BS: Varmints

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Aug 18 - 08:11 AM

Squirrels can live to be about 20 years old. Great Danes live short lives of 7 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Aug 18 - 04:32 AM

As far as I'm concerned, here in Cornwall the only good grey squirrel is a dead grey squirrel.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Aug 18 - 05:31 PM

The fence behind our house seems to function as a stretch of the squirrel version of the Trans-Canada Highway. When the cats repair to the patio door and settle down like kids in front of the television, we know that traffic has picked up. The local population seems to be about evenly divided between the grey and the black; to the best of my knowledge, they are all of the same species.

As well as the squirrels, we have a rabbit colony and at least one local family of raccoons. In winter, the tracks across our deck look like a diagram from "Scouting for Boys".

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: JennieG
Date: 05 Aug 18 - 02:11 AM

Squirrels have kept us amused at their antics on our visits to Canada (didn't see any in Alaska though) because they don't live in Oz. On our last visit three years ago I took on the challenge of trying to photograph one, and managed to get two pictures - one grey squirrel, and one black. They move very quickly, and a blurry pic is useless.

Unless one is trying to be teddibly artistique.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Aug 18 - 09:10 PM

I am a squirrel feeder. Not a squirrel eater. I once listened to an office mate talk about what a good sharpshooter his wife was. She was able to pick off squirrels from a distance great enough that they weren't aware what was happening to them, so she was able to pot many of them at a sitting. I don't think they were for the pot, just the pot-shot.
We have grays in Alaska and I like watching them in the trees around my house. I recently saw a BBC special on "super squirrels" and I recommend it. From northern flying squirrels to American grays to saving the beleaguered 'reds' in the U.K. Apparently there was a time when squirrels were popular in America as pets.

Then came rabies.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 04:50 PM

Wow! The good news is that the poor thing survived the winter.

Do you know yet what gender it is?

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 04:36 PM

It's still around. It won't let anyone get anywhere near it. It looks a bit better fed than it did in winter. Tough little tyke, eh? I have a bag of pussycat treats to hand but, so far, I haven't been able to tempt it to within thirty feet of me. And most cats love me to bits!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 03:52 PM

Steve [Shaw],
what happened to the stray cat whom you saw a number of times
when it was bitterly cold outside?

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 12:58 PM

There seem to be a lot of wasp nests around this year. They're wonderfully constructed - the wasps rasp away at bits of wood (and our garden bench!) to get a papery substance, then mould it into a football-shaped construction.

It must be difficult if one has allergies to stings though.

I try to live-and-let-live with all creatures great and small.
I actually think rats are quite sweet, with their long whiskers and scaly tails. But of course, nobody wants Weil's disease.

My neighbour in our last village had a colony of blooming rats in her loft, and they chewed through the electric wiring (I don't know why exactly) The Pest Control chap left poison for them, and later the stench from their rotting corpses was dire. Her husband had to crawl through the loft space trying to find the decomposing critters and get them out. Yuk!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 10:24 AM

I like living with varmints rather than competing with them, but I suppose we all have limits.

Sure... Rats. I even like them in some ways (seem intelligent and adaptable) but when (and even in spite of a roof upgrade a couple of years back), they get in the roof space, one exceptionally bad year, did destroy apples on a tree and our sampling of sweet corn, we can wind up with pest control and an all out war. Don't enjoy it and it doesn't happen every year but things can go that far here.

One creature I did feel bad about killing a few years back was a European hornet in the house. I do react (only that I need antihistamine to bring the swelling down) to stings and may have got into a "giant wasp" scared mode, but I now believe they are not "just out to get you" aggressive. Did also, and the first time since then, see one in the house this year but this time round opened a window and allowed it a safe escape.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 08:40 AM

"...And what time will you be going to the dump, Lone Ranger?"


"Ten to ten, ten to ten, ten to ten ten ten..."



I'll get me coat...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 07:52 AM

They do, Senoufou, but I'd have to take it up to the main road, as I live in a house on a farm a long way down a twisty concrete lane. I have to load it all into my boot, so I may as well leave it in there and take it to the tip when I'm going into town anyway to do some shopping. I've been doing it for about twenty years, after years of seeing a regular horrid mess at the main road caused by varmints ripping the bags open. There's a bottle bank and paper bank, etc., at the dump so I can do me recycling bit while I'm at it.

"Hey, Lone Ranger, where are you going with that car full of rubbish?"

"To the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump..."

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Jos
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 06:11 AM

"There have been warnings about the spiders getting very big this year (no idea why)"

This happens EVERY year - the warnings, I mean.

Spiders get big every year and they become more visible as the summer progresses, and journalists like to scare their listeners/readers/viewers.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 06:01 AM

Gaaaaaaaagh!!! Why did I click on that after your kind warning!!!

There was a huge spider in our bedroom this morning. There have been warnings about the spiders getting very big this year (no idea why)
I screamed the place down and husband calmly picked it up gently and put it outside. He's my absolute hero.

I hate silly women who scream, but it's beyond my control. Snake - yes. mouse/rat - yes. Spider - AAAAAAAAAAAGH!



Steve, why doesn't your local council take responsibility for your rubbish collection? We think two weeks isn't often enough, but never? Well....!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Aug 18 - 03:12 AM

Nicole is an Aussie girl. We have Huntsman spiders in Oz (and other parts of the world), she was probably used to them when she was growing up here before fame and fortune beckoned OS. Don't click on the blicky if you don't like spiders.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 06:54 PM

Nobody collects our bins. My choice is either to put my bags at the top of the lane, three-quarters of a mile away, or just leave them in the boot (trunk) and take them to the dump six miles away. I have been doing the latter for 25 years as I hate to see my rubbish flying around all over the place, liberated by foxes, gulls and magpies. I've rarely had maggots in my four bins but recently I've had varmints trying to chew their way through the lids. I suspect foxes, which I often see round here, rather than rats, which I haven't seen for years (I know, that don't mean a thang...). I like living with varmints rather than competing with them, but I suppose we all have limits. In the last two days I've rescued by hand a huge bush cricket and a big hawk moth, both of which had been "terrorising" Mrs Steve. They are now happily outdoors!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 02:22 PM

A post more pertinent than that,
to a Varmints thread,
I have never seen in the whole of my life.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 01:44 PM

We only get our bins emptied every two weeks, and in the great heat, flies have been buzzing around in their hundreds, laying eggs on and around the bins.
When I opened one the other day, I gasped - I've never seen so many big fat maggots in my life!

I don't mind them though. I just emptied out the contents on to the parched lawn, retrieved the actual rubbish, giving it a good shake, and left the maggots on the grass. Within seconds, it was like that Hitchcock film The Birds.

The poor blackbirds, starlings, robins etc were delighted to have such a great feast, and hoovered the lot up immediately.

We've been putting out all sorts of scraps during the drought, but those maggots must have been like Christmas for them!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Jos
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 01:22 PM

I have been watching the white butterflies playing happily in the sunshine - and then carefully removing their eggs from the undersides of the nasturtium leaves. I do feel rather mean, but there have been so many eggs that if I left them the caterpillars would starve in any case once they had destroyed the plants.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 12:59 PM

Gaaaaaaah keberoxu!!!!! I'd have plunged to the bottom of the pool and stayed there until The Thing had been removed to a distance of about a million light years from me.

There was a photo on Yahoo news yesterday of a beautiful python that had escaped from someone's house and crept through a neighbour's window. She woke to find it curled up beside her in bed! It was fairly small (a metre long) I'd not have been afraid, merely concerned for the poor thing. But I suppose it could have coiled around a baby and crushed it.

We seem to have been invaded by very small moths. They're everywhere. Hope they're not those wool-eating things - they make giant holes in carpets and demolish woolly jumpers etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 12:15 PM

Read the latest, have you, about Nicole Kidman?

They're calling her "Spider-Mom" now.
(Senoufou, you can stop reading now.)

She was minding her children around the swimming pool, and
an uninvited guest showed up ...
a tarantula.

She captured this on a cell-phone video,
and put it online.
The tarantula was safely released well away from the swimming pool
and the shrieking children.
You go, Nicole.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jul 18 - 09:05 PM

Slugs in the kitchen ...
good thing I don't live where you live.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Jul 18 - 12:32 PM

I don't much mind slugs Karen, but I'm not keen on those slimy, silvery trails they leave along the floor of our utility room.

When it's wet weather (oh heavens, I dream of rain - we haven't had a drop for literally months!) the most enormous bright orange slugs appear around our back step. I didn't realise they could be that large!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: KarenH
Date: 21 Jul 18 - 09:09 AM

I really hate it when you get up in the night barefoot and tread on a big fat slug in the dark kitchen.

My pet annoyances are slugs and snails. It seems almost impossible to keep them out of the house. A salt barrier around the external doors is one way. I give on Lavendula, which they seem to love, stripping a plant within one day of purchase.

Also those little red ants that hide under rocks and get into your clothes and run all over you biting.

"Varmint" We think of this as being a US word, but what about it's origins? It looks related to 'vermin', a standard English word.

I am guessing it comes from some non-standard dialect taken over the ocean, because my husband supposedly had jaundice as a child. His mother (English) told me about it more or less in the following words: 'He had yeller jarnders, caused by varmints'.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 18 Jul 18 - 06:45 PM

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh Steve!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Jul 18 - 06:36 PM

I can't wait for the picota cherry season every year. They come from that bit of Spain near the Portugal border and are unique among cherries in that they have stalks that drop off before they reach the consumer. They are also the cheapest and the tastiest cherries that money can buy. Thing is, I opened my first pack yesterday to find an extremely active medium-sized spider in there. I put it outside the back door. God knows where it is now.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jul 18 - 09:29 PM

Have arrived at a resort.
This one is not in Arizona.
Rather it is in the so-called Tri-State area sort of.
Which is to say, people in the Tri-State area
come here regularly,
regardless of which state the resort is in.

No javelinas here, nor tarantulas.
But there is an ornamental pond stocked with koi.
Nice to see that the koi are not too large.
I feel sorry when they get really large.
They are confined as it is,
but to be confined in a space that one is a little too large
for? That would be pretty miserable.
But then I'm no koi.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jul 18 - 10:04 PM

Visiting Springfield, Massachusetts, en route to someplace else.
Stayed two nights; had to find somewhere to dine.

This is a former mill/industrial river city.
Its downtown urban area, as you might expect,
is badly depressed. Probably some renovation has happened, but parts just look rotten.

I knew to avoid one restaurant, for the excellent reason
that a contributor's online review
included the photo that he took on his phone,
then showed to the restaurant manager, who bluffed and denied everything.
It was the floor outside the public toilets,
upon which there sat a little mouse.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Jul 18 - 02:19 PM

Just as long as the TV marathon
isn't that series of movies about rats.
Cue the Michael Jackson single:

"Ben, you're always running here and there ... "

ugh

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 05 Jul 18 - 12:40 PM

We're in a state of very severe drought here. Not a drop of rain for weeks, and very hot temperatures for Eastern England. I've been putting out low, flat pots full of water for hedgehogs and other thirsty creatures. Our two birdbaths are refilled every morning too.

Dead insects all over the floor and windowsills of the conservatory.
I feel so sorry for all the wildlife. The earth is like dust and everything is dying.

When I was staying in Senegal in a small 'campement' (lodging) it was as dry as dust (very little rain for five years!) So I put out a shallow dish full of water in their courtyard, for the pretty little birds and lizards.

The proprietor came zooming out and told me not to do that. She said that in a very short time all the snakes in the area would be congregating round the dish!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 18 - 10:35 AM

Many of the cable channels choose holidays for marathons. Star Trek, James Bond, themed television series, etc. Jaws wouldn't be so bad, I haven't seen them in a while.

Fireworks last night in the area, intermittently and far enough off that they didn't particularly alarm the new dog (here just over four weeks) though she did hang out under my desk and her head jerked up a few times when she heard them. She looked at me, looked at the other dogs ignoring them, and took her cue. #SmartDog

Ticks are the problem here, now. The climate is shifting and it seems to be bringing them more and more into the yard. I sprayed Beneficial nematodes and I'll do another spray the next time it rains. This kills the soil stage to avoid more new adults, but existing adults can live a long time between blood meals.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Jul 18 - 09:54 AM

The Fourth of July, for some reason,
gave a US cable TV channel, which shall remain nameless,
an excuse for a marathon of
"Jaws" movies.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Jul 18 - 05:16 PM

Oh seagulls Charmion! Another blooming nuisance!

We have a lovely window cleaner called Andy, he comes round every six weeks. Before he arrives, there's no seagull poo down any of our windows, but after he's been, they take it in turns to do their worst. How do they poo sideways? And how do they know we've just paid Andy? My poor husband has to go round with a cloth and get it all off.

I like the sound of your cardinals. Slide whistle!! Hee hee. There's a children's programme here called 'The Clangers' (little knitted characters) and they always speak like a slide whistle.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Jul 18 - 05:02 PM

When I lived in Halifax (Nova Scotia), a colony of large gulls lived on the flat roof of the apartment building, right over my window. I loved watching them diving off the roof into the updraft from the chimney of the house downhill from our building, but I did not -- repeat not -- enjoy their family squabbles, which included thumping of large avian bodies on the tarpaper as well as the usual raucous yelling.

Here in Stratford, it's cardinals. They make a noise like a slide-whistle at dawn, especially when I'm trying to get back to sleep after having visited the loo.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Jos
Date: 04 Jul 18 - 03:59 AM

The red kites were reintroduced by the RSPB and English Nature nearly thirty years ago in the Chilterns near Stokenchurch. There was a webcam in a red kites' nest allowing people to watch the chicks from the café in the Stokenchurch garden centre. The birds were so successful that they started to be a nuisance and local people complained. I was told that a few years ago a number were captured and released in other parts of the country. They now turn up all over the place.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Jul 18 - 03:24 AM

Sitting on my famous garden bench yesterday evening I saw the most amazing pair of red kites. (Latin name Milvus milvus!) soaring above the village. I was thrilled.

4.30am this morning, we were woken by the very annoying call of a red kite apparently right above our house. Squee squee squee on and on.
It must have been circling, because it didn't stop for ages. Blooming thing.

Actually a few years ago they were very rare and only found in parts of Wales. Several were released into other parts of UK and Norfolk seemed to suit them admirably.

They're quite large and distinctive. But could they please shut up until maybe 7am? Bugger off Milvus milvus!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Jul 18 - 11:47 AM

There are fox/foxes in this part of eastern Massachusetts,
but it seems to me that
the coyotes get more attention.
It isn't that the coyotes are more numerous, so much.
It is that today's coyotes inhabit areas of North America
that they never before ventured into,
that is,
until our colonist ancestors began despoiling the land,
laying waste to the stands of forests,
and exterminating wolves, which last kept the coyotes at bay.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jul 18 - 07:39 AM

You were lucky Howard that the fox didn't slaughter the entire bunch of chickens. They often do that if they get into a hen-house, leaving a pile of feathers and several blood-soaked corpses. They only take one or two away to eat, but seem to enjoy killing the lot anyway!

And they stink!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Howard Jones
Date: 03 Jul 18 - 06:57 AM

If I were a rattlesnake-catcher then I'd wear the tallest boots I could find!

We're thankfully free from anything like that in the UK, but we did adopt a stray Californian King Snake which had escaped from a neighbour (who had since moved away) and survived several months in the wild before being found curled up on the roadside verge.

I'm not feeling very well-disposed towards foxes at the moment, after one killed one of our chickens the other night. We're also pretty sure it was that which attacked one of our cats.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jul 18 - 04:20 AM

Goodness Joe, a rattlesnake! And That Ramirez sounds like the American version of Crocodile Dundee!
Glad he doesn't kill the snakes. But (voice of doom) surely, where there's one, there are others? I see that he did a tour of possible hiding places, but I'd be extremely scared of stepping on another one.
Hope you're both safe!

We're getting an influx of those dear little damsel flies from all the lakes and rivers around our village. They have a gorgeous turquoise jewel-like body. They get in but can't get out again, and bash themselves against the ceiling and windows. Then they fall dead on the floor. We found several corpses behind the cane sofa in the conservatory. I try to capture them gently to take them outside (they don't bite or sting), but they're hard to grab, they dart so swiftly out of reach. Sad.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Jul 18 - 07:44 PM

We had a rattlesnake on our front porch last week. It was a hot day, and it just stayed in one place. Since we have a dog that likes to pick up rattlesnakes, we figured we'd better get rid of it. So, we called Ramirez Rattlesnake Removal. I met Len Ramirez in the supermarket a couple years ago, and he was very gracious about answering all my questions.

Len came 15 minutes after we called, and caught the snake in less than a minute with a long grabbing tool. He held the snake up and gave me time to take photos, and then dropped it in a bucket with two other snakes he'd caught on previous calls. Then he took us around the house to look for other snakes and to point out hiding places we should eliminate or at least be aware of.

Len is a great businessman. He's a good looking guy with tall leather boots and a white cowboy hat, and he's a great storyteller and very knowledgeable. He drives a flashy red truck that he must wash twice a day. He has been in business since 1985 and has never, ever killed a snake - he releases them all into safe areas. His visit was worth every penny of his $195 fee. I never thought having a rattlesnake would be such an entertaining experience.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Jul 18 - 07:08 PM

Bloody horseflies/tabanids/clegs. This wet spring then hot summer has been the worst time ever. They literally tear into your skin to get at your blood. I've been bitten hundreds of times and the little buggers ignore both deet and citronella. Luckily my bites itch like mad for an hour then I'm ok. Mrs Steve's bites last for days and she's reluctant to go outside. I've had at least two or three bad mozzie bites at a time for weeks. They take days to settle down. Asda sell little tubes of "bite and sting relief" cream for £1.50. It contains hydrocortisone, bad I know, but it gets you through the night!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Jul 18 - 03:19 PM

The Annual Insect Appearance has taken place in my rental apartment.

I keep one of those plug-in thingies for my apartment bathroom.
It supposedly works with the electrical wiring to set up a sonic area
that insects and vermin find repellent.
Spiders don't count -- there are always a few spiders around.

But I never see rodent varmints, at any rate.

And the only time I spy a six-legged critter
(mosquitoes don't count, they have other ways of sneaking around)
is about this time of year.
I only see one. It doesn't live very long once I spot it.

After these umpteen years,
I still don't rightly know
if what I squash under my shoe once a year in the elderly wall-to-wall carpet
is an ant or a termite.

You know, though, that when you spy one of those out and about,
it means ...

well, anyway. For some reason I only see one per year --
and the building is an old building.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Jul 18 - 03:31 AM

Oz has many interesting critters and varmints. These fellers for instance, are quite common in this area; the first year we moved here (2010) we saw a baby brown snake in the garden. Don't know where it went, but hopefully it's no longer around.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 09:03 PM

Alaska has no natural snakes. There are pets. One rather large constrictor got loose a year ago.


Another was literally a (sleepy) snake on a plane .

As far as an Alaska 'varmint'? indoor mice and voles which attack suburban homes in cold climes and potentially worse can invade shelter cabins where maybe some prospector of yore would leave a backup sack of beans. I don't think we regard porcupines as varmints, because although they can give a dog a horrible experience, they have also been used as dog food on the mush trail. And we don't have skunks for some reason.

The official state bird, by which I mean the mosquito, can be a major inconvenience, but it is not a surprise, and it is, despite the proud rumours, too small to be dealt with by buckshot, even very small buckshot.

There have been certain State legislators who might fill the bill, but then there's the problem of getting everyone to agree. There was one legislator and I actually saw this joke about him in the Sunday major newspaper a bunch of years ago: "You're in a locked room with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Jack Hamholtz (well known legislator). You've got a .44 with two bullets loaded. What do you do?






Answer:






"Shoot Jack twice, to be sure."

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 03:47 PM

Hippos kill around 3000 people each year in Africa.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 03:32 PM

Yes, there are tenuous mammal-connected relationships there.

I read that the peccary, or javelina,
not only has a distant connection to the pig group,
but is closer to boars,
and moreover is connected to the hippopotamus.

And the hippopotamus can be lethal -- don't get one angry,
especially in its favored element of water,
where the hippo is notorious for killing humans.

Oh dear ... I knew this would remind me of
"mud, mud, glo-ri-ous mud ..."

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 04:10 AM

Hahaha Jennie! It does doesn't it?

'Char-grilled javelina drenched in a spicy tabasco sauce, resting on a bed of buttered spinach, with a side-plate of tossed javelina trotters'

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 03:14 AM

I had never heard of a javelina, so had to look it up. Kinda looks like some sort of pig.

The name sounds as though it should be on a posh menu caressed with an exotic sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 18 - 06:56 PM

Back in Massachusetts,
the seals are holding forth on Cape Cod.
That means great white sharks.
This past week an entire beach was cleared for a day
because a great white shark was spotted.
Without incident, fortunately.