New MoM playground?

[Mausey]

Originally Posted by Priscilla

Just saw a woodchuck in our back yard. They can play havoc with vegetable gardens. Do you have them where you are Mausey?

Quiet music playing in the sewing room.

We don't have woodchucks but we have their annoying little cousins. We have Richardson's Ground Squirrels, ak gophers. The little beggars like making large holes and are hard to get rid of. We have one at the roundhouse that has started to undermined a corner of one building so I packed the hole as tight as I could with it's excavated dirt and put chicken wire around it. Then I found some broken bricks and put those in front of the wire, that should slow the little critter down. They are like a prairie dog and have large underground interconnecting burrows and can be hard to get rid of. We have almost 9 acres and they are welcome to live anywhere that isn't under a building.

[Priscilla]

Is it possible to trap the gophers? There are Hav A Heart traps that come in all sizes. I bet this has already been tried.

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Priscilla

Is it possible to trap the gophers? There are Hav A Heart traps that come in all sizes. I bet this has already been tried.

I would think they would be easier to live trap than moles, but then what would you do with a live gopher? Release it somewhere else, to damage someone else's property?

[Priscilla]

We occasionally catch mice in tiny Hav A Heart traps in our attic. Taking them to a wooded area far from houses and letting them go is an option. I don't know how crowded and built up it is where Mausey lives, maybe there are reasonable distance places to drop off gophers (if they could be caught).

[GinnyStar]

Originally Posted by Priscilla

Happy Birthday, again!

I don't know if you have ever seen my quote at the end of each of my posts. It is by Helen Keller. -

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.
All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
Helen Keller

Yes, My JAWS system reads them as it goes down the screen, when reading linefor lline, format, I have read Story of My Life, by her, I have had heard several books about several different folks that have become both bline and deaf , I am just bad at posting ref. not unless I have them handy in my mind, or saved in a place were I can copy and pase them into my work.

[GinnyStar]

My dad got these type of traps, you put qa bit of a cookie in the mouse goes in and becomes flat, rip, he can then head out a little and tosse out the dead one and reset the trap, place it for the next one, no handleing required good for his stress level, or those that don't want to handle live one, Hard plastic Family Dullard, also safer for he can't get hurt , for he is under a lot of medication,. blood thinners , and dibetic too, I am just explaining a different way,. to remove them.

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Priscilla

We occasionally catch mice in tiny Hav A Heart traps in our attic. Taking them to a wooded area far from houses and letting them go is an option. I don't know how crowded and built up it is where Mausey lives, maybe there are reasonable distance places to drop off gophers (if they could be caught).

Quite a difference between mice, rats, voles, gophers, and groundhogs, how to catch them, and what to do with them if live trapped. I live in the country, real woods, and my house is almost in the center of 80 acres (more or less, as deeds read here). That would be a plot about half a mile by a quarter mile. So from my own experience, I would say that
mice: they and rats and to a lesser degree, voles, are foragers. They travel until they find a food source big enough to make them hang around for a while, then once that's gone, they go back to hunting all over again. Voles are the worst. Voles range in size from "small mouse" to "biggest rat I've ever seen." Easiest way to identify them is, mice and rats have bald tails, like the domestic mice and rats seen in pet stores. Voles look like mice or rats; except they have hairy tails. And a bad, bad attitude. They can be quite aggressive. The bigger the vole, the more it will fight back against predators, like your housecat, who isn't desperate for a meal, just wants to play "hunt" and "cat and mouse". a big-rat-size vole can make the average, fun-loving housecat back down. I've seen it.

Gophers aren't going to be in your house, and if live trapped, unless taken miles away and released are going to return. Maybe not the next day, but they will return. I wouldn't release one into my neighbor's pasture over 200 yards away because I'd give them less time than the possums I've caught and released, only to have them return.

Groundhogs go where the eating is best, then move in. They would be interesting to live trap and try to move in the first place. Years ago my then-young dog caught and killed one. First I knew about it was when I looked out the window and saw him playing with it, flipping the 30+ pound dead body about 8 to 10 feet in the air. I think you'd have a time trying to bait one into a live trap in the first place, from my limited experience with the critters.

The best way to deal with vermin like mice, rats, and voles is with a poison that will not kill anything else through secondary poisoning if the dead or dying animal gets eaten by my friendly neighborhood owls, hawks, buzzards, or even the occasional bald eagle. One manufacturer makes a line of natural poisons called MouseX and RatX, same exact pellet just in two different size bags. The active ingredients are corn gluten meal and salt. They make VoleX too, but voles are not exclusively vegetarian (they'll eat anything that doesn't eat them first) so VoleX has a lightly different composition. But I've taken care of voles with RatX.

A .22 bullet takes care of marauding trash pandas caught in my live trap, and possums that return too many times. I hate to have to get that radical with them though, because they're so beneficial, and do not ever carry rabies. But both will show up to eat my cats' food that I have out for when I'm away over a night or two, leaving the pets with nothing to eat, and every possibility of being badly hurt by a larger marauder.

[Priscilla]

That's an amazing and very detailed description of all these animals and how to be rid of them. We just have very occasional mice in the attic so I think we will stick with the live traps and letting them go in woods a fair distance from any houses. Thanks for all the info!

[Mausey]

The best way to get rid of them, other than a .22 is poison. You mix it with grain and using a spoon put it as far down the hole as you can reach. They eat it and die in the hole so no other animals are harmed. Gophers do eat a lot of bugs and such and as I said they are welcome to live anywhere but under the building. The old place is in bad enough shape without us having to worry about a corner being undermined.

[Priscilla]

I just had an ad pop up on Facebook for a company IN OHIO offering "rodent removal services." The tentacles of the internet stretch far and wide. Nothing you say anywhere gets "by them!"

[vyon]

Poison is not an option for my current house mouse. She's living under the kickboard in my kitchen cupboards and if she was poisoned she'd go back under there and my kitchen would smell of dead mouse until her corpse mummified. I'm surprised that the local supermarkets are only selling poison and poison baits and not traps in a town that has an extensive and mainly forested green belt that is almost all vertical or near-vertical. The big-box hardware and building supplies store did have traps but not the one I want. I'll have to try the big-box pet store but it is two suburbs away from easy access.

[Allen]

Originally Posted by vyon

Poison is not an option for my current house mouse. She's living under the kickboard in my kitchen cupboards and if she was poisoned she'd go back under there and my kitchen would smell of dead mouse until her corpse mummified. I'm surprised that the local supermarkets are only selling poison and poison baits and not traps in a town that has an extensive and mainly forested green belt that is almost all vertical or near-vertical. The big-box hardware and building supplies store did have traps but not the one I want. I'll have to try the big-box pet store but it is two suburbs away from easy access.

I take it you don't have any indoor pets that might catch house mouse and eat on it? If you do, the regular poisons such as D-Con and so on are NOT AN OPTION! due to the chance or almost certainty of secondary poisoning. If she were to consume the poison bait and then come out searching for water and be caught by your pet (or if she went back outside and was caught and feasted upon by a hawk, owl, or the neighbor's pet), there is a strong likelihood that the animal eating on the corpse would also die of the same poison.

The MouseX poison I mentioned only uses corn gluten meal and salt. Mouse eats it, the gluten meal reacts with the liquid in mouse's stomach and starts swelling up. Same time, salt makes mouse thirsty, mouse goes to water & drinks, gluten meal swells up further, blocking mouse's system preventing any further digestion or consumption, mouse dies. Smell is minimized by the excessive amount of salt in the body rapidly increasing mumification time.

But for live traps, I had one similar to this one years ago when I had my pet boas and a mouse problem in my garage. Read the description carefully, because it clearly states there may be a chance that the mouse-victim may be killed.

I also found this one advertised on Amazon. It comes in a pack of 2 traps, and resembles a scaled down, plastic version of the metal live trap I've been using here for whatever is eating my cats' food if I leave it out overnight while I'm away.

Google is my friend. I searched "mouse live traps" to come up with both of these and a lot more. I also bought my own live traps at a feed-and-grain/farm-supply/farmer's co-op type of store. Different states, and quite literally decades apart. Maybe you have one similar near you, so you don't have to mail order something?

[sk133]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how to send messages to users on this site? I would like to send a message to DM Domini - she was one of my favorite fanfiction writers and I wanted to ask her for access to her stories now that her AO3 account is down.

[Allen]

Originally Posted by sk133

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how to send messages to users on this site? I would like to send a message to DM Domini - she was one of my favorite fanfiction writers and I wanted to ask her for access to her stories now that her AO3 account is down.

I tried a search for that username and came up empty, so I can't help with my idea. Sorry!

[R'zil]

Originally Posted by sk133

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how to send messages to users on this site? I would like to send a message to DM Domini - she was one of my favorite fanfiction writers and I wanted to ask her for access to her stories now that her AO3 account is down.

She is still listed as a member but she hasn't posted anything on the site since Sept. of 2017. You can find her profile by going to community, then members and doing a search (upper right hand corner) for Domini.

[Priscilla]

Allen, those green plastic traps are very similar to what we use. Bait them with peanut butter (who says mice prefer cheese, anyway?) and the mousies crawl in, can't get out and we take them on our walk to be let go in a wooded area far from houses. I hate snap trap mouse traps! It is probably "fast" but still seems cruel when you can live catch them.

[Priscilla]

Allen, I clicked on the links you put up for live mouse traps. Within a couple hours I was getting ads on the CT News website for those square metal traps. I'm going to try an experiment. I'm gonna say "CHOCOLATE, show me ads for chocolate" a couple times a day into the microphone on my phone and see if I start getting chocolate ads!

[BD1]

Peanut butter is good bait for rats, too!

[Priscilla]

Peanut butter & chocolate are great together. I have a recipe for no bake crispy cookies.

1 1 lb jar of peanut butter

1 12 oz bag of Nestle choc morsels

5 cups cornflakes

Melt chocolate morsels & PB in saucepan. Add cornflakes. Drop by 3 inch round or so globs onto wax paper on cookie sheets. Cool in fridge. Better if served right from fridge.

[GinnyStar]

Good luck with finding a live trap, for your place.

' sleeping trying to feel better, and all the stress keep me up most of last night
till morning, I did get some sleep, but I am only a-half awake here,, so I am not
going to stick around for long.Sorry this weeks

[vyon]

Allen, I've never seen anything remotely resembling the trap in your post here. Nor have I seen a "live" trap. The stores had bait stations and the old-fashioned wire mouse and rat traps and a plastic no-touch version of the same. Getting anything from the US on the internet usually costs at least three times the cost of the item if it's deliverable at all. The last thing I ordered on the internet was coming from Auckland, just under 500 miles away and took three weeks to be delivered from the Wellington depot to my home in the Wellington CBD. They're currently blaming staff shortages due to covid, but that problem existed long before anybody had heard of the disease.

I'd love to replace the cat I brought to Wellington, but I don't believe in shutting cats indoors in a small apartment and the road outside is the main access to the rubbish dump, it's still full of trucks carting demolition rubbish from the 7.8 earthquake we had in 2016. I wouldn't have sold a cat to myself when I was breeding Siamese cats.

[Priscilla]

AND I got a chocolate ad! I guess it works! Listening to us all the time!

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Priscilla

AND I got a chocolate ad! I guess it works! Listening to us all the time!

One of the sons gave me an Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa) some years ago. I had it all plugged in and everything, and it would respond to its name on the commercials on TV. I was getting all sorts of junk emails and ads on my PC as well. I have gone through everything and closed out as much of the "ad preferences" "targeted ads" settings as I could find.

I finally asked Alexa if "she" was spying on me. I didn't like the answer, so I unplugged it and tossed it in a drawer. I haven't missed it.

Cell phones: I don't install apps if I can help it. Number one, they are always on, unless you make a concerted effort to shut them off each time you boot up your phone.

Yes, your devices will spy on you, given the chance.

Yes, I'm paranoid about such things. But as the saying goes, a little paranoia is a healthy thing. And, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that everybody's not really out to get me.

[BD1]

A coffee cup I'd bought last year or the year before, a girl claims got broke. But the cup I saw her holding is the one I'd bought. She said it's the cup of another girl's, I don't think so! You're gonna tell me the other girl went to family dollar and got the exact same cup?!?

[Priscilla]

Lots of treats set out. Whatever anyone wants. Big bowls of fruit cup. Ice cream and fixings for sundaes. NO Cool Whip - only real whipped cream. There will be fireworks later, the silent ones!

[BD1]

Got sparklers, too? Those are quiet! Btw, why would anyone want to whip cream? Hee hee!

[Priscilla]

That reminds me of a "joke" a friend and I made up when we were kids. "What's on the floor? Wood. It 'would' be!" Then we laughed hysterically at ourselves.

[Priscilla]

Almost time for fresh peaches at the farmers market. Yum Yum! I don't bother cooking with them, cut up plain or maybe topping vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

[GinnyStar]

@Allen and the rest, I just wish my Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa) would play my DragonsEye/Red Star Rising, not all the others . I hope to get the rest and that one downloaded with the Victor Trek key soon, I have a few non AMC ones that I would like to bookmark so could finish working on a few ideas stewing in the bacjk of my mind.

Technology is nice but sometimes is a pain in the rump.

Note I am not being a sour plum, but I am just reading the back llog, and folks know I am sometimes bad with tech terms,. I have had ihad it answer to my command once or twice, not for what I wanted.

Sending Christmas in or Any HHollody Cookeies/biskets and lokts of milk, tea, or coffee, klah to go with, after my l mmy little thing above, Ps More later,

[BD1]

Okay!

[Priscilla]

When I went to camp in the summer as a kid they had one day of "Christmas in July". I still don't see the point. However, I will happily eat the cookies with a cup of coffee. Thanks, Ginny!

[vyon]

We often have "Christmas in July" or "Midwinter Christmas" but there's more point in it here. Everybody knows "Christmas" is all about snow, and jingly bells on sleighs and heavy winter food. Which takes all day to cook and the temperature on Christmas Eve is somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s F outside without putting on the oven.

This year we had a new public holiday instead. "Matariki" which is the Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster. The rising of Matariki in the dawn marks the beginning of the planting season, or Maori New Year. Which we celebrated with a fantastic civic fireworks display and light-show.

[vyon]

So follow up the silent firecrackers with candle lanterns set out over the sea.

[Mausey]

I'd like to see a bunch of candle lanterns floating over the ocean. The closest we could do is over a nearby lake but it's pretty dry around here and it just wouldn't be safe if one hit grass.

[vyon]

We'd have to do it in the right wind too - if we didn't the lanterns would finish up in the CBD. Our fireworks are fired off from a barge anchored in the harbour and if it's windy then the whole show is cancelled. One year we had a whale in the harbour and they didn't do fireworks then either. We do have lantern festivals - usually as part of the Chinese New Year - but they are large structures lit by electricity.

[BD1]

I like a good cup of coffee with sugar and creamer! ☕ yumm!

[Mausey]

Let's see, as most of our posters are in summer and this summer has been a bit on the warm side the library has obliged us by making a giant snow globe in the back garden. It has a double air-lock door to keep the heat out and the temp inside is just at the freezing mark so the snow is perfect for snowballs or building a fort. As this is, after all, a magic snow globe there is also a nice pond for anybody that wants to try skating. There is a nice fire pit (always at the perfect marshmallow melting temp) as well as a cache of milk choc and graham crackers for smore's. Several containers with hot drinks are also available. Just to keep it interesting, once everybody is safely seated, the globe will shake and it will snow.

[GinnyStar]

Originally Posted by Mausey

I'd like to see a bunch of candle lanterns floating over the ocean. The closest we could do is over a nearby lake but it's pretty dry around here and it just wouldn't be safe if one hit grass.

How true, maybe something like a ppaper boat, Hindi one about light? with a barrier that they use to keep oil from getting awayy? or keeping crandberries ? When its time to flood the growing bogs, to harvest the berries? I haven't seen it, but my staff is in that area, and I have seen that on the TV I have read how to do that in a book, I would have to have someone help me find it, its also were I found ahow to wrap a sari spelling unsure , or was that a magazine one of the two, LOL at mself, its a childern Cricket all about India is were I read its year s ago, don't know if I have it, all I recall is after making the paper boat, using the end eenraser of a penceal , to make a hole to put the candle in, a small tea candle, I think. LOL ROLF at the memories

Or something like a looks like a lLilly Pad with a candle in the middle?

Glad I got this fixed, finding a different,UUUSB port that locked was a great find, Its frustrating, to not reaed other posts all the way, or able to post back. More later

[Priscilla]

That sounds like a lovely new holiday, Vyon. Candles on paper boats are beautiful but what happens to the candle "ends" when the boat sinks? Do fish eat them and is that a good or bad thing? Sometimes I wonder about traditions and whether they made US feel good but made a mess at the same time.

[vyon]

Originally Posted by Priscilla

That sounds like a lovely new holiday, Vyon. Candles on paper boats are beautiful but what happens to the candle "ends" when the boat sinks? Do fish eat them and is that a good or bad thing? Sometimes I wonder about traditions and whether they made US feel good but made a mess at the same time.

I doubt ordinary candles would be good for the environment. Neither would the aluminium used for teelights. Cardboard and paper would probably disintergrate. It isn't hard to make a lotus out of paper but I doubt it would hold oil for a lamp for long and you still have to make a wick.

The only time I've actually done a "throw something in the sea" ritual was when a long-time family friend died. She'd been born overseas and been a great traveller and her funeral had been private but the members of a group that she'd belonged to had wanted to commemorate her passing. So we took a basket of flowers and threw handfuls of them off a bridge to the accompaniment of prayers and poetry written by members of the group and watched the flowers float out around a headland in the harbour.

Of course I'd looked up the tides first and made sure it was going out. It just wouldn't have had the same impact if the flowers had all floated back into the estuary! We discovered later that her daughter had committed her ashes into the nearby Pacific Ocean.