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We had flying squirrels and tons of spiders when we moved in (place had been unoccupied for a while, though they had a cleaner show up once a week or so). I didn’t even know flying squirrels lived around here. Exterminators put in 1-way doors where the squirrels had been getting in, which worked. I like that it could be resolved without killing. Spiders were a combo of vacuum and exterminator and they’ve been fine since. Ants once a year, but Home Defense spray around entrances does a pretty good job of keeping them out. Mice. There are few animals I hate, but mice are on that list. Every year, they get into the attic space above my bed. Nobody can figure how they’re getting in even though you can hear which external wall cavity they use. Even caulking up the entire seam behind the shingles didn’t stop them from coming back. Middle of the night, their scratching wakes me and I feel like I’m in some ancient tomb and they’re going to fall through the ceiling on me like an Indiana Jones movie. Anyway, I tried a bunch of traps, and the Dizzy Dunker bucket trap is the best. It’s like a paddle wheel version of a rolling log with a funnel that directs them in such a way that they don’t get spooked and withdraw when they start to step on the flaps. It resets itself, bait lasts quite a while, and it can be live or kill. I set it up outside where they seem to get in when the weather starts to turn colder. I’ve gotten over 50 of them. Left it for a week once and found 11 floating in there with different rates of decomp. I imagine it was like the Hell of the Upside Down Sinners for the last few of them. I almost felt bad, but the foul things are necrophiliacs and they invaded my favorite car. The bodies disappear within hours of dumping in the woods, feeding skunks, opossums, raccoons, hawks, owls, coyotes, and great blue herons (That last one is a maybe. I’ve seen them hunt chipmunks and they’re one of the few around during the day to eat the dead ones.).
I actually felt bad about killing some yellow jackets of all things. One of the AC units’ pipe seals had deteriorated, leaving an access hole they used to make a nest in the wall of the garage where you could hear them chewing away at the wood, plus they’re near the patio and grille. I got a bee suit and some pro-grade insecticide dust to puff into the hole. There was a constant 3-4 coming and going at a time and they were never aggressive to me at all. No activity when I checked a few hours later. Being so chill, if they weren’t where they were and causing damage, I’d have left them alone.
My current house that we are selling soon gets so many nice during the winter. If they didn’t piss and shit everywhere I wouldn’t really mind them, but they make such disgusting messes everywhere they get to. Our old cat was a big help until she died a few years ago. We have since adopted two more cats and they have zero kills between them.
I dealt with the mosquitos and June bugs that used to swarm the yard at night with the best bug killer you can get- bats. It took a few years to get established, but we have a decent colony of little brown bats that live in a bat box I put on the garage. I hope whoever buys this house doesn’t try to get rid of them.
I believe you inadvertently recreated the medieval practice of putting the heads of one’s adversaries on pikes outside the gates. To paraphrase a film character, “THIS is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!!”
I AM an Autopian member, but I can never read these. Advice?
FIVE?! oof.
Do they get some awesome bunk beds?
I was really expecting it to be Adam Ants at Adrian’s place.
Bats, Pipistrelle Bats, Horseshoe Bats and maybe others, they form maternity roosts from June to about now. Just females and babies. In the odd spaces between the roofs, I can no longer hear them, my ears are old now, but they rustle audibly sometimes. There are lots of spiders, but it is September, the meesses are polite, they are outdoor mice, thankfully the infestation of grandchildren was short lived. they have better things to do, none of which involve bats, or spiders, or mices.