The fireflies were cool, but the humidity killed me. I get terrible headaches from hot humidity. That's why I live in dry dry New Mexico (though it's been pouring here for the past two hours) and not in the steamy jungle. And the bugs were so plentiful and huge! At a BBQ there a giant June bug flew down the front of my sun dress and only the quick action of my cousin flipping it out kept me from flipping out. Hmm, it was on that trip that I also picked up a tick (which that same cousin pulled off my head before it took root). I still shudder to think about it.

I don't mean to slam your state but ewwwwwwwww.

It was beautifullly lush and green there though.

Debbi

[eek]

No offense taken. That's why some of us refer to it as the state of Misery. Yes, that lovely humidity. I've visited tropical jungles near the equator, and Missouri rivals their humidity levels. Our property is near the Kansas border, nestled between somewhat flat farm fields, which has the advantage of feeling like we have a thousand acres, plus some wind from the Kansas prairies to cut the stickiness. From the Ozarks and east of that the humidity levels rise sharply from about May 1. Great weather for gardening, if you can stand to weed in sauna-like conditions. And once you get used to the bugs, the lush green-ness is nice, as you said. Bugs are quite a hurdle, but they're just as plentiful on any picturesque tropical island. The secret is to never let one hitch a ride, because then all the others will want to join in.

[eek]

Just had to share this, but I'm tagging it onto this older post because we were talking about DIY pest control. I wrote a very short piece as part of a private request on DIY green rodent control and was congratulating myself that we haven't seen a single mouse yet this year (except for the ones the cats catch outdoors). Then yesterday I walked into the kitchen and heard a chorus of squeaking, and after much consternation & hunting found this creature on a top open shelf in the kitchen, in a glass bowl. It's a deer mouse, approx. 10 days old with eyes closed, not strong enough to get around. I found a second one under my sink rug. Does anyone know why a mama deer mouse would sprinkle her babies around like that?

[Debbi]

Aren't the little vermin so cute? The only thing I can think is that the mom was trying to move the babies to a safe place near food and water but was disturbed (or eatn by a cat) before she could complete her mission. What did you do with the baby meeses?

[Celeste Stewart]

Cute baby mouse. Glad he's at your house and not mine

[eek]

Yes, well, let's just say the baby meeses are not at my house any more. I wondered if something scared the mama mouse too, Debbi, but unfortunately our cats stay outside. So that means it had to be something else... equally scary... hopefully not a rat. Mama mouse must have just come in, because I can't find any other mousey evidence in the house. Still, I spent a good part of yesterday cleaning and "securing" the kitchen. The babies were certainly adorable, though shivering and weak.