Over the past year, we have had critters get into our garbage almost nightly and make a HUGE mess. Our morning routine typically includs running down the alley chasing blowing papers and wrappers, as well as picking up half eaten/half rotten food from our driveway. (trust me, we've tried lids, traps, poison, and all sorts of stuff....nothing can catch this thing.....)
Right before Joshua was born, I decided I was going to find out how much it was going to cost us to hire a pest control person to come out and trap what I thought was a raccoon. It was going to cost us a bit more than we could afford at the time, so we decided that we would just continue to pick up the nightly mess.
Since I've been home, the "middle of the night muncher" continues to make a mess of things for us. (Shane even climbed up on top of the roof to the garage to cover the opening of the chimney on the garage thinking that it was living in the rafters of the garage and coming out at night... (don't ask why we have a chimney on our garage....we still don't have a clue why it's there...))
ANYWAYS.....the other day, I painted our laundry room. As I spent the entire day in the laundry room, I kept seeing something in the trash can moving. I didn't think much of it because the snow was coming down pretty hard and it was really windy.
After a few minutes of ignoring the movement, I finally realized there was something in the trash can. However, there was no way I was going to look. So, I did the most reasonable and logical thing I could think of: I grabbed my phone and turned on the camera and I waited.
All of a sudden, up popped a little head out of the garbage can. For a split second, I had the most intense stare down with the two most beaty eyes I have ever seen in my entire life. Next thing I knew, I was screaming as this creature flew from the inside of the trashcan up over the fence, one leap on the group, up onto the fence of our back yard and scaled down the line of our fence to continue his stare down at a safer distance from myself.
Take a look at this Beast:
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| Do you see it taunting me?! |
I wish the pictures could show you the true accuracy of how giant this thing really is. I'm not kidding, it probably weighs about 12 pounds and about 2 feet long. (and rightfully so- it's had some of my delicious home cooking every night for the past year!)
So....now my task is to figure out how to get rid of this thing....Gimme your suggestions on how to (safely and humanely) get rid of "The Beast."
21 comments:
Let me ask Josh, he has experience with trapping... ;0)
I don't know what you're throwing away, but that has to be the fattest squirrel I've ever seen. You've been feeding him good!
I'm telling you...that thing is the biggest squirrel I have ever seen! I'm going to try so hard to get a better picture of him....these pictures just don't do it justice!
You could trap it and relocate it yourself. I'd wait until it was not freezing in case it has to spend time in the trap. According to the live trapper I met, the key to live trapping is to wire the bait into the cage so they have to tug on it. That makes them step on the trigger panel and keeps them from being near the door when they trigger the panel.
Here are some other live trap tricks: http://www.squirrels.org/trapping.html
You can rent traps from the county extension office, at least you can here. Animal Control or the ASPCA might also have traps for rent.
My stepdad has live traps. He used to catch the critters that snuck into our old farmhouse. Or just have Shane wait and grab him and stick him in a box. It would be humorous, at least... ;)
My word! I thought it was a cat at first!
I'm to busy laughing! lol..... :) That is one fat squirrel!!! lol..... You might try contacting a wild life department for possible solutions. I am not sure if they can help or not.
I thought it was a cat too!! Have you tried putting a heavy rock on the lid? That's what we've done when we had a critter.
LOL oh no! That crazy critter ;)
Spca would probably bring you a trap and pick it it up once you have caught the beast.
That is one chubby critter! Call the ASPCA and let them trap this chuncky varmint!
A squirrel?? That thing is a squirrel?? It's HUGE! I have absolutely no suggestions to offer you, but I think if I saw that thing coming toward me, I just might run the other way! :)
Im sorry to hear about this, but laughing my butt off! (sorry)Im thinking of the movie "over the hedge" and that squirrle that was all jacked up on red bull and junk food running all over the place like he was on crack!
maybe put a squirrle feeder up in the back of your property and put ur trash in metal trash can's with large rocks/bricks on the lids!
Jill, in Toronto we're really lucky to have both recycling and green bin (for compostables) in addition to trash pickup. But this wasn't always the case.
Before green bin came along, food scraps used to go out as part of the regular garbage. And some local raccoons decided our house was the buffet. They snapped off bungee cords, removed a C-clamp I put on the garbage can... Toronto raccoons have to be the Einsteins of the raccoon world. And they're as big as bowling balls for good reason.
Anyhoo, so I started putting food scraps in a empty ice cream tub in the freezer. The scraps went out, still frozen, in the garbage every week. Only once on a hot summer day did they thaw enough for the raccoons to take interest in them after that. The bonus is that your kitchen garbage doesn't ever get smelly (rancid food smells drive me bonkers).
That's a squirrel???!!! Good gracious. I would be scared to let a dog or cat out to hunt it down. I have no helpful suggestions. I have suggestions, but I do not think some of your readers would find them helpful :P
My grandmother beat a flying squirrel with a broomstick in the middle of the night. That's because he (I just know it was a he) scared one of her sleeping grandbabies. Big mistake.
Holy Smokes! That thing is HUGE! I'd be calling Billy the Exterminator if I were you...
"My grandmother beat a flying squirrel with a broomstick"... that made me laugh so hard!!! Can you send your grandma over here?!
Heheeheheheheheheheheheheehehehehe!
This is just the laugh I needed!
Wow! If that thing is that huge from raiding your garbage pails, I want your leftovers!! That would end your problem :)
- TwinCitiesLynn -
LMAO, that is awesome! We used to have a gray squirrel that taunted us (throwing of pine cones included). Never could get rid of the bugger.
I miss him now that we've moved. :)
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