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My Gullible Neighbors

No jackalopes here but we sure have rabbits and deer and between the two species they pretty much eat everything in the landscape. We are lucky to get anything out of our garden. Almost forgot the dadgum tree rats. The squirrels wait until the tomatoes are ripe before they pick them. Then they hop along the split rail cedar fence in the back yard all the way to the deck behind the kitchen. So while we are sitting at the kitchen table eating they are sitting on a deck rail chomping on one of our tomatoes. My wife is not a woman who frequently cusses but when she sees a tree rat eating her tomatoes she turns the air blue. (I didn't even know she was in the Navy.)

As far as the flat tires do well the deer here don't cross at the designated deer crossing signs so they end up splattered on the front end of cars. Last year there were 17,000 deer car accidents.

And don't get me started about our mosquitoes....when they aren't killing the murder hornets they are sexually harassing the Canada geese.
 

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Tree rats...... Their cuteness wore off a long time ago. They shred all the pine cones creating a huge mess, they hit the fig trees before the figs are ripe and throw them on the ground, they do the same with the pecans, and I'm sure if they knew the tomatoes were there they'd destroy them too. Our garden is about 40 yards from the nearest tree and I think crossing that much open ground lets the hawks put some control on their numbers. I been practicing a little population control myself.

No tree rats were harmed during my population control measures. They never knew what hit them.

Alan
 
I hear you guys on the tree rats. They ate a bunch of my tomatoes this year, but LOML won't let me do anything to control their population. :rolleyes:
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I hear you guys on the tree rats. They ate a bunch of my tomatoes this year, but LOML won't let me do anything to control their population. :rolleyes:
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Keep a couple of dogs... they might thin the population and you won't have any control of their actions... 'course my older dog now just lays and watches them skitter across the yard... the little dog will chase them but can't catch them. Years past we would find one or two on the front porch when Maggie (old dog) could get around better.
BTW, my wife feeds them.
 
My control measures are carried out in a completely clandestine manner. Natural population cycles so to speak. Figs start getting ripe, the population goes down to near zero, then it rises, pine cones start to form, population goes down, then it rises, pecans start getting ready, populations go down to nothing again. It's the natural order of things.....

Alan
 
Chuck Ellis said:
Keep a couple of dogs... they might thin the population and you won't have any control of their actions...
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Our dog loves to chase (and occasionally kill) the little critters. Unfortunately, SWMBO doesn't approve. Not only do I get the tearful "There's a dead squirrel in the back yard and I need you to dispose of it" routine, the dog gets grounded and loses his doggie door privileges. :rolleyes: :D
 
Our little dog could catch rabbits but she never could catch a squirrel. And, oh, how she wanted to get her little Cairn Terrier canines on one.

The first time she ran down a rabbit I was amazed. Those short little legs could really move.
 
Even though we've got an unlimited supply of rabbits, neither of my dogs have ever been able to catch a rabbit. Oh they have tried, but are just too slow, lol.

Yellow lab and an overweight cattle dog mix of some sort
 
Mike Stafford said:
Our little dog could catch rabbits but she never could catch a squirrel. And, oh, how she wanted to get her little Cairn Terrier canines on one.

The first time she ran down a rabbit I was amazed. Those short little legs could really move.
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Chuck Ellis said:
Keep a couple of dogs... they might thin the population and you won't have any control of their actions... 'course my older dog now just lays and watches them skitter across the yard... the little dog will chase them but can't catch them. Years past we would find one or two on the front porch when Maggie (old dog) could get around better.
BTW, my wife feeds them.
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Chuck Ellis said:
Keep a couple of dogs... they might thin the population and you won't have any control of their actions... 'course my older dog now just lays and watches them skitter across the yard... the little dog will chase them but can't catch them. Years past we would find one or two on the front porch when Maggie (old dog) could get around better.
BTW, my wife feeds them.
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I don't need a dog. The cat keeps the squirrel and rabbit population down quite well, usually by several a day. Sometimes killing rabbits bigger than she is.

Charley
 

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I'm pretty sure our dog was responsible for the half of a rabbit I found in the back yard of our last house. I'll spare y'all the photo I took back then. :D
 
Back when we lived in Huffman, north of Houston, we had 3 cats... and a cat door for them... they brought most of their kills inside the house... one day one of them brought a snake into the house, only he didn't kill it before he let it go....they also brought in two live squirrels in the middle of the night, let them go and then chased them around the living room.... I spent about 30 minutes stark naked chasing a squirrel trying to get it out the front door.
Then the raccoons learned they could come in through the cat door and help themselves to the fruit in the 3 tiered fruit basket my wife had hanging in the kitchen.
 
Alan R McDaniel Jr said:
Do you want to rent the cat?
Alan
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No, she has a full time job here, but it would be good if she would chase the geese too. I doubt she would survive an encounter with a goose though. Yesterday there were about 70 Canada Geese on my front lawn.

I live on the end of a peninsula in a lake, and the few Canada geese that seem to be regulars here sometimes seem to invite all of their relatives over for the weekend, to picnic on my lawn. Last year I attached a plastic owl decoy to the top of the bench down by the lake, and it worked quite well, for about a month, but they are wise to it, and me now. I once saw a coyote decoy that pivoted around a stake with the wind, but I didn't need one back then. If I can ever find another one, I will put it out there and move it every week or so to new locations. The owl might make a come back soon too. This was a very big year for goose production here. I think every nest produced 5-6 goslings, and now they are all full size. We have a dog, but when I let her loose and tell her to chase the geese, she wanders the neighborhood instead. Leash laws here require the dogs to either stay on their owner's property or be on a leash, so I can't allow the wandering.

Charley
 
Ted Calver said:
I hear Chuck's stark nekked critter chasing services are available for a modest fee (30 minute blocks , with time in between to warm up a bit.) :rofl:
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With the number of geese on Mr. Lent's lawn it might be a little slick to chase around there... you know the saying, "Slicker than Goose SSST"

He might welcome them though, just think of how well is lawn will be fertilized. :p
 
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