Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
it's done a lot of other damage as well.
Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
Eat MY hostas, will you?!
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 9:53:58 PM UTC-4, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> "Doug Miller" wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
> >Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom
> >(gorgeous!) and
> >planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers,
> >and a substantial
> >fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in
> >our back yard, and
> >it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>
> >Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from
> >further depradations.
>
> >And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>
> >Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>
> I caught 3 chucks and a raccoon in my yard in recent weeks in a Havahart
> trap... The raccoon wasn't planned, he got into the trap before the first
> woodchuck. They were chewing up my ornamental planting beds... they won't be
> able to return.
I put out a Havahart to catch a pesky raccoon that was hanging around our
yard. I put it in a shady area where we have landscape fabric covered with
mulch. My mistake.
The 'coon was so pissed he used his claws to dig into the mulch/mesh and
made a real mess. He messed up an area basically 3' on every side by
pulling the mesh towards the trap. The mulch ended up on the dirt, the
fabric was torn, etc. It was a real pain to fix it all up.
I left the trap out the next night just in case he had a friend. I caught
the neighbor's cat.
Here's a video of raccoons in my garage last year. If you get bored, fast
forward to about 6:30 and watch the frustration when they realize that I
blocked the cat door.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npQuZHgjTgE
On Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 9:25:00 PM UTC-4, krw wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Jun 2016 18:05:27 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >On Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 7:13:39 PM UTC-4, Doug Miller wrote:
> >> Spalted Walt <[email protected]> wrote in news:vrimlb931nlb3biljr372ivpr56tc9g1sb@
> >> 4ax.com:
> >>
> >> > Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
> >> > caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard.
> >>
> >> Unless you killed them as you caught them, it's more likely you caught the same three
> >> squirrels an average of nine times each and the same pair of chipmunks seven times.
> >>
> >> DAMHIKT...
> >
> >35 years ago I moved into my house, which is in a heavily wooded area. Elmer,
> >an elderly gentleman who lived in the house whose yard backed up to mine,
> >liked to tell me the history of the neighborhood. For example, he told me
> >that my house and the one next to it were the last 2 houses to be built
> >on what used to be a large farm. For many years our 2 lots were sort of a
> >neighborhood park. Not an official town park, just a place where people
> >from the neighborhood would hang out. Elmer told me that one horseshoe
> >stake was on my lot, the other was on my neighbor's.
> >
> >Anyway, back to the squirrels. Elmer told me that every spring he and "Roy"
> >used to trap dozens and dozens of squirrels, take them over to the other
> >side of the bay and release them. It was about a mile as the crow flies,
> >about 6 miles as the squirrel hops.
> >
> >With a twinkle in his eye, Elmer liked to tell me that the damn squirrels
> >always found their way back because by summer time there were just as many
> >squirrels in the neighborhood as when spring had sprung. I never really
> >knew if he actually believed that they were the same squirrels or if he was
> >just trying to fool a young whippersnapper. In any case, I loved to listen
> >to him, so I let him tell his stories and never questioned him on the matter.
>
> Just think of it as "logical squirrel shift left". ;-)
> >
or perhaps...
"Horror Sciurus Vacui" ;-)
Doug Miller wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>
> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
>
> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>
> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>
The nuisance around here is armadillos. They only eat earthworms, but
they dig up the lawn looking for them. You can also barbecue
them--called possum-on-the-half-shell.
--
GW Ross
Prozac, cause sometimes you feel like
a nut, sometimes you don't.
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 2:25:42 PM UTC-5, Doug Miller wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>
> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
>
> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>
> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
We had a family of chucks in our wood pile about 50 feet behind the house. The little ones played on our kid's slide. They never did any damage and fun to watch. We had a pair of barred owls 2 yrs ago...a lot deer and bald eagles around. Central Wisconsin.
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 10:41:23 PM UTC-4, Bob Villa wrote:
> On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 2:25:42 PM UTC-5, Doug Miller wrote:
> > Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (=
gorgeous!) and=20
> > planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flow=
ers, and a substantial=20
> > fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living=
in our back yard, and=20
> > it's done a lot of other damage as well.
> >=20
> > Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe fro=
m further depradations.=20
> >=20
> > And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
> >=20
> > Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>=20
> We had a family of chucks in our wood pile about 50 feet behind the house=
. The little ones played on our kid's slide. They never did any damage and =
fun to watch. We had a pair of barred owls 2 yrs ago...a lot deer and bald =
eagles around. Central Wisconsin.
We have a fox that walks along the edge of the woods across the street from=
=20
my house every night between 4:30 and 5:00. It's like clockwork. If I'm hom=
e
around that time and my dog wants to go out off-leash, I can watch the=20
woods from my window, wait for the fox to go by and then let the dog out.
Unfortunately the fox has gotten in a neighbor's chicken coop and killed
some of her chickens. He doesn't eat them, he just kills them. There's no
blood, just broken necks.
The chicken lady used to (somewhat good-naturedly) complain about my cat=20
terrorizing her cat until she saw my cat chasing the fox out her yard.=20
She said the fox was running full speed out of her yard with an orange=20
streak close behind. Now she likes her.
I don't know what my cat would have done if the fox had tripped so she
could catch it or if it turned back on her. She's likes to hunt and she's=
=20
pretty fearless but we're talking fox, not chipmunk.
On Thu, 9 Jun 2016 17:22:06 -0400, "G. Ross" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Doug Miller wrote:
>> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
>> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
>> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
>> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>>
>> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
>>
>> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>>
>> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>>
>The nuisance around here is armadillos. They only eat earthworms, but
>they dig up the lawn looking for them. You can also barbecue
>them--called possum-on-the-half-shell.
I call them "Southern Woodchucks". There about as many of them in the
middle of the road, here, as there are woodchucks in Vermont. Seems
neither is as smart as vultures.
On Tue, 14 Jun 2016 22:29:40 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>"krw" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
>>Over the weekend we were looking at sprinklers at Lowes. They had a
>>motion controlled impulse sprinkler intended for dogs and deer.
>
>Thinking about putting in a amusement park for animals? What a generous
>soul....
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKHmRUWwVvU
>
That's funny. We had a couple of meese in our back yard in Vermont,
one Winter. We get quite a few deer here and was thinking about the
sprinkler. If I had an irrigation system, I'd probably get one of
those for the roses we planted in the front yard.
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 2:25:42 PM UTC-5, Doug Miller wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (go=
rgeous!) and=20
> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flower=
s, and a substantial=20
> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living i=
n our back yard, and=20
> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>=20
> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from =
further depradations.=20
>=20
> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>=20
> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
We had a similar problem with and armadillo tearing up the yard. (a very la=
rge yard composed of "cleared ground" and not a smooth city type yard) My w=
ife is very protective of her yard, which she hand sprigged (wearing out tw=
o and a half hatchets in the process)
While armadillo is supposed to be good eating, the "urban legend" that they=
carry leprosy is NO urban legend - i.e., about 10% of them do, so we consi=
gned him to the woods and let the other creatures feast on him.
"Swingman" <[email protected]> wrote
>
> Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
> year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
> apparently feeling the bern.
>
Last year my honey had me build two elevated plant beds. Because of the
abundant wildlife in our neighborhood, she insisted I install hardware cloth
underneath them and put up some pvc pipe supports over them for netting. It
did not stop the thieves entirely, but was mostly successful.
Our little dog, Bucky, loves tomatoes. We let him out into the backyard one
day and he did not come back to the door. We went looking for him and found
him. He was wrapped up in the netting. He looked like a caught fish. He
was going after the tomatoes. Some tomatoes grew outside of the netting.
Either Bucky or other animals got those. But almost everything inside of
the netting was ours.
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 4:21:54 PM UTC-5, G. Ross wrote:
> >
> The nuisance around here is armadillos. They only eat earthworms, but=20
> they dig up the lawn looking for them. You can also barbecue=20
> them--called possum-on-the-half-shell.
>=20
> GW Ross
I've had armadillo problems, recently. Can't bait, to trap them. I caught=
4 babies by slowly easing the trap in front of them (while they were busy =
rooting/eating), then touching their rump. They jumped right into the trap=
. The adult (mother, I assume) couldn't be sneaked-up on, to try the same =
technique. Today, I see a dead adult in the street.
Sonny
On Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 7:13:39 PM UTC-4, Doug Miller wrote:
> Spalted Walt <[email protected]> wrote in news:vrimlb931nlb3biljr372ivpr56tc9g1sb@
> 4ax.com:
>
> > Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
> > caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard.
>
> Unless you killed them as you caught them, it's more likely you caught the same three
> squirrels an average of nine times each and the same pair of chipmunks seven times.
>
> DAMHIKT...
35 years ago I moved into my house, which is in a heavily wooded area. Elmer,
an elderly gentleman who lived in the house whose yard backed up to mine,
liked to tell me the history of the neighborhood. For example, he told me
that my house and the one next to it were the last 2 houses to be built
on what used to be a large farm. For many years our 2 lots were sort of a
neighborhood park. Not an official town park, just a place where people
from the neighborhood would hang out. Elmer told me that one horseshoe
stake was on my lot, the other was on my neighbor's.
Anyway, back to the squirrels. Elmer told me that every spring he and "Roy"
used to trap dozens and dozens of squirrels, take them over to the other
side of the bay and release them. It was about a mile as the crow flies,
about 6 miles as the squirrel hops.
With a twinkle in his eye, Elmer liked to tell me that the damn squirrels
always found their way back because by summer time there were just as many
squirrels in the neighborhood as when spring had sprung. I never really
knew if he actually believed that they were the same squirrels or if he was
just trying to fool a young whippersnapper. In any case, I loved to listen
to him, so I let him tell his stories and never questioned him on the matter.
I miss the old guy.
"krw" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>Over the weekend we were looking at sprinklers at Lowes. They had a
>motion controlled impulse sprinkler intended for dogs and deer.
Thinking about putting in a amusement park for animals? What a generous
soul....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKHmRUWwVvU
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
>
> On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 10:41:23 PM UTC-4, Bob Villa wrote:
> > On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 2:25:42 PM UTC-5, Doug Miller wrote:
> > > Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
> > > planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
> > > fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
> > > it's done a lot of other damage as well.
> > >
> > > Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
> > >
> > > And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
> > >
> > > Eat MY hostas, will you?!
> >
> > We had a family of chucks in our wood pile about 50 feet behind the house. The little ones played on our kid's slide. They never did any damage and fun to watch. We had a pair of barred owls 2 yrs ago...a lot deer and bald eagles around. Central Wisconsin.
>
> We have a fox that walks along the edge of the woods across the street from
> my house every night between 4:30 and 5:00. It's like clockwork. If I'm home
> around that time and my dog wants to go out off-leash, I can watch the
> woods from my window, wait for the fox to go by and then let the dog out.
>
> Unfortunately the fox has gotten in a neighbor's chicken coop and killed
> some of her chickens. He doesn't eat them, he just kills them. There's no
> blood, just broken necks.
>
> The chicken lady used to (somewhat good-naturedly) complain about my cat
> terrorizing her cat until she saw my cat chasing the fox out her yard.
> She said the fox was running full speed out of her yard with an orange
> streak close behind. Now she likes her.
>
> I don't know what my cat would have done if the fox had tripped so she
> could catch it or if it turned back on her. She's likes to hunt and she's
> pretty fearless but we're talking fox, not chipmunk.
Well, if she's anything like the dog-chasing cats I've known, she'd have
blinded it first then finished it off at her leisure.
On 6/9/2016 2:25 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
apparently feeling the bern.
--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://www.google.com/+eWoodShop
https://plus.google.com/+KarlCaillouet/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
https://www.facebook.com/eWoodShop-206166666122228
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)
woodchucker <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> On 6/9/2016 3:25 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
>> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full
>> bloom (gorgeous!) and planted it in the back yard. Less than 24
>> hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial fraction of
>> the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in
>> our back yard, and it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>>
>> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are
>> safe from further depradations.
>>
>> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>>
>> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>>
>
> Hey I'm still here!!!!
>
> Woodchucker!!!
>
Jeff, you're welcome in my back yard, we can even have a few burgers and brews together
-- but if you start eating the hostas and rhodies, all bets are off.
"John Grossbohlin" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
>
> I caught 3 chucks and a raccoon in my yard in recent weeks in a Havahart
> trap... The raccoon wasn't planned, he got into the trap before the first
> woodchuck. They were chewing up my ornamental planting beds... they won't be
> able to return.
I think we have just the one woodchuck. We caught two raccoons (or the same one twice), then
the woodchuck, then a possum. As noted previously, the woodchuck did not survive the
experience, but the others were released.
Spalted Walt <[email protected]> wrote in news:vrimlb931nlb3biljr372ivpr56tc9g1sb@
4ax.com:
> Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
> caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard.
Unless you killed them as you caught them, it's more likely you caught the same three
squirrels an average of nine times each and the same pair of chipmunks seven times.
DAMHIKT...
On 6/9/2016 2:25 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>
> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
>
> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>
> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>
LOL Good on you.
A neighboring subdivision to us had a beaver taking down a couple of
trees around the retention pond. This is in the middle of the concrete
jungle. I did not know that beavers would reside where there was no
river or running water or Texas. LOL
On 6/10/2016 8:54 PM, Spalted Walt wrote:
> That's a big 10-4 on the pellet gun elimination route, or at least it
> used to be. Nowadays, as screwy as society and the laws have become,
> dispatching a thieving squirrel might result in a felony 'Cruelty to
> Animals' charge and having to pay for 'Grief Counseling' if you were
> unlucky enough to have it bleed-out on a neighbors back deck and thus
> traumatizing their kids. ;-)
Describes where I live to a "t" ... except you forgot to include the
SWAT team and MRAP visit.
--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://www.google.com/+eWoodShop
https://plus.google.com/+KarlCaillouet/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
https://www.facebook.com/eWoodShop-206166666122228
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)
On Sat, 11 Jun 2016 18:05:27 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
<[email protected]> wrote:
>On Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 7:13:39 PM UTC-4, Doug Miller wrote:
>> Spalted Walt <[email protected]> wrote in news:vrimlb931nlb3biljr372ivpr56tc9g1sb@
>> 4ax.com:
>>
>> > Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
>> > caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard.
>>
>> Unless you killed them as you caught them, it's more likely you caught the same three
>> squirrels an average of nine times each and the same pair of chipmunks seven times.
>>
>> DAMHIKT...
>
>35 years ago I moved into my house, which is in a heavily wooded area. Elmer,
>an elderly gentleman who lived in the house whose yard backed up to mine,
>liked to tell me the history of the neighborhood. For example, he told me
>that my house and the one next to it were the last 2 houses to be built
>on what used to be a large farm. For many years our 2 lots were sort of a
>neighborhood park. Not an official town park, just a place where people
>from the neighborhood would hang out. Elmer told me that one horseshoe
>stake was on my lot, the other was on my neighbor's.
>
>Anyway, back to the squirrels. Elmer told me that every spring he and "Roy"
>used to trap dozens and dozens of squirrels, take them over to the other
>side of the bay and release them. It was about a mile as the crow flies,
>about 6 miles as the squirrel hops.
>
>With a twinkle in his eye, Elmer liked to tell me that the damn squirrels
>always found their way back because by summer time there were just as many
>squirrels in the neighborhood as when spring had sprung. I never really
>knew if he actually believed that they were the same squirrels or if he was
>just trying to fool a young whippersnapper. In any case, I loved to listen
>to him, so I let him tell his stories and never questioned him on the matter.
Just think of it as "logical squirrel shift left". ;-)
>
>I miss the old guy.
On 6/9/2016 3:25 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>
> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
>
> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>
> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>
Hey I'm still here!!!!
Woodchucker!!!
--
Jeff
On Friday, June 10, 2016 at 11:35:08 AM UTC-4, [email protected] wrote:
...snip...
> Your racoon adventures reminded me of our neighbor. They had a racoon
> problem and hired a company to trap and removed the racoon.
...snip...
The way it works in my town is that we can try it without a "company" if
we want. The process:
1 - We call the town and ask for a Havahart trap in a size based on what
we are trying to capture.
2 - If they have that size (they never do) we borrow it for (I think) free.
3 - If they don't have one (and they won't) they refer us to a local garden
center that rents them to town residents for a very reasonable rate. $15/week
comes to mind, but it's been a few years.
4 - Once we capture the offender, we call Animal Control. They come and pick
up the trap, somehow make the offender disappear, and then return the trap.
5 - We return the trap to wherever we got it from - most likely the garden
center.
I have another video (not on-line) of the garage raccoons. I tried putting
the cat food on top of a center-legged table that my cat could jump up on,
hoping the raccoons couldn't get to it. One night the largest of the critters
stood up on his hind legs and just managed to get his claws on top of the
table. He hooked his claws into the seam between the table top and the edge
banding and - hind legs swinging in the air - managed to pull himself up
"chin-up style", eventually hooking a hind leg in the seam and getting on
the table.
He ate some food while the rest of the family circled the table hoping
for some scraps. He eventually knocked the container onto the floor and
the family feasted on the mess. That's when we started bringing the food
in at night. Eventually they all moved on and the problem solved itself.
My cat is happy because she can stay out all night and still have a snack
when she wants.
On Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 8:05:31 PM UTC-5, DerbyDad03 wrote:
> 35 years ago I moved into my house, which is in a heavily wooded area. ....
> Not an official town park, just a place where people
> from the neighborhood would hang out.
Sounds more like ...., which is in a heavily heavenly wooded area.
> I miss the old guy.
Yep. I know of a few folks as that.
Sonny
"DerbyDad03" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 9:53:58 PM UTC-4, John Grossbohlin wrote:
>> I caught 3 chucks and a raccoon in my yard in recent weeks in a Havahart
>> trap... The raccoon wasn't planned, he got into the trap before the first
>> woodchuck. They were chewing up my ornamental planting beds... they won't
>> be
>> able to return.
>I put out a Havahart to catch a pesky raccoon that was hanging around our
>yard. I put it in a shady area where we have landscape fabric covered with
>mulch. My mistake.
>The 'coon was so pissed he used his claws to dig into the mulch/mesh and
>made a real mess. He messed up an area basically 3' on every side by
>pulling the mesh towards the trap. The mulch ended up on the dirt, the
>fabric was torn, etc. It was a real pain to fix it all up.
My raccoon did the same thing in terms of digging around the trap... but it
was on a shale/grassy weed area next to the shed/driveway so all I had to do
was push the shale back into place with my foot... He provided a service by
weeding next to the shed. ;~) He provided a disservice by knocking the
sheet metal hand guard loose under the top handle... I had to bend the
attaching tabs, reinstall, and rebend the tabs to get it back in place. Not
a big deal to fix...
I don't recall catching any cats in my Havahart but I have had woodchucks,
squirrels, opossum, birds and raccoons in it while trying to catch
woodchucks. Speaking of cats, a female friend called me last weekend rather
upset. This as the black cat that had been hanging around her place was
being munched on in the mouth of about a 7' alligator in her back yard. I
referred her to the alligator hot line as I am about 1,600 miles away. In
the mean time her handyman and gardener showed up and they took care of the
situation... no survivors. Wednesday's call was about a water moccasin in
her screened-in porch. She had the door open so that the tropical storm
rain water could drain out... she had the garage open too so that could
drain and dry out. Fortunately the water did not get into the house itself.
A couple weeks ago she had a bald eagle sitting on the hedge in the back
yard. I think it's all pretty neat... she, not so much. ;~)
On 2016-06-10, Doug Miller <[email protected]> wrote:
> the woodchuck, then a possum. As noted previously, the woodchuck did not survive the
> experience, but the others were released.
We've got no woodchucks, but plenty o' huge racoons. I saw one
walking away from our deck. He did not look happy about me chasing
him off and was every bit of 20 lbs. Kick a woodchuck's ass! ;)
nb
"Doug Miller" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom
>(gorgeous!) and
>planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers,
>and a substantial
>fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in
>our back yard, and
>it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from
>further depradations.
>And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>Eat MY hostas, will you?!
I caught 3 chucks and a raccoon in my yard in recent weeks in a Havahart
trap... The raccoon wasn't planned, he got into the trap before the first
woodchuck. They were chewing up my ornamental planting beds... they won't be
able to return.
"G. Ross" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Spalted Walt wrote:
>> Swingman <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
>>>year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
>>>apparently feeling the bern.
>>
>> PREACH IT BROTHER!
>>
>> For the past 30 years I've planted 12 to 18 'Better Boy' tomato plants
>> and until around 10 years ago, would loose relatively few to
>> squirrels. With the housing boom, rapid decline of natural predators,
>> tighter leash laws, the result for me and the neighbors has been a
>> HUGE overpopulation of squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits.
>>
>> Rabbits don't seem to bother my tomatos much but the squirrels and
>> chipmunks have been devastating... until last year.
>>
>> Last year I bought some PT dog-ear fence pickets and built 4 rabbit
>> boxes (traps) sorta like these:
>> https://ronaldrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/the-rabbit-trap.jpg
>> https://ronaldrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/trap-from-rabbits-point-of-view.jpg
>>
>> Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
>> caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard. The only
>> damage to the traps, I had 2 of the .5" dia dowel triggers that got
>> chewed up bad. I've since upgraded all to .5" aluminum tubes. I never
>> left them set overnight to avoid catching possum or other nighttime
>> critters.
>>
>I have used traps exactly like this for 65 years. At our present home
>I caught (and released) so many squirrels I got tired to taking them
>the necessary 3 miles so they wouldn't come back. Then I got a pellet
>gun and permanently eliminated a lot. Now I don't have a garden and
>just let them amuse my dogs. I have one bob-tailed squirrel that has
>apparently had a close call somewhere.
That's a big 10-4 on the pellet gun elimination route, or at least it
used to be. Nowadays, as screwy as society and the laws have become,
dispatching a thieving squirrel might result in a felony 'Cruelty to
Animals' charge and having to pay for 'Grief Counseling' if you were
unlucky enough to have it bleed-out on a neighbors back deck and thus
traumatizing their kids. ;-)
On Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:58:14 -0400, "Lee Michaels"
<leemichaels*nadaspam* at comcast dot net> wrote:
>
>
>"Swingman" <[email protected]> wrote
>>
>> Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
>> year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
>> apparently feeling the bern.
>>
>Last year my honey had me build two elevated plant beds. Because of the
>abundant wildlife in our neighborhood, she insisted I install hardware cloth
>underneath them and put up some pvc pipe supports over them for netting. It
>did not stop the thieves entirely, but was mostly successful.
>
>Our little dog, Bucky, loves tomatoes. We let him out into the backyard one
>day and he did not come back to the door. We went looking for him and found
>him. He was wrapped up in the netting. He looked like a caught fish. He
>was going after the tomatoes. Some tomatoes grew outside of the netting.
>Either Bucky or other animals got those. But almost everything inside of
>the netting was ours.
Over the weekend we were looking at sprinklers at Lowes. They had a
motion controlled impulse sprinkler intended for dogs and deer.
Spalted Walt wrote:
> Swingman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
>>year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
>>apparently feeling the bern.
>
> PREACH IT BROTHER!
>
> For the past 30 years I've planted 12 to 18 'Better Boy' tomato plants
> and until around 10 years ago, would loose relatively few to
> squirrels. With the housing boom, rapid decline of natural predators,
> tighter leash laws, the result for me and the neighbors has been a
> HUGE overpopulation of squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits.
>
> Rabbits don't seem to bother my tomatos much but the squirrels and
> chipmunks have been devastating... until last year.
>
> Last year I bought some PT dog-ear fence pickets and built 4 rabbit
> boxes (traps) sorta like these:
> https://ronaldrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/the-rabbit-trap.jpg
> https://ronaldrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/trap-from-rabbits-point-of-view.jpg
>
> Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
> caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard. The only
> damage to the traps, I had 2 of the .5" dia dowel triggers that got
> chewed up bad. I've since upgraded all to .5" aluminum tubes. I never
> left them set overnight to avoid catching possum or other nighttime
> critters.
>
I have used traps exactly like this for 65 years. At our present home
I caught (and released) so many squirrels I got tired to taking them
the necessary 3 miles so they wouldn't come back. Then I got a pellet
gun and permanently eliminated a lot. Now I don't have a garden and
just let them amuse my dogs. I have one bob-tailed squirrel that has
apparently had a close call somewhere.
--
GW Ross
On any given day, fifty percent of the
lawyers in American courtrooms are losers.
On Sat, 11 Jun 2016 19:21:13 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
<[email protected]> wrote:
>"Horror Sciurus Vacui" ;-)
Yes, that works too. ;-)
On 6/10/2016 9:35 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
> On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 9:53:58 PM UTC-4, John Grossbohlin wrote:
>> "Doug Miller" wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>>> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom
>>> (gorgeous!) and
>>> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers,
>>> and a substantial
>>> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in
>>> our back yard, and
>>> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>>
>>> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from
>>> further depradations.
>>
>>> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>>
>>> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>>
>> I caught 3 chucks and a raccoon in my yard in recent weeks in a Havahart
>> trap... The raccoon wasn't planned, he got into the trap before the first
>> woodchuck. They were chewing up my ornamental planting beds... they won't be
>> able to return.
>
> I put out a Havahart to catch a pesky raccoon that was hanging around our
> yard. I put it in a shady area where we have landscape fabric covered with
> mulch. My mistake.
>
> The 'coon was so pissed he used his claws to dig into the mulch/mesh and
> made a real mess. He messed up an area basically 3' on every side by
> pulling the mesh towards the trap. The mulch ended up on the dirt, the
> fabric was torn, etc. It was a real pain to fix it all up.
>
> I left the trap out the next night just in case he had a friend. I caught
> the neighbor's cat.
>
> Here's a video of raccoons in my garage last year. If you get bored, fast
> forward to about 6:30 and watch the frustration when they realize that I
> blocked the cat door.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npQuZHgjTgE
>
Your racoon adventures reminded me of our neighbor. They had a racoon
problem and hired a company to trap and removed the racoon. They
captured all of them but the old alpha male. The company tried every
thing they could to bait the trap, but the male was too smart for them.
When they finally caught the alpha male, the man from the company came
out to remove him. After getting the trap with the racoon he stopped to
talk with our neighbor, sitting the racoon in the trap a dozen feet
away. As they talked the racoon put his foot through the mesh released
the catch. Our neighbor said the racoon just ambled away, not in any
hurry. She learn a lot of new magic words that afternoon. After a
couple of more attempts they final got the racoon and took him away.
I suspect that he was back in a couple of weeks just a little more sneaky.
Unfortunately there was no video.
On Sat, 11 Jun 2016 01:54:22 +0000, Spalted Walt
<[email protected]> wrote:
>"G. Ross" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I have used traps exactly like this for 65 years. At our present home
>>I caught (and released) so many squirrels I got tired to taking them
>>the necessary 3 miles so they wouldn't come back. Then I got a pellet
>>gun and permanently eliminated a lot. Now I don't have a garden and
>>just let them amuse my dogs. I have one bob-tailed squirrel that has
>>apparently had a close call somewhere.
>
>That's a big 10-4 on the pellet gun elimination route, or at least it
>used to be. Nowadays, as screwy as society and the laws have become,
>dispatching a thieving squirrel might result in a felony 'Cruelty to
>Animals' charge and having to pay for 'Grief Counseling' if you were
>unlucky enough to have it bleed-out on a neighbors back deck and thus
>traumatizing their kids. ;-)
Someone I know in Evanston Il has been trapping squirrels in her trap,
and dispatches them in a 55 gallon drum. Long before Evanston declared
them a nuisance animal. She keeps a count going on the fridge sort of
like fighter pilots do on the plane.
Lee Michaels wrote:
>
>
> "Swingman" <[email protected]> wrote
>>
>> Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
>> year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
>> apparently feeling the bern.
>>
> Last year my honey had me build two elevated plant beds. Because of the
> abundant wildlife in our neighborhood, she insisted I install hardware cloth
> underneath them and put up some pvc pipe supports over them for netting. It
> did not stop the thieves entirely, but was mostly successful.
>
> Our little dog, Bucky, loves tomatoes. We let him out into the backyard one
> day and he did not come back to the door. We went looking for him and found
> him. He was wrapped up in the netting. He looked like a caught fish. He
> was going after the tomatoes. Some tomatoes grew outside of the netting.
> Either Bucky or other animals got those. But almost everything inside of
> the netting was ours.
>
I put netting over our 3 blueberry bushes a few years back. After
releasing three indignant cardinals I gave up and took the netting
off. Fake snakes were useless. Now the blueberries belong to the
wild life
--
GW Ross
It's later than you think.
On Thu, 9 Jun 2016 19:41:21 -0700 (PDT), Bob Villa
<[email protected]> wrote:
>On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 2:25:42 PM UTC-5, Doug Miller wrote:
>> Couple of weeks ago, SWMBO bought a rhododendron plant, in full bloom (gorgeous!) and
>> planted it in the back yard. Less than 24 hours later, most of the flowers, and a substantial
>> fraction of the foliage, were gone. Turns out we had a woodchuck living in our back yard, and
>> it's done a lot of other damage as well.
>>
>> Long story short... the rhododendron, hostas, and tomatoes are safe from further depradations.
>>
>> And we had barbecued woodchuck for dinner last night.
>>
>> Eat MY hostas, will you?!
>
>We had a family of chucks in our wood pile about 50 feet behind the house. The little ones played on our kid's slide. They never did any damage and fun to watch. We had a pair of barred owls 2 yrs ago...a lot deer and bald eagles around. Central Wisconsin.
Around here it is the deer and the bunnies, last year saw a bobcat
take a faun.
Swingman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>Haven't gotten a single tomato out of four plants this year ... election
>year, I did all the work, and the squirrels and mocking birds are
>apparently feeling the bern.
PREACH IT BROTHER!
For the past 30 years I've planted 12 to 18 'Better Boy' tomato plants
and until around 10 years ago, would loose relatively few to
squirrels. With the housing boom, rapid decline of natural predators,
tighter leash laws, the result for me and the neighbors has been a
HUGE overpopulation of squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits.
Rabbits don't seem to bother my tomatos much but the squirrels and
chipmunks have been devastating... until last year.
Last year I bought some PT dog-ear fence pickets and built 4 rabbit
boxes (traps) sorta like these:
https://ronaldrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/the-rabbit-trap.jpg
https://ronaldrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/trap-from-rabbits-point-of-view.jpg
Baited with black oil sunflower seeds and during June/July 2015 I
caught and removed 27 squirrels, 14 chipmunks from my yard. The only
damage to the traps, I had 2 of the .5" dia dowel triggers that got
chewed up bad. I've since upgraded all to .5" aluminum tubes. I never
left them set overnight to avoid catching possum or other nighttime
critters.