They can feast on the chipmunks.
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We hand feed our chipmunks. They are our evening m/cocktail enjoyment. Two of the bunch (that have clear markings) have been entertaining us for three seasons now and know their names. Feeding them and watching their antics is the best part of my day.
Our son feeds them “toenuts.”
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The chipmunks, IIRC, can dig down and mess with the foundation. Ugh.
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Nemesis – the groundhog that lives under our shed – periodically will dig under the chicken wire surrounding my garden to get at various and sundry plants (he most recently got in and ate all the growing shoots of the tomato suckers that I had rooted and then transplanted into the ground); but I just back fill the dirt, and put bricks around the base of the chicken wire where he has dug under it. He and I are in a general state of equilibrium in terms of what he does to my garden and my countermeasures.
We have a number of chipmunks who live in the stacked field stones around the base of our backyard swimming pool; and we have number of rabbits that appear in our backyard, usually in the morning, although I think that live elsewhere – they just visit us for snacks among the greenery in the backyard. Every once in a blue moon we will have a screech owl visit; and there are red-shouldered hawks that swoop through our trees on occasion.
Usually my wife and I have a philosophy of “live and let live” for the creatures that reside/visit; a notable exception are raccoons, plus the skunks that visit periodically – especially during mating season in February-March; then we call for “Varmint Busters” or a similar outfit to remove them. (Although the last time cages were set out for the skunks, all we managed to trap were a couple of p*ssed off neighborhood cats.)
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Sorry, I would be nervous about diseases wild animals (including chipmunks) can harbor, including rabies, plague, fleas with Lyme or other conditions. Just a thought.
I understand from one of our neighbors at our place on the water that there was a dead seal on the beach. We’d seen turkey vultures for the first time and wondered why.
Wednesday morning when I was opening the shades in our dining room, I noticed black feathers and something in two spots on the grass. Dead crow, attacked by some creature. No way was I going to go near it. The grandparent of the feral children attempted to removed another dead bird a couple of weeks ago and was swarmed by crows.
Crows never forget. Our daughter joked that H should go out wearing the 40 year old rubber Ronald Reagan mask to clean it up.
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This is crazy. My friend must have a hole somewhere in her roof, eaves etc. It’s a huge place but last week she had a baby squirrel in her back bedroom (not sure her H believes the story totally) and now she trapped a BAT in her back bathroom. Has to be from an AC vent access. Who’s best to call?
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Exterminator
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On the topic of ‘what do you discourage?’, here in the desert of AZ, we don’t plant anything w/in 3-4’ of the foundation of the house. New house builder informed us many many moons ago that this is recommended in order to discourage termites from tunneling into the house and taking up residence in one’s home.
So no foundation plants.
Side benefit to that is scorpions love foundation plants right next to the house. No foundation plants = fewer scorpions.
Also, never ever ever walk outside barefoot because you could step on a bark scorpion (they’re very small, hard to see). We always wear flip flops/sandals.
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It’s monsoon season here in AZ so that means it’s Sonoran desert toad time! This one showed up at dusk this evening in the backyard. Pretty good size but I’ve seen some before that are a good 6” across!
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Large group of yucca plants in our yard looked smaller to me today. Upon inspection, the stems and flowering parts were all eaten off down to the height of the yucca leaves. I read that deer will eat them if hungry enough. They must be hungry.
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Exterminator for sure! Bats (all? or most?) are protected species and they carry rabies. Call in a pro for sure. We are big DIYers but we don’t mess with bats.
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Yeah I see that about being protected. Guess this is “maternity season” and probably not much can be done until Aug 15th. Ugh.
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Not sure that it’s been mentioned in this thread, but she should call her doctor for advice. I’ve heard that when bats enter a home, anyone that it could have come in contact with (including the scenario of finding a bat in or with access to a bedroom) should get rabies shots. This is because bat bites or scratches can be very tiny and may not be noticed.
When I was in my twenties, I was at a field camp for the summer and I heard “swooshes” go by my head one night while I was in bed. Finally, I turned on the light, and told my roommate what I’d heard. She found a bat on the wall and caught it with a box and dispatched it quickly to the outside. I had an alarm clock with illuminated numbers by my bedside and I suspect it was attracted to the bugs that were attracted to my clock. So it had been dive bombing for prey around my head for a least a few minutes. Possibly for more than one night. I never even thought at the time to inform the camp director, but now I know better.
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Yikes! Just another reason to be glad H is retired. About once/year he’d be called to remove a bat from the school. Be used to do it bare handed until he got bit and I freaked out and he refused the shot. He used gloves after that but still.
We had a few bats in this house. But not since we had the fireplaces sealed.
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I used to volunteer at a wildlife rehab hospital. I never handled bats (needed a rabies vax for that and certain other animals) but we always used gloves for handling anything, including birds. Wild things …carry stuff.
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Kind of hard to see them on this photo taken with my iPhone… these two are regulars in our neighborhood.
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We consistently have deer in our yard during the spring. We used to have a fair number of rabbits, but maybe three years ago we started getting foxes, now three years in a row a mama fox has made a den in the back corner of our yard. No more rabbits with the growing kits around. I don’t mind, as the kits also seem to manage our overly robust chipmunk population. We usually stop seeing them daily by late summer, but through the fall and winter we’ll occasionally see one fox stroll across the backyard.
We have a bird feeder that we stock in the winter, the birds don’t need much help before that. We’re happy to have all of them - except for the one moron robin that keeps attempting to make a nest on the front porch ceiling fan. Not only is this a terrible place for the nest - it’s just off from the front door, we’d be in her space regularly - but anytime there’s a strong wind the fan rotates. I don’t even need to turn it on for the blades to turn. No way will a nest make it there. So whenever we see her starting to gather materials we turn the fan on to remind her that it’s not a good spot.
We put up a bat box too, but so far no takers that we can see. We have such horrible mosquitoes, that we could really use a little assistance with them. We followed all the directions for the bat box so I feel like it’s set up correctly, just no one has been excited by the real estate yet.
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