Hey, Jolly!

[brenda]

I set a trap line outside around most of the house. I've been catching varmints. 3 moles, 3 voles, 1 chippyhacky, and 1 red squirrel. Don't worry, I'll save them for ya.

Come on up nort', and you can fill up yer freezer for the winter. Might could make yourself some wild game meat pies 🥧.

[89th]

I require 1x more details on the trap line.

[brenda]

@89th
Believe it or not, Victor rat traps. Skippy peanut butter is the bait. Baited trap is placed at the entrance hole on the ground, and an empty plant pot is put upside down to cover the hole and trap. I put a stone on top of the pot to keep our fledgling birds safely away from the trap.

Hubby thinks I'm a bit nuts to have so many traps out (20), but I want to get this done as quickly as possible to minimize the damage to the plants. We have a large yard with lots of planting beds around the house. I have done most of the work to create these, and I hate to have the varmints ruin it.

The dry season we've had has probably been a big reason for the invasion of multiple types of critters. We have a watering system on timers, and the critters have chewed holes in the water tubing. It's a pain in the neck to replace the ruined sections, and an expense.

Actually, hubby doesn't mind having the added traps, because the wife is doing the work and getting some results in just a couple days. If I can catch even a couple more per day, it will start to make a difference in a short while.

Our next door neighbor is impressed! He's battling rabbits as well as other critters, even a groundhog. He has noticed several have died on his property from lead poisoning, and he swears he has no idea how the critters are getting so much lead lately.

[Jolly]

What's a chippyhacky?

[Doctor Phibes]

I didn't know they had red squirrels in the US. They used to be abundant in the UK, but they've been driven out by American greys. Cultural appropriation, or something. I'm guessing the American red is a different variety or it wouldn't survive.

We're inundated with rabbits this year. I came back from vacation, and apparently mowed right over a rabbit nest in our back lawn, which amazingly was undamaged. I don't really have the heart to do anything to them, but the dog is very interested.

[Mik]

That's interesting. I have some moles in my front yard that need evicted.

[brenda]

@Jolly
A chipmunk or thirteen striper.

Jolly, you are so lucky to have me here to share these gems of information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Timmy_Tiptoes
Chippy Hackee is a chippyhacky. A variety of spellings are acceptable.

[brenda]

@Doctor-Phibes The reds here are taking over. Our reds here are very aggressive and destructive. There's also some cross breeding going on here. We have some interesting new versions the size of a gray, but the distinctive coloring of the reds.

[89th]

Thanks @brenda ! Yes we have plenty of reds here too. Our local rabbits are the culprits for our yard... About half our hostas are chewed up. I spray them from time to time with anti-deer/rabbit stuff, but they don't always survive. Also lost one of our 3 black-eyed susan plants to them. I have a rabbit trap out at times, the kids enjoy it when we catch one. We've also caught a squirrel... they are not happy.

[brenda]

@Mik
I've tried various things over the years when we've had moles, and this simple thing works better than anything else. The metal vertical traps never worked. The poison was eaten by gray squirrels, and they would lay in the yard shrieking and slowly, very slowly, die. (Geez oh Pete, that was awful in every way.)

This year, I needed to trap voles, and learned of this relatively simple, and quite inexpensive, technique. It works for more than the voles, and that makes it even better.

The traps are cheap, the bait is non-toxic, and I can isolate the trap at the entry hole using the overturned pot with a stone on top. Sometimes the more basic tool is the right one, good ol' rat traps. You could say they're a .... SNAP!

[Mik]

Great idea. There usually are not too many. One or two can make a mess of your yard.

[Doctor Phibes]

@89th said in Hey, Jolly!:

I have a rabbit trap out at times, the kids enjoy it when we catch one.

One of these?

I can see why the kids would find them such fun.

[Jolly]

We don't have chipmunks here. They do have them on the east side of the Mississippi in the Florida Parishes.

Rabbits? Live traps, I'm guessing. Down here, we won't eat them right now, as a lot of them may have wolves.

[Doctor Phibes]

Chipmunks are little bastards. They get into everything. We had one make a nest in the basement fiberglass insulation in our last house. What a mess, although the way the guy who bought the place behaved I kind of wish we'd left it there.

[brenda]

@Doctor-Phibes
Agreed! They are a hard thing to catch, too. Hubby is so pleased his wife does this work. LOL

[brenda]

@Jolly
Whoa, Jolly. Those must be some badazz rabbits if they have their own wolves.

[brenda]

@89th No, I don't suppose the squirrel would be happy. LOL

Hey, I caught another mole!

The neighbor and I are joking that we need little stickers of the various critters to show how many kills of each kind. He might put his on his riding lawn mower. I haven't decided where to put mine yet.

The neighbor shot a second or third woodchuck, which went over to the other neighbor's garage to die. It's warm weather here, and very humid. Since the woodchuck came from the other neighbor's garage, it seems fitting it returned there to die and get stinky.

Is that critter-karma?