Varmint Hell

There is a raccoon or coons still on the loose. Two nights in a row the trap has been tripped and all the bait food has been eaten. It must have methodically reached through the wires and pulled it out morsel by morsel. The trap itself had been moved from one end of the deck to the other. Just for fun it dug holes in a few of the potted plants.

Not only that, last night it got in the bed of my truck and ransacked the garbage. Sunday night I gather the trash for delivery to the collection site Monday morning. This is the first time any varmint has ripped the garbage to shreds. It left its little coon foot prints all over my windshield. I know it's a raccoon.

This is a bit concerning. Either I am dealing with a very smart raccoon or one too large to fit inside the trap. There could also be a tremendous herd of mice assisting in eating all the food and quite capable of fitting through the cage wires.

I needed a bait that wouldn't tear easily and fit through the cage wires. No corn cobs around. No apples. I settled on a big scoop of peanut butter in a tall piece of tupperware. If this raccoon can get at that through a tripped trap it will mean it has some pretty long arms. We will need to be very afraid.

Allium tanguticum 'Balloon Bouquet' blooms by the front entry to the cozy cabin. I wonder if there are any plants that will deter raccoons.

Damn Varmints!

The last two days I have also seen mices scurrying in the cab of my truck while I have been driving. Not good. I am not afraid of them, but who knows what reaction would ensue if one of them jumped on me while I was driving.

Five glue traps are now placed in the truck. I already caught two mices in there last week. At least the cozy cabin is mouse free, I think, for now. I sealed the hole I found a couple months ago and haven't had troubles since.

Damn varmints!

I haven't bothered to find out who is nesting in the rafters of the service entrance porch roof. The nest is made with a lot of moss. That should be a clue. The poop is piling up and getting a bit annoying. Some other varmint may have noticed. Those dark spots on the bottom left are the end of another poop trail on the back porch. I think I saw one of the Least Weasels at the top of my drive the other day. It moved too fast to really tell. A weasel would enjoy a fresh bird snack.

It's a veritable zoo around here and we are short on zoo keepers.

Damn varmints! Can't you poop some where else.

My little gas furnace does a self check when power is restored after an outage. Last time we had a momentary outage in a thunder storm the furnace started flashing an error code indicating it could not ignite. I read the owners manual and my two choices where a blocked vent and call the repairman. I checked the vent and except for two tiny turds on the inside end of the vent it was completely open. No blockage.

Unless. Those white streaks on the side of the cozy cabin coming from under the eaves are the residue generated from bats roosting in there. That longest white streak is directly over the furnace vent. The intake air may have sucked bat turds all the way into the furnace and coated the ignitor. I'll need to have another look before I am willing to call a repairman.

I really need to climb up there and add some heavy gauge wire on the bottom of the air vent holes for the roof. In the building process that wire went at the top and the vent holes make perfect little bat houses with wire tops for them to hook their little claws in.

Damn varmints!

I've got raccoons on the decks, mice in the truck, bats in the belfry, birds in the rafters, turds all over and woe is me I got chiggers in my drawers. I must have gotten 20 plus chigger bites on both upper thighs yesterday while I was weeding. I'm used to a few chigger bites on occasion. This many is just overkill.

Damn varmints! I need me some varmint voodoo.

My amorphophallus, Voodoo Lily is getting big. I borrowed it as a tiny pea sized bulb at least four years ago while visiting a public garden. This particular species makes small bulbs on the leaves that will drop to the ground when the plant dies back to make new plants. So I made my own new plant.

Along with the Lush comes the livestock. Normally I pay them no mind. This year they are being rather annoying. I wonder if the two late freezes reduced the raccoons normal wild food supply. Or could it be the neighbor who is clearing three miles of old road next door is scaring all the varmints over here.

The bat colony is growing. I really need to put a stop to that. Their poop stinks and the pee could be eating away at my siding. I'll clean the back porch at some point. The chiggers will be gone with the seasons.

Damn varmints!

Right now it is varmint hell.