Goat Day #5: I call the big one Bitey
12So, I was trimming some long grass against my fence earlier today, and I remembered I had a trap set up to catch some problem pests. I’ve deployed this trap a few times before to catch rabbits that invaded my yard, and had no issues.
Not that it’s super uncommon to see them, but I was surprised when I saw a possum in my cage. This thing was not very happy. He was very aggressive hissing and biting anything that came close to the cage.
I was able to release him nearby, but not too close that he’d come back. Looks like it’s missing some teeth, and there is a few bloody face patches (maybe from trying to escape). Animal control won’t pick them up unless they are sick.
One other time I saw snakes getting it on in my inlaws basement, near the toilet. They also tried to bite me when I captured them to relocate them.
Do you have any unwanted pest/intruder stories?
/giphy I call the big one bitey
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No stories from me.
Although one time one of my next door neighbors was away, and while they were gone, a deer went through their glass door, ran around a bit, and died in the main hallway, but not before spreading its blood.
Police ended up there, and one of them took the carcass for themselves, but not before offering it to one or two people.
@PlacidPenguin That’s so sad!
@mehbee
Blood was cleaned up before neighbors came back. Naturally they got a new door.
There are pictures somewhere. I just have to find them.
@PlacidPenguin I would have taken the deer! After making all that mess I’d accept some venison as penance.
@PlacidPenguin LOL I’ll pass on the pics. I’m glad someone cleaned that up before they got home.
https://meh.com/forum/topics/gooooooooat-july-2018-blame-thread#5b5a957c001591008a816d3c
Last year I thought Mr. Whiskers needed a playmate and I adopted a cat from FaceBook from a girl who was moving to Boston. She failed to inform me that it was basically a feral stray and was not socialized at all. Poor Mr. W was terrorized and quit eating. He used to wake me up meowing when she would raid his food bowl. Bitch.
He had the upstairs but she would come up to raid (even though she had full food bowls)
I ended up having to use a trap cage to get that damn beast out of my house since she wouldn’t tolerate being picked up or anything. I was very sad, but I had to take her to the county pound.
I offered to ship her to Boston but her prior owner declined. Bitch.
@therealjrn Poor Mr. Whiskers.
@therealjrn Explain to me how you made that sad and hilarious at the same time. Poor kitty.
TL;DR: Rats. Two different occasions.
The first time was when I owned my horse. The barn I was at was being developed around. The land behind it was cleared for housing. We got a huge surge of rats. Rats love horse feed. Even though I kept all my horse’s food in plastic containers, they moved into the room where I kept all my stuff. I didn’t see them at first, just the whole place smelled disgusting. I bought one of these rat traps:
I spent the next few weeks throwing away dead rats. It killed all but one. The rat was gigantic. The body alone was probably 12" or more. It broke it’s back so I had to finish the job. My tack room still stunk. I had to rip off the plywood wall covering. Rats had made a nest inside the wall out of hay and plastic bags. It was gross.
The second time was when my neighbors moved out. The side door to my garage had a gap. Within a few days of the neighbors starting to pack I noticed the same gross rat stench. I still had my rat trap from way back when. I spent the next few weeks catching a few rats. I complained to my landlord and he replaced the door. No more rats in my garage.
When I lived in Manayunk I came to suspect we had mice. One day I opened a lower cabinet to get at my big bag of tortilla chips when I saw a lot of little plastic chips lying near the bag. Aha! I thought, and picked up the bag by the twisted-over top to look it over and see if there were any holes in the bag. There were no holes in the bag, but there WAS a mouse in the twisted-over top in my hand, staring at me intently.
I ran to the front door and threw the bag across the street towards the next-door neighbors’ cats, who were sunning themselves on their stoop.
The cats gazed in mild interest as the bag landed on the curb, while the mouse bounced out of the bag, dropped in the gutter, and scuttled around back PAST my house, jumped up to the stairs to the door of the other next-door neighbor’s house, jumped directly against their front doors twice, then dropped into the casement window to their basement and vanished.
@aetris Those Manayunk mice are tough!
@aetris @therealjrn Most of the people here are reading this and saying, “Mana-what?”
@cinoclav - They say you can take the man out of Manayunk, but you can’t take the yunk out of the man!
@aetris Now to really screw them up, let’s talk about how Manayunk is on the Schuylkill.
@cinoclav - Actually, the Schuylkill IS Manayunk!!
Skunks. Under the front porch. They return despite our best efforts. We think we seal off the entry, yet they find a way. Refuse to be tricked into any traps that are set. Seemingly laugh in the face of the electronic/ultrasonic repellers we put out. Hate them. They stink.
@pitamuffin Skunks stink. My dad was a road-warrior salesman. He accidentally hit a whole family of skunks crossing the road out in Nevada. Boy did that car stink! He sent it out somewhere to get it all cleaned up and deodorized.
@pitamuffin I’ve read that if you spray areas where the skunks live or transit with ammonia, it will drive them away. Keep it up periodically to keep them away. But thats just what I’ve read. There are skunks around here but we’ve not run into their hidey-holes.
A couple years ago I was visiting my mom. She has rural farm in central TN. It’s surrounded by hundreds of acres of wooded area which is loaded with wildlife.
One morning Mom asked me to run the fences for her (ride her ATV around the perimeter of the property, inspecting for cuts and breaks in the fence). About a mile and a half from the house I encountered a rafter of wild turkeys. About 10 or so. A hunter’s dream probably. Since I live in the desert, this was a new experience for me. Look at the pretty birdies!
I fumbled for my phone to grab some pics, but before I could get it out of my pocket, they started aggressively gobbling in my direction, flappy wings, ducking heads and they were rapidly heading my way. Hmm… pretty birdies got attitude? Maybe I should try my photo op from a slightly greater distance? A flurry of feathers and they were on me before I could get the motor restarted!
Thankfully I was wearing a jacket and helmet! I gathered my wits, restarted the ATV and hightailed it outta there, turkeys in tow. Those demon beasts chased me for about a half mile before the trail smoothed out enough for me to speed away.
When I got back to the house, my mom smiled and asked “Did the turkeys find ya?”.
She KNEW! She knew they were there! Cripes, Mom! Warn a guy or something, huh? Who knew wild turkeys would peck your eyes out just as soon as look at you?
It’s pretty humorous now, but at the time I was peeved for a couple hours.
@ruouttaurmind
I’ve had that issue where I live, which is not at all like TN.
@PlacidPenguin Chased by wild turkeys?
@ruouttaurmind
Yeah.
@ruouttaurmind Yep. I’ve had problems with Wild Turkey too.
@therealjrn @PlacidPenguin I had no idea turkeys were so aggressive before my encounter. Like swans and geese I suppose, but didn’t think about that until they attacked. Now I have a healthy respect.
@ruouttaurmind @therealjrn
By me it depends on the time of year.
@ruouttaurmind the turkey that we encountered sounded like a snake with it’s wings out and trying to scare us away.
@Kidsandliz @ruouttaurmind
I’ve seen turkeys try to attack, first, a moving suburban, and, then, a moving F350. On a street in an area of newly paved city streets… No development yet.
Big birds, small brains.
@ruouttaurmind I did not know that a group of wild turkeys was a “rafter”. Meh is always educating me.
@Mothersnakes I only knew this because my step dad. He was a hardcore TN hillbilly and knew all the lingo for stuff like this. He got quite a chuckle over “the turkey incident”
Places I have lived:
I mind the wildlife less when it lives in the yard (eg not in my house) than when it decided it wants to live inside my house.
Opossums are great to have-- They make a bunch of noise as a defense mechanism, but are usually good to have around. Because of their meticulous grooming habits, They end up eating thousands of ticks each year. They’re like a tick magnet.
@caffeineguy
/image Dem teeth though
Every year we are over run by chipmunks. Last year we relocated 32. This year we are up to 45. It gets tiresome setting the trap and driving them to the park to release.
Where did you release that possum? One just walked by me as I was sitting outside watching lightning. I made some noise to let it know I was there, but the possum was like, “whatever, dude,” and went on its way without even acknowledging me.
I’ve seen chipmunks, deer, raccoons, skunks, feral cats, outdoor cats, a hawk (chilling in the bushes) and a turkey, but never a possum.
/image opossum possum
Since reading an article a few years back, I’ve changed my opinion on opossums. They are really beneficial to their ecosystem and if you have a garden, they rid it of some unwanted pests. They don’t dig (they can’t) and they eat slugs, snails and ticks. Outside of that, they just scavenge what’s laying around.
Also, they’re not prone to rabies, so that’s a plus.
Raccoons though – those little bastards tear garbage from my trashcan at least once a week. Ugghhh, it makes such a fucking mess.