Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Do Squirrels Like Chicken?

For about a week it rained...every day. I watched the rain puddle on my driveway, walkways and lawn. I watched as the rain overtook my backyard, until it was under water. And then, not surprisingly, it stopped raining and the sun came out. And so did I. After a sunless week, I happily traipsed to the garbage can. When I opened the lid, my happiness crashed momentarily. A bag had been ripped open and lettuce and other scraps of garbage littered the inside of the can. I immediately blamed raccoons for the mess even though, they had never bothered my cans before.

And then I saw the chicken bone, broken in two and sitting on top of the adjacent recycling bin.

It didn’t seem that that was something a raccoon would do. It seemed like something a squirrel would do. Which led me to my next thought, “Do squirrels eat chicken? Do they like chicken?” I thought squirrels were, well, vegetarians. Then I looked at the backyard where they normally scavenged. It was still flooded from the rain. How could the squirrels look for their buried food? How could they find it underneath the water? Would they even try or would they simply look for food elsewhere? Like in my garbage can.

According to The All New Squirrel Place http://www.squirrels.org/facts.html squirrels rarely eat meat, but they will when faced with hunger. My backyard and any nut buried in its perimeter was under water for several days. In other words, there was no food for the squirrels unless they hit a garbage can.

I really don’t have a definitive answer on who or what left the chicken bone. There are no cameras watching the garbage and recycling bins. What I can say is there have been no more ripped garbage bags since the rain stopped and the backyard dried up.

And if you know that squirrels really do eat chicken, let me know.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Water and a Caulked Sink



One night last year, I realized that water was seeping into the lower cabinet from the sink above. I found this out by accident. I was washing dishes and needed to grab something from underneath the sink, when I grabbed it, it felt damp and I could see that the area around it was also wet.

Luckily, after pulling out everything from under the sink, I saw that the water was not coming from the pipe and seemed to be in only one spot. Then I looked at the rim of the sink and the counter top. There was no caulk! There was nothing to prevent water from seeping down into the cabinet when I sloshed it over the side in washing dishes. Then I procrastinated…instead of correcting the problem, I vowed to be much more careful when I washed dishes! That idea didn't make sense,but I followed through with it anyway.

And then the ants came, in a previous post, High Hopes, I told how I got rid of that problem. But water seepage can create a whole host of problems, including insects (ants and others), mold, and general deterioration. So, I took pictures of the sink with my trusty digital camera and headed to the big box home improvement store. There, I showed them my pictures and explained that the counter top was wood with some type of polyurethane coating. It was suggested that I use clear adhesive caulk.

It worked! The sink is now caulked, perhaps not beautifully nor expertly, but no water is seeping into the cabinet below.



Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Reconnaissance Stinks!

For four days I have been looking for wasp entry ways into my house, but it has been unseasonably cool and there have been minimal wasp activity outside. The recessed lights are still covered and even though I heard an intense buzzing sound one night; there was no bug body attached to the painters tape.

The pest control guy came out today but with no wasp activity, there was no way to spot their entry point. However, he did see the makings of a larger nest on the top story. Good eyes!

The weather is supposed to warm up this week, so reconnaissance will continue. The threat must be eliminated.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Search and Destroy

I have a problem with wasps in my house. This is my second spring in the house and this is the second spring that I have had problems. It started with just one wasp bumping around the kitchen on a warm day, deluding me into thinking that it came in the house when I opened a door. But every day there was at least one wasp in the house, until one day this spring there were four. That was enough. I killed them all, but not before noticing a wasp emerging from a recessed lighting fixture. It was enough to give me the willies. At that point, I knew I needed professional help.

This was an official search and destroy mission.

The intelligence gathering began as I spoke to the pest control expert. Did I see where they entered into the house? Do I hear buzzing in the walls? Because it wasn’t warm enough to check outside activity, it was decided that I cover the recessed lighting fixtures with painters tape. If the wasps entered from there, the tape will gather the evidence. In other words, I was looking for wasp remains on tape.

This is just day two of that experiment and there have been no wasps in the house. I am much calmer. But the hunt is on for the nest and it must be found. Boastful? No, I just can’t live with the alternative...cohabiting with wasps. This is just the beginning; reconnaissance on wasp habits will continue this week.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Ignorance is Bliss: The Red Shrub

In spite of me…

Ignorance is Bliss.

There is a shrub in my backyard and I have no idea what it is. It is in a raised bed with a coral bell, a plant that looks like a bouquet of oak or maple leaves. The unknown shrub is less than three feet high and has tiny waxy green leaves. On occasion, I have seen brightly colored flowers bloom from it. Two years ago, I cut back the shrub in the fall and the following year there were hardly any blooms, even though I noticed a lot of leaves and buds on the plant. This fall, I didn’t do anything; I even left fall leaves in the raised bed. Earlier this spring, I thoroughly cleaned out the bed, raking out old mulch, weeding and putting in extra dirt. The extra dirt was a tip from a random newspaper article that explained some plants may have to be put back into the dirt after winter because of ground shifts. You will sometimes see plants “pop” out of the ground after winter because of this. I then covered the bed with landscape fabric.

Then I took a break. The weather turned colder and I started to over think my next step. I had originally intended to cover the fabric with mulch, but after buying the bag and reading the instructions, (which states not to put it within several inches of a wooden structure) I was at a lost. But, then I began to notice that both plants were thriving. The coral bell was getting larger and the shrub was blooming. Really blooming! It was covered in tiny red flowers. So, I stopped thinking about the implications of putting mulch so close to a structure and began shoveling it around the base of the plants. A week later, the unknown shrub is still blooming and the coral bell is also flourishing.
What can I say? Did that little bit of TLC in the early spring help? Did the covering of leaves protect the plant? Did it have to rest for a year and gather strength before this bloom fest? I don't know. But I am amazed at the outcome, whether it was with my help or not.