We had enjoyed a nice 4 day escape to Las Vegas. Upon leaving for this little get away, I unwittingly locked a varment in the back garage. The damage this little animal caused was considerable. It cleared shelves, smired windows, tipped over tools, chewed all the garaged door safety wires, eat the rubber seal all accross the bottom of the garage door. The door is 16 feet and the new seal is $3 per foot. It did eat all the old mouse food I had out for any that may have wondered in and also found the hidden sticky traps.
It was hard to believe a young woodchuck could create all that mess. This woodchuck was busy chucking everything.
Fortunately it never touched the Silverado, the Cub Cadet tractor, or the Ariens snow blower.
Unfortunately it over ate and I found it in a permanent sleep under a roll of carpet.
That woodchuck did some nice work. Quite ironically, we just had a woodchuck incident at work, but it damaged nothing but the woodchuck. He apparently had cuddled up against a drive gear on one of our mini-excavators, which was sitting in the grass outside and in the sun. When we moved it, ( we didn't know he was there ) he was torn in two. We felt sorry for it, but at the same time, it sucked having to pressure wash his guts off of the machine so it would not stink up the shop at night. Varmints!!!
That really chucks. I had left my garage open a few weeks back and a raccon decided to check out my VR(footprints on the winshield and roof) and the garbage can also. I've got my racoon eliminator tool -ready to go- at a moments notice, but the little **** hasn't had the balls to come back yet.
I have eliminated them:
- with the smoke bombs (light, put in hole and cover up - this way they are suffocated... and pre-buried)
- with bow and arrow (try that at home!)
- with the tractor
- with a shovel
Not too many groundhogs living in my yard these days.
I have not tried using my garage or contruction equipment.
I know some farmers that use some different tactics, sometimes they fill the groundhog holes with liquid cow manure. Definitely a rough way to go. Lately they use live traps then drown them.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
I call it 'Inner City Varimenting'.... via Remington.
They were a real problem when I lived in Painesville. They're a tough little critter. Colleen still thinks they're cute.
Raccoons, on the other hand, I'm OK with. Seems if you've got raccoons, you don't have skunks. The lesser of two evils.
I guess they don't socialize well together.
And since Mentor seems to be the skunk capital of the world, I'd take the raccoon too. I had skunks in Mayfield. Then I had baby skunks too (actually three). A live trap, a tarp, and a can of brake cleaner will make a stink free removal of said creature. But move S L O W L Y while covering... I hate killing anything, but after smelling skunk on my dog's nose for two months, that was the end of that.
