Tag Archive | ants

I Hired a Rat Catcher

Jul17

I threw in the towel on the rat catching after I was awakened at 3:45 AM by a terrible racket under my bed. It was so loud I thought it was in my room, but when I turned on the lights, I could see it wasn’t. The scrabbling went on and on, so I finally had to move into the guest bedroom. In the morning I decided to finally rid the house of this dirty rat, or rats.

A.I. gave me all the instructions. Bait a rat trap but don’t set it. Let the rat eat the peanut butter all it wants for several days until it feels totally comfortable and then set the trap. It all made perfect sense except for the instructions as to where to put these traps. I decided I needed a professional so called a company called BugMaster.

A very nice woman named Chantal came and immediately found the grease trail the rats had left so she saw exactly where they were coming in. She then checked the perimeter of the house and showed me areas where they could get in and told me what to do. Then she did as A.I. said, she baited two traps and said for me to set them in a few days.

I do hope to God the traps work as I hate living with rats. I’ve also had it with the ants as yesterday my dining room lights wouldn’t work. I called the electrician and he said he’s never seen anything like it. As soon as he began unscrewing the light switch ants came pouring out. The ants also break my air conditioner every couple of years by living in the connection box.

As you may know by now Calvin’s sweet orange tabby cat Felix never came home again, presumably eaten by coyotes which live next door in the field. A neighbour said her cat was bitten by one right in front of her and then died.

For the last two weeks a raccoon has been breaking into the chicken run, and it’s killed two of my hens, Jennifer and Heather. And the awful thing about raccoons is they only tear the crop out of the hen, leaving the entire rest of the bird. What a waste of lovely chicken. As the garbage truck had just gone, I had to bag the hens and put their carcasses in the freezer until this week.

I hired my neighbour to top the chicken run with wire, so now it might be somewhat harder for that raccoon to bust in. I’d like to complete the job with a line of electrical wiring across the top but doubt that’s possible as when I explained that to the electrician, he was puzzled and asked, “what kind of a wire are you thinking of?” This gave me the hint either he’s not the man for this, or that I’ve once again asked for something completely insane.

Sure, I find it interesting to live as though I’m a pioneer breaking trails and slashing the forest to make a clearing and build a home. However, I live a ten-minute drive from downtown Kelowna so sometimes find it a bit overwhelming to have to shop for services or products that will protect me from wild critters.

The nice woman from BugMaster said getting rid of the ants will be around $500 this fall and the same again in the spring, so on top of annoyance there are large costs associated with pest removal. But what can ya do? I can’t leave the ants and rats to completely destroy my house.

Well never mind, I’m finally doing something about it all, so I have to cut myself some slack.

Bears, Deer, Ants

May21

Imagine my surprise to enter the chicken coop to find the feeder pulled down off the chain and thrown out through the coop door; the Tupperware of chicken feed was opened and dragged, and plastic was torn from the wall in one corner. I emailed Calvin and said some crazy raccoon must’ve gone into the coop. An hour later I got the video taken by our outdoor camera of a black bear zipping in and out of the coop.

A chicken would come out, then the bear, then two chickens went under the coop followed by the bear. All chickens survived! It was quite a dusty ruckus out there, and where was I and the dogs? Right here in the house calmly washing dishes, listening to YouTube and napping (dogs). This was all going on just meters from the house and I had no idea.

So then I got a company to come in and build a fence to keep bears out, and that’s a topic for a psychiatrist’s couch. Very traumatizing to come home to something that resembles a high security prison wall and has all the charm of one used for a firing squad. And the thing is, it still won’t keep out a determined bear so whatever all of that was about I have no idea.

Then a few days ago I heard intense barking and came out to two deer just inches from the dachshunds. They were barking furiously and I know a deer can mess up a little dog, so I was screaming for them to come. Suddenly one got crabby and gave Lou a push with her foreleg, like, get outta here, dog. He wasn’t hurt and both dogs finally came in.

We have millions of ants marching into the house at all times. Calvin got big pails, filled them with borax and put them into the yard hoping to attract the pests, but no, nothing. Today when I was gardening I suddenly felt something in my ear, and sure enough, an ant. I think the entire attic of this house must be a giant ant’s nest, but whatever. They have to live too, I guess.

On the long weekend I went to Osoyoos as did my nieces and their families for a farewell to Mom. I stupidly didn’t have anyone take pictures for me on my camera, so I have none. I’ve begged the nieces for them but can only hope they take pity on their old aunt. I was going to ask our neighbour Lynne to come and take a group photo but neglected to do so.

All of the food I’d prepared was eaten with great joy. On Friday night we had lasagne, and on Saturday it was roast pork. Sunday’s dinner was chicken Marbella. I’d also baked (see last blog) and all of that except for a few muffins got consumed. Dinner for 11 twice, and dinner for 8 once was a challenge, but a very doable one.

You know how competitive I am, so I’m going to enter the Canadian Children’s Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP) writing contest. My books featuring the dachshunds as the neighbourhood crime watch is for kids ages 7 – 9. The very nice thing about this contest is that it’s super cheap and they also provide feedback which is the most valuable part.

I made the worst lunch ever for Mother’s Day for my friends Gitte and Roxanne, as I thought I could make vol au vent shells from frozen puff pastry. Luke’s coming tomorrow to help Calvin work on a car so I’ll make dinner for the three of us and will hope for more of last weekend’s successes.