« July 2007 | Main | September 2007 »

August 29, 2007

Bats Begone!

I thought it was a butterfly.

Ok, a really big butterfly.

Swooping around outside my kitchen window, in the middle of the afternoon.

I went closer to take a look, but it wasn't a butterfly. It was a little bat. Sneaking around the side of the house, I caught sight of it as it landed on the side of the garage and climbed under the trim. A cute little brown bat.

Living in my house, or at least on it.

Given all the other critters we keep finding since this house has been unoccupied for so long, I wasn't particularly surprised. But now I've started thinking all the little chirps and squeaks I hear in the afternoon and evening aren't birds after all. I thought hummingbird, but now I'm pretty sure its the bats.

I wasn't pleased they were living on the house, but I do like bats. They can eat hundreds of mosquitoes a hour and so I want to encourage them, just not in my house. I've read up on how to move a colony and I plan to get a bat box and train them into it instead, eventually. I need help so I have to wait for some human reenforcements.

Still, it was a cute little brown bat and I waited til that evening to share the news with Shane. He was working late so I was on Instant Messenger chatting with him about the cute little bat I saw outside when another freaking bat swooped down and buzzed me.

In my freaking kitchen.

Need I say I was surprised? I was talking about a bat and a bat appeared in my living room/kitchen. Flapping in circles over my head.

It was upset. Confused.

I was also upset. Upset enough to smash the keyboard with a few bat-oriented freakout terms to Shane and then I high-tailed it up into the safety of my bedroom to call him.

To make him google how I get a bat out of my living room. I called my dad but he just laughed at me for having all these wildlife issues.

Once I felt ready, I put on my armour. Long sleeve hoody, work gloves. Shoes. Jeans. Hat. I got the broom, which of course was not very long. More like a dust mop. I closed all the room doors I could to keep it contained, opened the outside doors and windows. Unfortunately, our entire downstairs is basically one big room. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out where the bat was, on the wall in the corner of the room. I tried to sweep it up and it took a few tries before it started flying around the room again, ignoring the exits I tried to keep open for it. Instead, it landed on the brick wall on the other side of the room. One thing Shane did find out online is that when they are flying around, its best to stand in a corner. This definately helped, since I could generally see where it was most of the time. I went over to it again, and swept it into the air. As it buzzed me again, I ducked, and when came back up, it was gone.

Unfortunately, I don't think it left. It was nowhere near a door.

Which means its still here.

Two days later, I am still walking around carefully, talking to the stupid little brown bat. Scrutinizing every knot, every burl in my wood paneling, I am careful before I turn on the ceiling fans I rely on to keep me comfortable here. I am considering taking everything out of the pantry to see if its in there.

My mother says I'm going to find a dead bat in a couple of days, but I don't have cats or anything. What I want is to see a bat-sized chew-hole in one of my screens, because I am not going to leave the windows open continually in case. I will only get more bats.

Because its baby bat season, you see. Late august is when all the babies born during the summer start learning to fly. And they get lost. Confused. They end up in houses.

They end up in my living room.

I see now I made a mistake trying to get it to fly around and find its own way out. It totally let me approach it. I should have just put a box over it and taken it outside myself. I was just a little too freaked at the time. It was a cute little bat, I just hadn't been expecting it in my living room.

BTW, the bat in the picture was not my bat. That's a zoo bat I took a picture of. My bat is tiny, a little brown bat, that looks like a little fuzzy brown mouse with wings. Sorry I didn't have time to take its picture while I was trying to chase it out of the house.

Posted by sorsha at 3:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 23, 2007

A Week Of Wildlife - Wherever You Are

We wanted to move to the country to be closer to the wildlife. However, I've been so busy working on painting and flooring and weeding that I haven't been able to give as much time to tracking down the local wildlife.

Luckily, it comes to me.

For the first few weeks, I didn't seem to encounter anything here. Whether I was too tired from all the housework to notice or perhaps residing in an house long-vacant, I had scared away the local critters. Regardless, I saw very little outside the house during the initial days despite being in the woods.

However, there has been a change this week. Every critter seems to be out and about lately. So I decided to play a little game with myself and keep track of all wildlife sightings for this week. No matter where you are - city or country - you can do this, too. I'd be very curious to see what your lists look like so please post them below if you get the chance! The more you look, the more you'll see. Trust me.

Laurie's Wildlife Listing for the Week of August 16th-23rd in New Hampshire, and mostly in the yard. It all started with...

• A Stripped Skunk - Running across the road towards Wal-Mart (big surprise)
• A Flock of Ten Blue Jays - Flew into the yard today. Hung out for a bit.
• A Black Bear - Sniffing around the side yard at 5 am. I happened to be up.
• A Flock of Wild Turkeys - tromped through the yard. Really homely birds.
• Numerous Woodhouse's Toads - All over the garden. Don't tell Shannon.
• An Eastern Chipmunk - We have a resident one living on a garden rock.
• Various Red Squirrels - Around, but no longer living in our attic.
• Numerous Northern Ravens - All over the local roads
• A White-Tailed Deer with Twin Fawns - Sighted on a local road
• Several Turkey vultures - On the local roads
• The backsides of several unidentified duck species - Drove by pond
• A hunting heron - Driving by a bog, didn't stop to identify it
• Numerous American Beaver Dams - Nearby bog, was looking for moose...
• Various bugs including caterpillars, beetles, bees and ants. One ladybug. One locust. Various monarch butterflies in the garden.

I wish I could say I saw a moose this week. Unfortunately, I didn't. However, my dad did when he was driving to my house, so that sortof counts. It was a young, ungangly one with no antlers yet.

Anyway, that's my list. What's yours?

Posted by sorsha at 8:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 14, 2007

Local Légumes: From Regional Raspberries To Civic Cabbages

We Californians are spoiled when it comes to many things - the mediterranean-like climate alone makes the Central Valley ideal for producing a variety of crops almost all year long. However, this summer I've had a rather rude awakening - the rest of the country doesn't have it so good. It seems now like Santa Cruz, California, is the epicenter of organic living, sustainable farming, and a year-long spread of fresh, yummy produce.

Let's start back in late March, early April... my husband and I were considering purchasing a piece of property in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After deciding we liked the house itself, we did some local research, including going to the local markets. Ironically, the organic rasberries we saw in the markets of New Hampshire were from: *heh* Santa Cruz county, California.

My first thought: I didn't come 3,234 miles (says Google Maps) to eat my own (I believe I used the word "freakin") California raspberries. And they've not traveled well. And, oh, look, they're almost $8 for a pint?!

Now I've spent most of the summer in New Hampshire and the produce has gotten better as the Northeastern growing season has produced its first crops for the summer, the peaches from New Jersey aren't bad. I've had some fantastic lettuce, blueberries and apples from some family friends' gardens in Vermont, and my herb gardens are out of control due to all the rain.

Still, I haven't found great produce in regular supply, but I know it's around. Farmers' Markets are around but not as close as I would like. However, recently I have been looking into CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in the area.

Basically, a CSA is a program where people in an area buy "shares" of a farm's produce for the year. Sometimes you have the option of actually doing a little community work on the farm as well. In return for your share, you receive a portion of the farm's bounty, usually weekly. Most CSAs are organic in nature, but they may include fruits, veggies, eggs, and even fresh meats - depending on your region. The produce is brought to you super-fresh and virtually free of packaging.

Growing seasons vary greatly in the United States. For example, in Santa Cruz, CA, the CSAs may run for 33 weeks - from March to November. However, in New Hampshire, they tend to run July through October, which is only half as many weeks. Think of it as a farm subscription.

A great resource I came across while searching for CSA's was LocalHarvest, a web directory of farmer's markets and CSAs, and other organic retailers. I could research some of the CSAs in my area and even see what kinds of produce they grow yearly. One last note - CSAs work on the principle of paying for your subscription in advance. From what I've seen, this generally works out to between $15-40 a week, so don't let the overall subscription numbers phase you immediately.

Posted by sorsha at 2:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 11, 2007

The House With The Mouse

So there's this house. And in this house, there is a mouse. Or should I say, mice. Plural. Because there's never just one.

Unfortunately, this house has been unoccupied for almost a year, and it's in the woods. So all sorts of little critters couldn't help but move in. Within the first week, we encountered a bear eating from old bird feeders left out all winter, mice, bats, and a nest of baby squirrels in the attic.

As much as we like mice and squirrels and bats, we don't particularly want to live with them. I could tolerate a few (not an infestation) in a barn or something, but not in my house with my food and future kids and toothbrushes.

So it seems like this house needs to be de-moused before anyone moves in. I don't like the idea of poisoning very much, unless there is a serious infestation, which there is not.

So I've been doing some research in order to have "options". Keep in mind none of these are going to do much about the existing problem, but it will deter and prevent future issues.

No Entry

Patch every single opening to the outside of the house. Don't just check around the base of the house. A mouse can scale a wall, or jump from a tree.

We got lucky. We found the squirrel entry point and we closed it up, covered it with hardware cloth, and cut back the tree limbs. We did it whilst the two baby squirrels were out playing for the day and they haven't been back since.

We sprayed this hardening foam stuff to close up some of the gaps, but they just chewed right through that. Now we're going with concrete to patch some floor cracks.

Declutter

Mice thrive in clutter. Piles of wood, piles of grass. Keep these away from the house. Organize your kitchen and your attics so there are not a lot of nice places for mice.

The basement had piles of wood, which we moved out of the house to the shed. We moved all scrapwood out of the house as well. Just cleaning this up helped a lot. You also want to avoid keeping dead wood in the house because it can carry in carpenter ants - another lovely woodsy friend you'd rather keep outside.

When we first got to the house, I bought some nice 1x1 foot self-sticking linoleum squares. They are meant for making cheap flooring, but I cut them to size for underneath every sink cabinet. White was cheapest, but it also allows easy wipe-downs underneath the sink, and I could see immediately where the mice were at.

Starve 'Em Out

Review your food storage. Make sure pantry items are well sealed. Don't leave pet food out for other critters to sample.

If you use birdfeeders with seeds, make sure they are well away from the house and clean up beneath them to avoid attracting unwanted pests.

The previous owners of this house left gallons of sunflower seeds strewn about the perimeter of the house. I'm sure it was great for the birds, but it also advertised the house for a warm shelter to every critter in the nearby area - including a local black bear, who paid our property a visit.

Scare Them Off & Possibly Attract Some Outdoor Wildlife

Depending on your level of tolerance and the scale of your pestiferous problem, you may need to actively hurt some mice. However, if you do it right, you should only have to do it once. From then on, you use the deterants above, as well as consider introducing some real or imaginary mouse predators into the mix.

You need to get the population down before the critters manage to burn the house down. We found two lovely dead mice in a junction box - trying to keep warm through the winter, they had zapped themselves.

Releasing a mouse outside doesn't work, generally, because they will just run right back inside again. They can get through areas the size of a pencil. I've seen them do it now and it's amazing.

Remember Jerry Always Got The Best Of Tom

Everyone always says Get A Cat. As I'm allergic, that's not an option. Also, I've been reading that cats are not really effective as house mousers. Sure, they'll catch some, but its not enough on its own. On boats in past years they were more effective, partially because the cats were not fed and had to rely on the mouse population for their dinners. It was a closed ecosystem. Your house isn't.

Encouraging Wild Predators

Since we want to be able to attract wildlife outdoors anyway, we have some interesting alternatives to look into.

I've read that bobcat urine powder makes a great indoor mouse deterant. I'm not sure if I'm allergic to this, but supposedly it is odorless and not harmful to anyone but it scares mice right out of a house. Sounds good, and I wonder if it works. I also wonder if I can attract some wild bobcats with it so I can have cats without having cats. Here, kitty kitty.

I've also been looking into building some owl boxes on the property overlooking the open field. Many species of owls, including Barred and Screech Owls live in the area surrounding the house. Now I know what to do with my webcam.
Another owl you can attract is the Barn Owl. One study I saw showed that each owl consumes an average of 2000 rats and mice a year, or about five to six rodents a night.

Population Reduction

At the end of the day, you need to get rid of the mice. Everything I've seen shows that the old fashioned snap trap is the quickest, cleanest death you can expect. Glue traps seem to catch more mice on a single sheet, but they are a terrible way to die. Just because you're getting rid of them doesn't mean you shouldn't do your best to do it humanely.

I have never used a snap trap before now, but I have found them very successful when baited with a tiny bit of Trader Joe's crunchy organic peanut butter - only the best for their last meal...

Posted by sorsha at 5:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack