Raccoon in Crawlspace

May 19, 2014 admin Leave a comment

There is a raccoon in the crawlspace under my living room floor. It must have access to it by crawling down under my deck, but I definitely do not want to go under there and inspect it myself. That’s just not something I would ever do, crawl around on my stomach in some dirty, dark, spider-infested area where I know there’s at least one raccoon, just so I can see if a raccoon has torn a hole into the crawl space under my living room.

I moved in about a month ago, and my neighbor says that raccoon, or a family of raccoons, has been there for as long as she can remember. It’s probably not the same one, but a descendant of whichever was the first raccoon to get into the crawlspace. Whatever. I’m not interested so much in its genealogy. I just want it gone. I want the hole patched up. And, I don’t want it coming back.

The problem is, I haven’t been able to get anyone to come out to my house to get rid of the raccoon in my crawlspace. I called the police, and, while the female cop who answered the phone was polite enough, I got the feeling they got these kinds of calls all the time and were kind of annoyed. There is nothing they can do about a raccoon in the crawlspace, and we don’t have any kind of wild animal service in the area. I even called pest control, but they told me they only take care of bugs or rodents, nothing big like raccoons. So, they’ll come out and treat my house if the raccoon infests my house with mites or lice, or if mice or rats come in through the same hole the raccoon made, but they won’t get rid of the raccoon itself.

Obviously, the previous owner of the house gave up trying to get rid of the raccoon from the crawlspace. I’ve set out traps, but I’ve only succeeded in trapping another neighbor’s cat. That was an awkward conversation.

But, I refuse to give up. Because I can’t stand the idea of a raccoon in the crawlspace, causing damage to my house and attracting more bugs or what not to the space under my living room. No, I’m not going to become a trapper myself. Fortunately, I heard about this national service. They have a network of trappers, and they can send someone out to my house to get rid of the raccoon from the crawlspace, clean the area up, and repair any damage the raccoon caused. Thank goodness there are some people in the world who are willing to brave the dark, spider infested areas under the deck and get rid of raccoons, because I’m certainly not going to do it. I just need that raccoon in the crawlspace gone.

Voles

Idaho Vole Problem

May 12, 2014 admin Leave a comment

We moved into a new construction early last fall, and now the spring is here, we are ready to do some landscaping. We can’t start, though, until we take care of the vole problem here in Idaho.

I’m well aware that the neighborhood we moved into is brand new, and used to be farm land, so we probably moved right into an area where voles already lived. I can’t imagine that an Idaho farmer would just let voles run rampant over the fields, so these fields must have just been sitting here, unfarmed, waiting to be sold, and the voles moved in. All the construction activity disturbed whatever nests they had, and they’re probably just running around, trying to find new safe areas to live. My yard will not be

one of those safe areas, because I refuse to have an Idaho vole problem.

We moved in early enough last fall that we had time to get the lawn seeded. I wanted to make sure we got a lawn in, that the grass would have time to get some good root system down before the snow started. Plus, I knew if we didn’t get the lawn in, we would be stuck with weeds when the spring came, and we wanted to make sure we could choke out most of the weeds before they became a real problem. So, we got the grass in, even though we had to finance that in with our mortgage.

When the snows melted, I was really upset to see that we had a vole problem here in Idaho. Our beautiful new lawn had long dead spots crossing all over it, and we found a couple of dead voles over by our basement windows. They had chewed holes in the mesh covering the windows. All that work that I’d put into getting a lawn in was nearly wasted. Dead voles, or live Idaho voles, for that matter, will just attract other animals, like raccoons or skunks. Plus, it is going to cost me a lot to get it fixed. But I’m going to get it fixed and get rid of those voles.

I don’t want to drop a lot of money on young trees and bushes and flowers if we have an Idaho vole problem. We need to get rid of the voles first, and repair the damage to the lawn before I’ll put in new landscaping. They’d just destroy the young roots of any plants we put in. It’s not like we have a lot of money to spare, but what we have, I’d rather use getting rid of the Idaho vole problem before we spend a penny on anything the voles would destroy.

Pigeons

Pigeons in Church

May 5, 2014 admin Leave a comment

The pigeon in the church saved the funeral services. We were tired of sitting, the pews were hard, the air was stifling, even the best-intentioned of us were visibly fighting off a case of the drowsies. My friend’s wife, Sarah, had died, and she would have hated her own funeral. Her youngest child, an honest boy of eleven years old, leaned over to his dad and said, “Mom’s probably laughing at us right now.” He was right. She had the kind of sunny personality that laughed at etiquette, and was likely mocking her family and friends struggling to remain attentive throughout the droning sermons at her funeral.

Why on earth do people who speak at a funeral feel the need to repeat the same consoling phrases and stories time after time? It’s as if they think the longer they talk, the more homage they’re paying to our loved one. My friend’s wife would have preferred a few hilarious stories about her, a great song or two, and a fabulous party with her coffin in the center of the room. Maybe she got so tired of what was happening that she sent that pigeon into the church.

In the middle of a diatribe of how “the passing of a loved one is more sad for those of us who remain on earth than it is for our loved ones,” a pigeon dislodged itself from a hiding place somewhere up in the church roof and dive-bombed the podium. The speaker squeaked and his notes scattered. The pigeon in the church was soon joined by a few more, who flew over our heads, close enough we could feel the breeze from their filthy wings. A pigeon dropped a little “bomb” of its own right on the shoulder of a young woman who was a distant relative of the dearly departed. She had chosen to wear the most revealing, slinkiest little dress I’d ever seen at a funeral, but now it had a white splotch oozing down the shoulder and onto the front.

No one was snoozing now, no one was crying now. There was chaos. Some children tried to catch the pigeons in the church. Fathers waved the birds off and some women tried in vain to maintain some kind of composure and dignity throughout it all. We were all reminded of how the woman in the casket would have loved the disruption, her full infectious laugh would have rung out loudly. The speaker was flustered, the pastor was embarrassed to have pigeons in the church, but most of us were grateful the proceedings were cut short and we could move on to enjoying each other’s company, consoling each other’s grief, and remembering how wonderful Sarah was.

Skunks

Skunk Smell

April 28, 2014 admin Leave a comment

It happened suddenly, before I even realized a skunk had sprayed my daughter. One moment I was helping my son with his bike, and the next my little girl is gagging and coughing and trying to scream.

The day had not started out well. Both children had missed the bus, apparently because I failed to yell “Hurry Up” enough times. It never fails to surprise me how slowly my children can do normal, every-day things, like put a shirt on or eat cereal or brush their teeth. So, the bus came and went, and my children were not on it. That meant that I had to search for my purse and keys while tugging on a bra and tennis shoes at the same time so I could drive them. Driving them was the only way to get them to school safely and on time, although I would have loved to have just made them stay home, do homework and stay in bed all day long after the morning they gave me.

Nevertheless, I got them to the proper place at the proper time so they do the requisite learning activities and I could have the next several hours to prepare for my afternoon meeting. That meetig did not go well, unfortunately, and I didn’t get the bid, despite all the hours of work I’d put into my presentation.

I barely got home in time for the kids to get off the bus, and we headed straight into whining homework time. I powered through, helping them with their homework, cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry and getting dinner ready all at the same time.

I realized it was too quiet at the dinner table. I’d spent all the time I had with my children that day yelling at them to hurry up or do something or focus on their work, and they were just as tired as I was. It was time to do something fun.

We pulled out the bikes and rode around the neighborhood. It was a lovely, early spring day, one of those rare warm ones, and the evening was turning out to be beautiful. We laughed and raced and spent some wonderful quality time.

Then my son’s bike broke. Then, my daughter chased down a skunk and the skunk sprayed her. I had no idea what to do. I wanted to grab her and hold her and console her, but we couldn’t stop coughing and gagging on that nasty skunk smell. I somehow managed to calm her down, get us and the bikes back home, stripped her down in the garage and threw away the clothes, and got her in the tub while I searched for how to remove skunk smell. After many hours, lot of my daughter’s tears and some tears on my part, we managed to get rid of the skunk smell, mostly. Compared to today, tomorrow can only be better.

Snakes

Snake In School

April 21, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Cherie hated the boredom and pettiness of junior high, she hated life at home as her parents prepared for a divorce, she hated the boys who made fun of her (it was junior high, after all), and she hated her brother for just being her brother. She loved to do one thing, and one thing only, and that was to practice cello in the quiet little music rehearsal rooms at school.

Those music rooms were solace. They were silent, no one else could hear her or judge her. And, instead of worrying about how she looked or what she was doing, she could just lose herself in the deep soothing tones of the cello.

She was good, too. She’d started learning how to play the cello when she was five, and worked hard at it. By the time she was in fifth grade, she was entering competitions and doing well. Cherie knew that some of the kids at school mocked her for being an orchestra geek, and one who played a huge stringed instrument that she lugged back and forth between home and school. But, she couldn’t bear to even consider giving it up to avoid negative attention. It was too wonderful, and some day, school would be behind her, the mean kids would have either gotten nicer with age or lived out their lives in pettiness, and she would always have the cello.

So, she played, and closed her eyes and enjoyed making such wonderful sounds. As she finished the last piece of music, she opened her eyes. In the middle of the music room, in front of her chair, a small snake lay stretched out. There was a snake in the music room.

What was worse was the boy who was next in line to use the music room was peering in teh tiny rectangular hole, with his eyes as wide as they could go. Cherie could tell he was terrified there was a snake in the music room. Slowly, his eyes moved and met hers solemnly, wondering what he was going to do.

Slowly, she slipped out from behind the cello, and crept toward the snake. She could tell it was just a harmless garden snake, they’d seen plenty of those at her grandparent’s farm, and she bent down and scooped it up. She glanced back up at the boy in the window and couldn’t help but smile at his soundless cries. The room was, after all, sound proof. He ran off as she packed up her stuff one-handed, the other hand tightly gripping the squirming snake. By the time she left the music room, a whole group of junior high boys were standing at the end of the hall, watching how she handled this snake in the music room. She calmly walked past them and headed to the office, aware they were trailing after her, whispering. She walked into the office, startling the secretary at the desk, let her know she’d found a snake in the music room, and went outside, dropping the snake in the bushes. She turned around, cheeks burning, ready for the boys to mock her. They stared at her, and then one of them whooped, punching his fist in the air. They all cheered and clapped and called her name. She wasn’t at all like the other girls, and they were impressed.

Porcupines

Porcupine Problem

April 14, 2014 admin Leave a comment

My grandpa tells the best stories, and I’ve loved listening to him ever since I was tiny. I thought I’d heard them all, but I overheard him telling my four year-old daughter a story about a porcupine problem the other day. She’d learned about porcupines in preschool and I’d shown her videos online, but I’m sure she’ll always remember my grandfather telling her all about the porcupine problem.

My grandfather’s a good ol’ boy from Georgia. He ends most sentences with “Dontcha Know” or “Dontcha See.” He says it as if it’s all one word, and sometimes says both of them one right after the other. It’s frustrating to some, annoying to others, but it’s endearing to me.

“Oh, why we had a problem with a porcupine once when I was a little ‘un, Dontcha Know Dontcha See.” My daughter was tucked up on his knee, listening with sparkling eyes, just as I used to when I was a child. “It just come right outta the woods n’ wandered all over the place, mostly at night, and every once in a while, we’d see it shufflin’ around out there, Dontcha See. I threw a few rocks at it, hopin’ to scare it off, but it never did pay me no mind, it just always come back, Dontcha Know.”

I smiled, thrilled to be hearing a new story.

“Well, this porcupine, he chewed a hole right into Daddy’s work shed, clean through the wood walls, Dontcha See. And, I take it that’s where it lived for a while, especially since my Daddy didn’t do a whole lotta work out in that shed during the cold months, as it didn’t have no heat in there, Dontcha See. But, that porcupine didn’t pay no heed to heat or no, it just up and moved right on in and started chewing on my Daddy’s tools, Dontcha Know. Well, my brother and I, we never did think about telling Daddy about the porcupine problem, we just liked to watch it when we could and we thought it was something fun, knowing we had a porcupine in the shed, Dontcha See. So, spring come, and Mommy had some project or other for my Daddy to do, and out he goes to the shed, fixin’ to get the job done, Dontcha Know. ‘Fore we know it, he comes a hollerin’ outta that shed, mad as heck, yellin’ for us boys to come on out, Dontcha Know. We ran out, fast as we could, and he started hollerin’ as how we oughtn’t to touch his tools and break the handles off, and didn’t we know it’d cost good money to replace all the wood that we’d broken, Dontcha See. Well, he didn’t calm down for a long time, but once he did, we convinced him as how we had a porcupine problem and that porcupine done chewed up all the wood handles on his favorite tools, Dontcha See. It took some quick explainin’ but he finally saw as how we was probably right, we had a porcupine problem, and we didn’t get skinned that day for getting’ into his tools, since it was the porcupine, Dontcha Know.”

Admittedly, a story about a porcupine problem wasn’t his best story ever, but it was the last one he got to tell my daughter before he passed, and I’ll always cherish it. Dontcha Know.

Rats

Rats In House

April 7, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Oh, no, this will not do, we will have no more rats in the house, uh uh, no way. I don’t know how the dirty damn things got in my house, or why they chose us. I run a clean home. We don’t live in a museum or anything, that’s not what I’m saying. We live in a cute little clean home, though, and I refuse to let rats in the house destroy it.
But, we are losing this battle, and I am ready to drop kick the little suckers into next year if I have to.
I first noticed we might have a rat in the house when I went through the Christmas decorations that I keep in the downstairs office. There were holes chewed right through the cardboard boxes, and little rat turds sprinkled in the tinsel and garlands. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d up and had babies right there in and amongst the nativity scenes and tree ornaments. At least there wasn’t anything dead in there, but just knowing they had made free with my decorations was enough to give me the shivers.
I made everyone tear through the house, looking for little rat holes or rat droppings. My niece found half an eaten potato in the pantry. Oh, no, we not only have rats in the house but they’re in the kitchen, too?! It was on, I was at war.
We put out traps, sealed up all the food, cleaned up all the rat turds. It obviously wasn’t enough. The rats in the house chewed through the water line to the refrigerator next. Oh, yes, they did, chewed enough holes in it that water soaked up underneath the floor boards and ran down the wall into a closet downstairs. Water damage on two floors, all because some furry little rodent can’t keep clear of my house and keep its teeth off pipes.
We caught two rats with the kind of rat traps you get at the hardware store, and I thought, phew, we don’t have anymore rats in the house. But, it turns out I was wrong, because the next thing you know, we found out that a rat had made its way into a guest bedroom, chewed a hole into the closet where we keep all our extra winter clothes, and made a rat nest and had babies inside a spare skiing jacket. It chewed its way clean through the jacket lining and used the inside fluff to make a nest for disgusting rat babies.
This will not do. I cannot have rats in my house. We are a clean family and I expect our home to be free of rats, so you gotta send someone out here ASAP to trap the rats, kill the rats, whatever you gotta do to get them out of my house.

Voles

Vole Problem

March 31, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Book club this morning was a huge disaster, thanks to the vole problem I have. We started book club on the first of January, which seemed like a really great idea to all of us. We chose the books we want to read for the year, and decided who will be hosting which months. It all seemed to work perfectly, and I’m getting to know some of my neighbors and their friends better than I would have otherwise. It’s March, and my turn to host. I made sure to read the book early, I prepared discussion questions in case there was a lapse in conversation, I got my house all clean and made sure we had enough seating for everyone and things for the kids to do, and I even made refreshments that were mentioned in the book.

But, the snow has melted, and it looks like my yard is covered in ugly cracks, just small ditches criss-crossing all over the lawn. I worked really hard getting the yard nice last year, so I was looking forward to spring and watching the grass and landscaping turn green and lush. With the strawberry bushes I’d worked on for a couple of years, I literally was hoping to reap the fruits of my labors.

And, then, the snow melted enough to show me all the damage caused by the vole problem. Just in time for book club.

As people arrived, I made the mistake of apologizing for the state of my lawn, which brought more attention to it. Before too long, we were all just talking about different lawn care programs and pests, and I found out I wasn’t the only one in the area with a vole problem. The voles were destroying the looks of lots of lawns, but killing grass roots along their little trails. Bulbs weren’t growing into flowers, because something had eaten them during the winter. And, my strawberry bushes were a mess. Other people had planted young trees last year that were struggling now, because voles had chewed on tender roots.

It was all very helpful, especially to know I wasn’t the only one with a vole problem. I even got the contact information for a great company that gets rid of voles. So, I won’t have to waste the nice Spring days by battling voles instead of planting flowers and putting in new landscaping. Even still, we barely got to talk about the book. We didn’t even touch the discussion questions I’d worked so hard to prepare, and people ate the refreshments without even noticing how they related to the themes in the book.

I guess it wasn’t a “huge disaster,” really, if you think about it. We got together, we had fun and laughed about things, and we helped each other out with the vole problem. But, I don’t think I’m going to be hosting book club for a while, and I’m really okay with that.

Bats

Bats in Weber County Utah

March 24, 2014 admin 1 Comment

It’s no surprise to Weber County, Utah residents that bats live in the area. They are often to be seen in the night sky, flitting around silently, changing directions quickly as they chase after their meals. Bats in Weber County do their best to keep the mosquito population down as well as preying on all different kinds of bugs, flying or not. They’ve even been known to carry off crickets, centipedes and other large bugs. At most recent counts, Utah has eighteen species of bats, and Weber County bats do their best to keep the county from being overrun with bugs.

Usually bats will roost in places such as caves, mines, rotting logs, but often bats discover warmer, more convenient places in which to roost or even nest. Breeding season is coming up, for most bat species, and that’s the spring. They’ll happily roost or breed in attics, chimneys, abandoned buildings, inside building walls, behind shutters, under eaves, and anywhere else that provides a relatively protected environment close to food sources. You may not even know you have a bat or a colony of bats living inside your home or apartment until one makes its way inside your living room or bedroom or kitchen.

Do Weber County bats carry rabies? Usually, no, but the chances are high enough that you absolutely should NEVER touch a bat. If it bites a person or animal, seek medical attention immediately. Keep your animals up to date on their rabies shots. People who handle bats may not even realize the bat’s tiny claws have scratched them, so always seek medical attention if you have come into contact with a bat. And, if you come across an active bat during the day time, it may be sick or diseased. Keep children and pets away from it.

Discovering a bat or a colony of bats in your house or other buildings will come as a shock. You may have a very clean house with a well-kept yard, and yet still have a bat problem. The safest course of action is to contact us to send a professional to your home to remove the bat or bats. Trying to remove a bat yourself may result in being scratched or bitten by it as it will be terrified and try to get away or defend itself. Bats are protected under the law, as well, especially a nesting colony of bats, and our professionals know exactly how to handle the situation legally and safely. A professional will also be able to safely clean the bat droppings from your building and even install materials to prevent bats from returning to your building.

It’s fun and interesting to watch Weber County bats flying around at night, but make sure it’s at a distance. Up close and personal bat encounters can result in a trip to the emergency room. And, if you discover one or more bats in your building, contact us to remove the bats and keep you and yours safe.

Rats

Dead Rat In Wall

March 17, 2014 admin Leave a comment

My apartment smells like sewage, and the maintenance guys for the apartment complex told me it’s probably a dead rat in the wall. We’ve been having a rat problem outside in our area, which is bad enough, but when the rats get inside the building and then die in the walls, it’s awful.

When I was in high school, a rat died in the wall of my Mom’s house. It smelled like urine and decay and it was just awful. It had died inside one of the walls of the downstairs bathroom, and we had to have someone come in and tear up the walls of the bathroom until they found the dead rat and removed it. So, I know what you’re supposed to do if you have a dead rat inside the wall.

But, the maintenance guys for my apartment complex figured they’d just do something else, something simple. They came in and re-caulked the top and bottom of the walls and then left, saying I’d have to just deal with the smell until the rat had decayed enough that it stopped smelling. Uh, yeah, great idea. Or not. Who wants to live with an apartment that smells like sewage and dead rat?? I would think they’d have to check the pipes to see if somehow rats have damaged them, and then go inside the wall to remove the dead rat. Because, a decomposing rat means that, not only are there nasty smells, but probably lots and lots of bugs, too.

I had a party planned for this weekend, but I’m going to have to cancel it or maybe convince one of my friends to have it at their place. I can’t even stand to hang out in my front room, which is where the smell is worst, so how can I expect my friends to come over and sit around in that room?

The smell is so bad in that front room that I don’t even relax in there anymore. I walk inside, holding my breath, go straight to the kitchen to drop my stuff off and get dinner, and then go straight to my bedroom, where I work on the computer and watch TV until it’s time to sleep. I’m furious the maintenance people won’t do anything about the dead rat in my wall, other than just add a little caulk to “seal out the smell.” But, I called the property manager, and convinced him to reduce my rent for next month by what it would cost me to get the dead rat removed out of the wall. That doesn’t help me if there’s a problem with the pipes, but at least it gets the dead rat out of the wall. One step at a time, I guess.

Trapper Tails