Semi-pets and four legged squatters of Wein

Dudeman1967

Dudeman1967

blah, blah, blah...
What animals are you trying to live with?

Squirrels in the front tree- no issues
Skinks under the driveway and hot tub-cool
Moles in the back yard- must die, sorry nature
Birds in my vent to fireplace.-I was late putting up a screen, so they get to stay until the baby birds leave the nest.
Deer eat the hostas.- don’t care.
Red Fox and coyote run along the back propery line.-no issues with them.
 
Tons of squirrels.
An occasional raccoon.
A lot of deer.
Apparently a mole or two - wish I knew how to get rid of them.
Wild turkeys. The males are stupid aggressive. They can go elsewhere and I would not miss them much.
Last fall we had a bear in the neighborhood.
 
I had a torrid time ripping up my bedroom floor a few years ago thinking we had mice in the place over winter.

Turns out it was the underfloor heating kicking in and tapping against the underfloor as it hadn't been secured very well. :headsmash:
 
Squirrels everywhere. They’re not really a problem other than using Mrs DCF’s plant pots and garden to bury walnuts.
There’s at least one skunk in the neighbourhood. We’ve got video of it walking across our front yard and driveway.
Possum - video of it in the backyard.

We’ve had rats, mice and moles/voles in the yard, but they seem to be non-existent this year.

We saw some foxes earlier in the year.

There have been reports of coyotes a couple blocks away, but not in our neighbourhood. Yet.
 
We have some birds around. And a few squirrels. Now and then I see a quick flash of the neighbor’s cat running through the yard. There are some bunnies around, my dog almost caught one last night. And there’s a nearby open space that’s basically a giant prairie dog town. I’ve seen a few dead raccoons on the side of the road but they’re probably from another neighborhood nearby; everybody here keeps their trash in their garage. I wouldn’t be surprised if coyotes come around at night but I don’t think we get bobcats this far out.
 
Yellow jackets that made a nest in the bathroom exhaust vent. It took a few days and a variety of insecticides, but those bastards are dealt with now.
 
shoeless said:
Yellow jackets that made a nest in the bathroom exhaust vent. It took a few days and a variety of insecticides, but those bastards are dealt with now.
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Ugh. We had a problem with them coming into our yard to eat honeybees and European wasps. Then they started building nests in the eaves under my garage where I couldn’t get rid of them but they weren’t bothering me so whatever. After that bald-face hornets moved in to eat the yellow jackets. Of course the hornets kept hanging around the back porch so they had to go. I ended up nuking the hornet nests with a spray can and killing off the yellow jackets with traps over the course of two years, the second year I put the traps out early and I think I managed to kill every queen that came out on our block. I had no idea how many yellow jackets there were around until I saw those traps fill up with queens. I did feel kind of bad about interrupting the circle of life but shit just got out of hand.
 
The only really problematic animal is man but around these parts we also have javelina and coyotes in the neighborhood occasionally. None currently….at work we have a bunch a flies
 
Denverdave said:
Tons of squirrels.
An occasional raccoon.
A lot of deer.
Apparently a mole or two - wish I knew how to get rid of them.
Wild turkeys. The males are stupid aggressive. They can go elsewhere and I would not miss them much.
Last fall we had a bear in the neighborhood.
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Moles are carnivores who eat grubs and earthworms. Take away their food supply with Grub Killer and they will go away.
 
Right now the critters are keeping a low profile, trying to avoid the heat. Still see deer mornings and evenings. Common sightings also include foxes, porcupines, snakes, lizards, armadillos, possums.

Birds are another thing. Hummers, roadrunners, hawks, and all kinds of songbirds get attracted by the feeder when it isn’t 100+ degrees out.
 
Carol puts out bird seed every day, so we get birds,chipmunks, and squirrels all the time. We also often see raccoons, possums, ground hogs, and rabbits. We also saw these guys, about six feet from our bathroom window
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Lots of squirrels. Probably rats but I haven't seen any (there is a large date palm beside us that is PERFECT for them :mad:). The cats around here raise my ire as they do nothing about the rats but shit in my backyard all the time. Haven't seen many Coyotes lately which probably explains all the the cats (most are "house cats" not feral)
Lots of geckos too
 
Saw a fox yesterday--that's always exciting. Aside from that, the G-D squirrels are groundhogs and taking single bites or of my almost-ripe peaches. Voles are making a ducking Tenochtitlan in the back yard and starting to burrow into the garden. Something (maybe the fox) is brazenly shitting in the strangest places--in the woodshed, inside the electric fence). There's deer, turkey, bats, and raccoons, and sometimes a coyote roams through.
 
Now that I'm a Country Boy (tm), I've been shooting and eating the squirrels (when in season, which is not now). I've gotten pretty good at skinning them/taking them apart at this point.

My current fav for non-culinary purposes are a pair of barred owls that are hanging out in the backyard and performing some phenomenal duets in the early evenings. I've seen gray foxes moving through, as well as plenty of opossums, raccoons, skinks, anoles, toads, frogs, and turtles.
 
I live on a dairy and horse farm so I'm surrounded with animals...

On the main farm they are busy converting from dairy to horses so the number of cows (Holsteins in case you're wondering) is rapidly diminishing and are primarily calves and heifers not ready for breeding...I believe they plan to continue boarding dry cows at least for awhile as the pipeline and milk tanks have been removed and sold...

The horse farm is across the street from my house and is only 10 acres (interestingly enough it was originally built by my father and now belongs to my nephew and his wife)...they currently have about a dozen horses on it, and the new farm will have inside stalls for 14 more with enough field for at least a couple dozen more..

As this is a working farm there are any number of stray dogs and cats about, for which my brother-in-law and nephew usually have food put out for...there is the constant issue of woodchucks digging holes in the fields so my nephew usually has a pistol on the tractor, and I occasionally take my .22magnum rifle out to deal with the larger colonies...the surrounding woods are full of deer, coyotes, wild cats, and the occasional black bear and fox along with the inevitable squirrels, raccoons, beavers (there is a stream running through the whole 300+ acres), skunks and whatever else is living out there...we had a very large snapping turtle cross the yard last week which I had to stop one of the girls in the big house from trying to pet...also see a lot of wild turkeys in the fields after they mow and bale hay...now that they are no longer growing corn I expect some of the deer to be less visible...
 
Some squirrels, quite a lot of hares, we have birds on the balcony most of the time. And then there's the neighbourhood fox, that's quite interesting as we live in the middle of the city :messedup:
 
We have a humming bird feeder and throw the old bread out the back door for the other birds. Squirrels partake too. That's fine but, it causes us concern when the rabbits eat the old bread. We Googled and you aren't supposed to feed rabbits bread but, what can you do? We tried yelling out the back door, hey you dumb bunnies, that's not good for you but, they are too dumb to take our advice. Once in a great while, we have uneaten flour tortillas, you would think throwing them out like a Frisbee is the best part but, no. It's when a squirrel picks one up and tries to scurry away but, keeps tripping on it.
 
Up here there are squirrels that rain nut dust down on the car. It quite a lot to my surprise. This time of year they also break open shells all over. I just use the leaf blower.

Then there is the copperhead. From time to time there is this tall long legged bird that camps out in the water out back.

Fall and spring we get geese that fly in and hang out.

A lot of foxes travel through on a regular bases. Regular report’s of missing cats.
 
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