Up To Here

I've just about had it up to here with the pint-sized gangstas and thugs around here.  Percy and his cohorts keep trying to steal the mice's feed, somewhat more cautiously, but they've not given up yet.  The stick has had some effect because now they just have to see me reach for it and they duck away.

Thing continues to vandalize the feed room, tearing open bags, throwing stuff (make that everything) off the shelves, and making a mess in general.  Now he's been joined by rats.  I know they are rats because I caught one in the scratch barrel a couple of night ago and used a plastic tub to scoop it out.  I like mice, but don't feel the same about rats.  It wasn't so long ago that I had to replace the barrel because of a chewed hole in the bottom.  That was money wasted because I bought another plastic one, much stronger, to be sure, but didn't want to lay out twice the funds for a metal can.  Duh.  Yesterday there was not only a hole in the lid, they'd chewed a hole almost halfway up the side.  I guess that is for the ratlets that are too short to climb to the top.  Guess who will be buying a new trash can for the feed, preferably one with a combination lock.  The worst thing is that I can't poison them or the multitudinous ground squirrels that have potholed the yards because that poison would get into vultures, coyotes, or other wild things that feed on carrion.  Cam is having the same problem in her barn and, being Cam, she somehow traps them and takes them for a drive to some unpopulated area in the woods and sets them free.

I'd left a large bag of wild bird seed in the back of the truck   When I went to take it out yesterday, it had been torn open and the contents spread in the truck bed.  I don't think it was done by wild birds.

It's the time of year for the annual home invasion by the teeny-tiny black ants, what we call the sugar ants.  They show up everywhere:  in the bathroom, on kitchen counters, and they flow in rivers across the kitchen floor.  Bess has learned to empty her food dish as soon as I put it down or end up with ant-flavored dinner.  They come by the thousands.  Again, I can't use ant spray because the house critters would get it on their paws and be poisoned.  I've found that 409 cleaner seems to destroy the scent trail and, if it doesn't stop them, it at least diverts them.

I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live sort of person, but I have my limits.