Critters in your yard...

[jflis]

Well, my sister sent me a note and I had to share her "critter problem"...

Ever have that stray dog roam your yard?

Ever hear the racoons in your trash cans?

Squirrel's getting into the bird feeders?

Count yer blessings! LOL

(let's hear some of *your* horror stories with critters in the yard)

Here is my brother in law Milt taking care of things...

 

[wwattles]

Can't you just hear the woman's voice in the background...

"Milt, that dag-gum moose is gettin into the trash cans again! Go get the hose and chase it away!"



WW

 

[KarlD]

"Got sum mighty big Squirrels in them woods”

 

[Donaldsrockets]

Yeah, we have big fire ant piles in our yard but hopefully they'll soon be history as I applied fire ant killer to them!!!

Die, you little maggots!!! :kill:

 

[11bravo]

If I had a moose raking my yard, I'd not only not run him off, I'd feed him

Greg

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by jflis
Well, my sister sent me a note and I had to share her "critter problem"...

Ever have that stray dog roam your yard?

Ever hear the racoons in your trash cans?

Squirrel's getting into the bird feeders?

Count yer blessings! LOL

(let's hear some of *your* horror stories with critters in the yard)

Here is my brother in law Milt taking care of things...

My wife heard something banging against the fence around the garden and sent me out to look. I expected it was one of the deer stomping around in the fencing laid on the ground outside the main fence, thinking it was stuck. It was a bear. The steel uprights made great back scratching posts apparently. He wasn't real pleased about my showing up. I turned around and walked back in the house. To keep him from coming around more I made it a habit of "marking my territory" around the garden for the rest of the summer.

 

[Bowhunter]

HHHHHHHHMMMMMMm Moose is goooooooooood to eat but my luck it would come in the yard out of season

 

[hokkyokusei]

We once had a cow in the car park at work. There was no obvious place it had got in either, and the gateman swore blind it hadn't come past him!

 

[Manwithbeers]

Well I must say I consider myself very fortunate to live in a natural setting. I've always been close to nature and I would only consider reloating to another simalir environment. I spent a couple years in a small/Medium size city while in college and never felt comfortable there. Cities are great places to visist for me.

I now live on a very nice little hobby farm (I just rent the house. :-( I'd buy it in a minute if I could.) The house is about 150 feet from the high water line of Johnstone Straight which is the inside passage separating Vancouver Island and the mainland of BC, Canada.

There are several horses about. The neibors sheep are always in the yard because one or 2 can easily hop the 4 foot fence. Rabbits are fairly common as are ferral cats/barn cats. A few weeks ago we had a Black Bear taking up residence on the farm. He was here for the falling apples, plums, chestnuts, walnuts. A Beary feast you might say so I don't blame the bear. It does make for a bunch of nervous dog owners though. We're pretty used to raccoons and various birds including 6 resident Bald Eagles not to mention the visitors.

The view of the water is a wholely diferent. Orcas and Dolphins are my favorite but even seal and sea lions are nice to see go by.

Layne

 

[cmmeyers]

We have at least two skunks in our neighborhood, and they have been doing a real work on my lawn, right outside of our front door. Normally I wouldn't care if they are about, but they have torn up my lawn so much looking for grubs that I had to re-seed several large patches this fall.

I applied some grub killer about a month ago, and I haven't seen any fresh digging since. But I know that they are still around since you can occasionally still smell them. Also some of the neighbor's dogs have been "skunked"! Phewww!

Jim, that moose picture is awesome!

 

[wwattles]

Originally posted by Donaldsrockets
Yeah, we have big fire ant piles in our yard but hopefully they'll soon be history as I applied fire ant killer to them!!!

Die, you little maggots!!! :kill:

You may get rid of them for now, but they'll be back. The ones from your neighbors yards will eventually spread back into your yard.

The most effective way that I've heard of is to have a "fire ant block party" and EVERYbody on the block all put out your ant killer at the same time. Takes a while for them to come back from that!

WW

 

[shreadvector]

Only two comments:

1) Marc LaVigne will not be happy.

2) At least it's not a unicorn....

Originally posted by jflis
Well, my sister sent me a note and I had to share her "critter problem"...

Ever have that stray dog roam your yard?

Ever hear the racoons in your trash cans?

Squirrel's getting into the bird feeders?

Count yer blessings! LOL

(let's hear some of *your* horror stories with critters in the yard)

Here is my brother in law Milt taking care of things...

 

[powderburner]

Originally posted by wwattles
The most effective way that I've heard of is to have a "fire ant block party" and EVERYbody on the block all put out your ant killer at the same time. Takes a while for them to come back from that!

We have the d$%n things in Texas too. The tough part of getting rid of them is that several times a year, each colony produces multiple queens and they fly away, covering up to several miles. So if everyone on your block pitches in and puts down ant poison they will still be flying back in from the next block . . or the one past that.

I am just outside city limits. Some of the neighbors keep horses, llamas, goats, etc., which also manage to get loose once a year or so. Occasionally a few of the neighbors will have some cattle (longhorns are intimidating) decide to punch through a rickety old rail fence and go looking for greener grass. Since our yard is one of the few in the neighborhood that is not fenced in, we often wake up with mooing cows and barking dogs in the yard.

We also have raccoons (they love the cat food), skunks, 'possum, the occasional porcupine, coyotes, all kinds of mice and little furry things, frequent visits by circling hawks (looking for the mice), scorpions, pill bugs, a bujillion crickets. Deer are very scarce this close to town. We have had a couple rattlesnakes over the years but they pretty much stay away too.

There's just enough mystery out there in the yard to make you watch your step.

 

[sandman]

This was taken last Feb. through my back door window.

That's my deck under all that snow!

This is usually a daily occurance at our house...even the dogs are use to them.

No...I don't shoot them.

I get my meat sealed on a plastic tray.

 

[Pippen]

That "Man Against Moose" photo is priceless.

We live in town so the creatures are generally of a smaller variety. We have a sliding glass door leading to the deck in the back and an opossum was living under the deck right below where we stepped outside. It would run up and snitch meat morsels that dropped off the grill right at the door. I did an internet search to find out how to get rid of it and it was suggested to disturb their sleep during the day. My rambuctious kids weren't doing the job but the blinking Christmas tree lights and loud country music I played on the back deck for a few hours every day did the trick.

 

[Stymye]

my house backs up on woods and a lake so there are lots of critters milling around,earlier this summer I ran over a copperhead with the mower, and I even saw a red fox sniffing around one morning. Usually it's the typical vermin like polecats,squirrls,moles,groundhogs,bugs ,lizzards and snakes.

 

[Rick James]

Originally posted by sandman
This was taken last Feb. through my back door window.

That is a beautiful picture! A very nice yard... you know - if you could get rid of the light reflections in the glass, that would make a great Christmas card...

 

[rstaff3]

My pic isn't that impressive, couldn't find some of the 4-legged critters. This guy made a home on our back patio door. Everynight the web went up, covering the door, and every morning it was gone. After the amusement wore off we snatched him up and moved him to a far away tree in the yard.

We are close to county parkland that has a large open area, two small lakes, which heads up-county and even down to DC ~15miles. We have had:

At our back deck window - possum, raccoon, grey fox, squirrel, stray houscats, and stray dogs (yard is fenced; won't go into the types of small birds)

Other 4-legged types in the yard - deer, ground hogs, chipmunks

Birds (of significant size) - turkey vulture, owl, hawk

Misc - snakes, and see the pic

 

[rstaff3]

fingers faster than brain...

 

[WiK]

Thats a nice pic Sand! My house backs out onto a small band of woodland that leads to farmland. We usually get red foxes most nights, a couple of weeks ago we watched a whole family of them playing on our lawn. Cute.

Phil

 

[hokkyokusei]

My parents have foxes in their garden. Just the one at present, but a couple of years back they had a whole family.

 

[Elapid]

just the typical racoons, opossums, squirrels, and herds of these things...

 

[rstaff3]

Herds is right, they really chow down on the plants in our neighborhood, leave land mines, and destroy the fron ends of cars!

 

[jflis]

Animal lovers, please forgive me my transgression... LOL

In New Hampshire we've had the occational moose problem. A problem only because a moose is a dangerous animal, 'specially when out of his element.

We also have problems with racoons. They've even figured out how to get the tops off the cans! argh!

Well, one day...

It was right after we had purchased our new bed and the large box was still outside in the side yard. (this is key...)

I heard the racoons in the trash and took off out the front door in the hopes of catching them in the act. I could barely see one scoot around the house and as I came around I *just* saw him scoot into the large box. I ran up and closed up the box quick! I GOT HIM! Yea!!

I figured, alrighty fella, you've been ticking me off for months, now it's YOUR turn (I am normally not this nasty, but I had had it!). So I went and got a small pack of firecrackers and called my wife and kids and said "Hey, y'all, watch this!"

So, I lit the fuse to the firecrackers, opened the box just enough to toss them in, then closed it up quick. Bang!, Band! Pop! Crackle! Bang! There. That'll teach him a lesson...

So, I opened the box to let him go...

oh man, was that *skunk* p*ssed....

And he had let go while the crackers were going off and that box acted like a bellows when i opened in and i was bathed in his special scent. That wasn't enough... As soon as he saw me he let me have it again, point blank, full in the face. As I staggered back and fell over, he ran into the woods.

yea, guess I showed *him* didn't I...?

Kids only comment, through choking laughter... "good one dad"

 

[Elapid]

do wonders to cut down on the traffic!

 

[powderburner]

If you want to get rid of the critters, use a low-poundage bow with those big rubber 'mallet heads' (at least, that's what I call them) to give your visitors a good thump. They seldom come back after that.

When I was a kid, I got the job of cleaning up after the neighborhood dogs did their 'job' in our yard. Didn't take me long to adopt a pre-emptive attitude. My 45-lb bow was very effective with a 1-ounce mallet head. One shot in the ribs and those dogs took off yelping and never came back.

Animal lovers need not respond.

 

[sandman]

if you could get rid of the light reflections in the glass, that would make a great Christmas card...

I have thopught of that but if I had opened the door they would have been gone.

Now to get rid of critters in the yard, the best anti-vermin weapon it the "Whistling Moon Traveller" bottle rocket!

Make a "gun" out of a piece of 3/4" metal conduit bent at a 90 degree angle. Light the bottle rocket and drop it in aim and FIRE!

Works against Racoons (never knew THEY could run so fast) possum, neighborhood cats and the funniest...shooting at rabits in the garden! Man, they don't know which way to run!

Most critters are so terrified of the whistle, hissing and report I'm sure they tell their friends that the devil lives there!

Extreamly effective against neighborhood cats too!

 

[rstaff3]

If I tried that method, I'd end up in the slammer

 

[cmmeyers]

Excellent story Jim! That cracked me up!

I've seen the skunks in our yard in the middle of the night. But its not like I can run out there to scare/shoo them away. Unless of course I want to end up with a face full of "perfume".....

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by sandman
I have thopught of that but if I had opened the door they would have been gone.

One possibility, assuming the angle is right, is to press your camera lens right up against the glass to take the picture. That way you get no reflection at all and you don't have to worry about spooking the deer.