In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 178 of 1154
Found one piece of writing I thought I had lost. Yay! me.
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Quote:Bait with bacon. There isn't a critter alive who doesn't like bacon. Peanut butter doesn't work. But if you bait it (with bacon), they will come - whoever "they" happen to be!
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah... the hits just keep coming. *sigh*
Not a single bite of any of the traps.
Quote:Or moles. Here we have something called "Pocket gophers" too, but I don't know if they extend all the way to your state.
Granted, that L-shaped couch has been there for about 4 years now, and I have gotten rid of mice in the past. The "evidence" might have been old news.
I'm only assuming I've got mice in the walls. I haven't actually seen anything yet. There are two holes in the soil at the front of the house that I've seen. Jesus, I'm hoping it's not rats.
If not mice, ground squirrels maybe?
Unlikely to be house rats, they like to live in walls and attics.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Those holes in the front yard could be moles, Jack.
Yeah. I thought of that. It's possible, but they're not the same type of moles I had years ago if they are since they're not tearing up my lawn and just making mounds that I've crushed down.
I think they're unrelated to what is actually in my house.
Mice don't growl... I don't believe moles and rats do either.
Don't think it's squirrels either. Some people describe noises they make as "growling", but that's not what I'm hearing. Granted, it's somewhat muffled because the attic was "finished" with drywall, and they're living in there somewhere around above my front door (which is also above the living room, which is where I have been hearing the most activity).
I can't be sure, but I do believe I have a racoon problem. Ugggh....
If that's what I'm seeing here, it might not be that bad if I can harass them enough. It would be the mama having her babies up in there because it was dark and quiet. Emphasis on WAS. I've been going up and banging on the walls every hour or so, and I've got my clock radio on full blast playing some Rush Limbaugh right up against the wall where I've been banging and I hear the growling. (Any music/noise should be good, but the site I heard specifically said that they don't like human voices) When I go up and turn of the radio and listen, I still hear the growling, so I've got whatever it is on edge.
Not so quiet anymore, is it bitches! I can empathize. 5 minutes of listening to Rush would have me growling and on edge too.
If it is a racoon, poisoning it is not the answer. Chances are this early in the year and the fact that this just recently started means that there are a litter of babies, and they'd die up there leaving a stench. If the mother decides a mistake was made, she may choose to move the entire liter and get the F out of Dodge. It was recommended to make it bad for them for about 3 days to see if they leave on their own before taking any other steps.
Then I'll have to figure out how the hell they got in. I can't even begin to imagine how they got up in there. Roof was brand new when I bought the house and from the ground it looks to be damn near perfect. There's certainly not holes anywhere that are allowing rainwater into the home.
Some tree branches are above the roof. Do raccoons climb trees?
EDIT: Yes. Yes they do.
Quote:
Raccoons expertly climb trees to escape danger, nest, and gain access to the roofs of buildings. Tree hollows are actually some of raccoons favorite denning sites as they provide shelter from predators and the elements, so property owners may see adults climbing trunks to their nests. Since they have sharp claws, raccoons in trees mark up the bark as they climb. Finally, individuals might be alerted to infestations of the pest by the presence of raccoon latrines in yards.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Silence all day...
Haven't heard any activity for a few hours now. The last two times I went up and banged around on the walls I wasn't met with movement or growling. Doesn't mean much at this point though. That could be anything. Maybe mama finally decided that it was alright to go out and forage even with the radio blaring.
Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and sunny and hot. It's been cold and wet and rainy all day today.
Going to keep at the harassment the rest of the day and throughout the night, and tomorrow in between gettting all of that huge crap out to the curb I'm going to be doing some investigating and seeing how they might be getting in.
I suspect it might be because of all the stuff I recently exposed in the porch, because this has never been a problem before. But timing with everything in my life right now seems to be just terrible and this might just all be an unfortunate coincidence coming from yet somewhere else.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Another bin emptied. Found some books, collectables and a couple of games. One game I will leave for now but the other can be donated. I don't play backgammon.
Books include Star Trek, James Herriot, he of "All Creatures Great and Small" fame. Miami Vice, Dr. Who, fictionalized account of my distant Aunt Sacajawea that I bought when I was in high school, my dad's "According to Hoyle" book and my grandmother's bible. These books also include 4 that should have gone to a friend years ago but I just never got them to her. Have to messenger her and see if she wants them if not they can be donated as well.
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Quote:Not sure about raccoons, but most critters I trap with Oil of Anis. Like what they make licorice with.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Silence all day...
Haven't heard any activity for a few hours now. The last two times I went up and banged around on the walls I wasn't met with movement or growling. Doesn't mean much at this point though. That could be anything. Maybe mama finally decided that it was alright to go out and forage even with the radio blaring.
Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and sunny and hot. It's been cold and wet and rainy all day today.
Going to keep at the harassment the rest of the day and throughout the night, and tomorrow in between gettting all of that huge crap out to the curb I'm going to be doing some investigating and seeing how they might be getting in.
I suspect it might be because of all the stuff I recently exposed in the porch, because this has never been a problem before. But timing with everything in my life right now seems to be just terrible and this might just all be an unfortunate coincidence coming from yet somewhere else.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Yeah.... I haven't gotten to the trapping phase yet. Going to see if the harassment thing works first. From what I read, racoon mothers are extremely protective of their young and will move the entire litter if she feels she made a mistake and the place she picked wasn't safe.
She's still up there alright. She may have been out foraging earlier like I assumed. Compared to the last few days and nights, there's been almost zero movement activity. As soon as I hear anything, I'm stomping up the stairs and banging all over the walls up there. Even took to bringing some pans up there to make even louder noises and I started scratching at the walls too.
I'm thinking there may be a chance that once I'm sleeping for a while and she can test the waters she might just get the family out while the getting is good.
I'm going to do that for a few days.
Then I'm going to drill a few holes in the drywall and start poking stuff in there while making a bunch of noise.
If they're as smart as I'm hearing they are, I don't want them to get the feeling that I'm all bark and no bite.
Progressive danger awaits if they don't leave.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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They're quiet, and likely really scared, but they're still up there. I don't get any growling anymore. Just some very hard to hear shifting around when I'm banging. I wish I could read animals minds. I wonder if Mama is contemplating the risk/reward ratio for trying to remove the litter or to just keep camping out.
Maybe I'm giving her more agency than she deserves, but then again the behavior patterns have clearly changed. She's not walking around here like she owns the place anymore. That's of little peace of mind to me though when I know I have to do something before the litter matures and I have an exponential problem.
In other news, got tons of stuff out to the street today. The giant couch is out, and the 2nd couch in the basement is staged in the garage. I'm hoping somebody takes the good one so I can throw the other one out tomorrow instead of waiting for next week. Also got 2 old tube TVs and the projection screen TV out there. Gotta go through my attic today and figure out what other tech is getting pitched.
Should be able to get the 2nd rug out of there and at least polish up the floors on about 3/4 of the living room now. An absolute must is cleaning off the flat screen and TV stand that have been in the basement for years so I at least have a TV to watch tonight. I'm going to miss my 52" beast until I get a bigger TV someday, but it's worth watching a 40" TV in the meantime now that I've got another major thing out. 
Oh... and once I get that TV and stand up in the living room, I've got all of the furniture out of my basement. All that's left down there now is a shelf unit to roll my smokes on and some workout equipment. :)
Starting next week.... removing the bedroom sets from the 2nd floor and/or clearing out all of the shit from my garage.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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It would be great if you could get some money for all that stuff
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Yeah... well the plan was to keep those tubes and sell 'em for a thousand bucks each 10 or 15 years from now when nobody had them anymore, but I'm not taking them when I move, and they're two giant problems out of my life now. The 52" is still really nice. I used it this morning before I got to work.
Sucks that nobody took any of it. 3 TV's and a great L-shaped couch, and it looks like it's going to rain soon. :(
Unbelievably, somebody took a crappy $25 printer that ran out of ink years ago and a whole box of the innards of the other projection screen that I tore down last week. I have no clue what somebody would want that for.
If I didn't have so much other stuff I want to get rid of, I would have took my time and tried to sell the couch, but att this rate, I could throw out my one piece a week and still be getting rid of furniture 2 months from now if nobody takes any of it.
Some nice smaller pieces coming up though, so I imagine if the weather is nice I can probably get rid of a ton of it in a single week by just putting out a new piece every time somebody grabs one.
THERE'S SO MUCH SPACE NOW!!! I LOVE IT!
I'm exhausted. I managed to do all of that, mow the lawn and clean up a lot of stuff and get my flat screen up and working in the living room.
I think I'm going to eat and then sleep for about 12 hours. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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