Another incredibly impolite gratuitous post...WTF...
OK - Psychotics, Shut the **** up a minute,
Robert and I are chatting....
Meanwhile...
We did the shrew war at our place on Upper Rabbit
creek....and at our mining cabins.
It was a lost cause at the mine. But I finally, after
5 years at our Rabbit Creek place, we brought the
little farts to their knees....
First, you have to realize that they can change
their body shapes...they are the true "shape-****fters..."
We'd hear the clattering of Friskies dog food as it
"rolled" across the linoleum in our cabin...then we'd
see the Firkies ball mysterioulsy banging against the
crack under the front door...because it wouldn't fit
under the door...finally this little critter would appear
through the crack, push and push, then squeeze back
through and pull and pull...what a show...
I put very tight trim on the fornt door. That stopped
that....
Sorta...cause the were coming in under the wall...
when I tore the wall down to add rooms I found out
how...a little diagonal piece of the 2x4 in the floor
plate had broken when it was put in...they were
squeexing through that...'bout 1/2" max....I'd
blocked them with sheetrock and floor trim, but
didn't find that tunnel for 5 years...
They were also coming through holes in the plates
I'd put in to run electric to the crawl space...I packed
those holes with a mallet and steel wool (they can
eat fiber glass...I think they fart little shreds of it, too)...
Then they would come through the plumbing holes, so
I packed them with steel wool, too....that meant bath-tub,
toilet lines....
I also had mice and stuff living in the fiberglass in the
attic..I got rid of the bigger guys with steel screen over
the vents...realize that 1/4 inch screen ain't gonna stop
shrews...go for the 1/8 inch stuff....they can't get into
the walls or attic if you do your plates right when you
put up walls....and pack the electric holes...
I wouldn't suggest bird shot...I shot a mouse off the
kitchen counter with bird shot one evening (while we
were framing our cabin and living in it at the same
time)...very messy....and too small to eat anyway...
One good thing about shrews...they clean up their
dead, and dead mice...nothing but a little micro-fur
coats when they're done eating their dead...they
are truly "using all the kill."
I used to fetch packing plywood from the dump out
behind International Building Supplies...I'd find 8, 10
sheets of that stuff, just tossed...so I cut it to fit
the house, dug substantial trenches, stapled visquene
wapper to it where the visquene would be underground
....then the water coudln't get into the wood (for a few
years).... I put that on in front of tarpaper, buried it
from under and outside the house....
Didn't stop them at all...I had my crawlways
visquened, so when I slud under the house to work
I could turn on the lights, and slide across the
shrew and mouse turds...kinda like ball-bearings,
mind you...made for quick sliding. Dry as a bone
in the crawl space, but shrews seem to be able
to dig under skirting....so, forget that....just make
sure you pack all the holes up into your house
with steel wool...pound it in as tight as you can
get it....
Forget the cat. Remember the toxoplasmosis...there
is evidence that toxoplasmosis may contribute to
things like schizophrenia....and with the war with
shrews, ya'll become schizophrenic, or at least
very paranoid w/o the help of cat ****, spray, and
destruction of your furniture....cats belong outside...
in the food chain....coyotes like them, as to cougars...
....like screechy little hors' dourves......
el ffurgo, OUT!
Gruffy: JPFO, Semper Fi to the Bill of Rights (RIP)
Molon Labe! Let's dance!
Alaska Historical Society, Hope and Sunrise Historical Society
Read about the 200 MPG engine design done in Alaska
[Major revision/News 5/21/06]:
http://www.geocities.com/g_gruff/200mpg.html
OK- Psychotics, you have the "floor."
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