Apologies to Rocky of Bullwinkle fame.
It is sometimes necessary to engage in varmint control when living in the country. Maybe they devastated your pecan or walnut crop. Maybe they filled your mandolin with shelled corn. Perhaps they chewed a hole in the LP line that was running by your wood stove.
It should be noted that most varmints make fine table fare. This time of year raccoon does a fine job for any dish that calls for pork. Squirrel and woodchuck benefit from moist heat cooking and make better gravy than any cut of beef.
This is how I deal with squirrels (and woodchucks and chipmunks and...). 110 Body grip traps are ideal for rabbit and squirrel sized animals. 160 work well for woodchucks. 220 is probably optimum for raccoons. A 110 currently costs $6.50 at the local grain elevator. This source has a good reputation.
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| It is possible to be unique and useful. |
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| You want the trap to be held firmly but you don't want to have to fight it to set the pawl that the trigger releases |
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| Rumor has it that running an 8' long piece diagonally across the corner of fence top rail is devastating. Works best when set horizontally. |
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| I may add a staple. |
Credit for this method of setting a trap goes here.
Big varmints are one thing but green horned caterpillars decimated my tomato plants in two days. Then the green cucumber worms got the last of my cucumbers and now...the darn bitty monsters have attacked the one and only big pumpkin that came from the pumpkin seed my 8 yr old grandson has hovered over all summer.
ReplyDeleteWe are at war with the big and the small. And we are out-numbered thousands to one.
Thank-you for commenting.
ReplyDeleteYou will probably be OK if the pumpkin already colored up.
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