OT: Did a little rl "monster" hunting last night!

[Adrianas]

I thought I had a squirrel that was trying to take up residence in one of my walls.  So I set out a trap, baited with peanut butter.  It took a few days, but I finally caught the critter.  Only problem is it wasn't a squirrel!!






Yikes!  Look at those teeth!  So now I've called our Wildlife & Fisheries folks, because they deal with "nuisance wildlife."  I surely did not expect to catch a possum!

[Tjalle]

*You start to tame the creature*

[Adrianas]

*You start to tame the creature*

lol!!  Yeah, right....  Brings home how silly that skill is in rl, doesn't it!  The Nuisiance Animal Control people told me they would gladly take it away and let it go someplace appropriate - for $125!!  Or, they said, I could let it go on my property, but it might go back into my walls.  And if I let it go anywhere else, it would be 'illegal' and I could be fined if caught.  So I told her I would think about it.  Hung up, promptly grabbed the cage (thank goodness it's solid on the top where the handle is), walked a block down the street to where a medium-sized stream runs through town and let it go.  I was *not* going to pay $125 for them to come and do the exact same thing!  I actually live inside the city of Covington, Louisiana, but there are creeks and streams and two rivers surrounding the town (we are on very high ground in between all of it).

Dreaming of installing a fence now. . . .

[Sara Dale]

It didnt leave behind any babies did it?     

[Adrianas]

No, I don't think so.  And there was only enough noise for one critter - and even then it was sporadic.

[ii & Sabin]

*Gets out his gun*

[chazzooker]

Id put the trap out and use cat food because it will be back...they can find there way back to home turf. Pretty easy. I had one with a nasty scare over its eye. The wife made me take it to the national park.1 mile away.. 3 days latter I had it in the save a heart trap again.this time I took it to the sand pit and shot it.the thing was loaded with fleas and ticks and a scare over its eye..I figured if one ofmy dogs got a hold of it id have hundreds of dollars in vet bills alone.

[Adrianas]

I hear you.  But....  there is a very attractive creek not far from my house.  I have had assorted critters 'pass through' before without trying to move into my walls.  Since I let the possum go on Saturday, I have not heard it back in my walls and, Lord knows, it wouldn't have taken it long to walk back to my house if it had wished to.  Having sat in that cage for hours, it might well have decided that wandering off down the creek was a better option.

I am, however, a bit concerned with how it got into the walls in the first place.  My house is raised about 3 to 4 feet off the ground and there is obviously a hole somewhere underneath.  I need to hire someone to go underneath, locate the hole, and plug it.  At the moment, I do not have the funds to hire someone to do it.  Back in my firefighter days, I would have just done it myself, but at this point, I've done all the crawlspace work I want to do!  So, for now, I'll let it be.  And as soon as I can either scrape up the funds to take care of it, or find a local friend who is willing to do it for me, I'll get the hole located and patched - and I will try to do this asap.

[Miranda/QueenZen]

My son has one of his degrees in wildlife management.
He has saved a possum before. He took it in cuz it was a lost baby, and adopted it. He was supposed to get it past weaning stage and then take it to the higher ups to release it back into the wild. INSTEAD he made a pet out of it. My son's facebook page is oft filled with silly sayings like 'possums are awesome'.  It lived as their pet, for a couple of yrs. then it got ill and passed away.


But yes eventually you will have to find that hole, or get a hive of bees, in there one day, or another possum or skunk.

We once had a squirrel get into our attic, and husband just wanted to find the squirrel and um...eliminate her. But then, we heard these sounds...she had decided that our attic was a spiffy place to raise her young. We contacted wildlife management here, & were told not to act hastily, cuz if we remove momma, we may have a *litter* of babies unweaned whom would then die up there, without momma squirrel tending to them, and then die, smelling up our whole attic.

Sooo we waited...till they all scampered out, and plugged that hole !