Arizona is decidedly different than Wisconsin.
Our home is in the Sonoran Desert--literally. During the past week, we've had encounters with scorpions, packrats and javelinas.
First, I'll show the "cute" picture of the pack of javelinas that blocked our path during our morning stroll through the nature preserve.
These javelinas were the second encounter that we had this morning. They very lazily walked across our path and into the brush. Didn't really give us even a glance.
Our first encounter about twenty minutes earlier was less fun. There were two javelinas off the trail about 10 yards. A male javelina left the female and joined us on the concrete path, staring at us from less than ten yards. Okay, no problem. We'll just back away. Nope, he started trotting towards us. Apparently they can run over 35 mph if inclined. We decided to go off trail and circle around both animals. As soon as we turned our backs, the male began to run faster at us. I turned around and started yelling loudly and waving my arm. The other arm was attached to Callie, and javelinas don't like dogs. Fortunately, the javelina was puzzled by my behavior and stopped following us. No pics of that guy; I was a little busy.
We discovered the packrats when I went to open the built-in gas grill on the back patio. The packrat was just as surprised as me, given that no one had been living in our house for six months. That resulted in another trip to Home Depot where I bought a couple of rat traps that were much, much bigger than the mouse traps that I'm used to. The first night brought success. The second night--not so much. This will likely be an ongoing battle. We covered up the grill openings as much as we could with heavy duty wire fencing, and aluminum plating, where possible.
The final matter to be addressed was with the scorpions. I bought a black light and have been venturing around the house after dark, discovering several of the little buggers each night. Those that I found "went away." I bought some spray that I will apply around the exterior foundation to discourage entry into our home.
That's all the news from this corner of the Sonoran Desert.
6 comments:
I've seen javalina break into rv storage compartments to get at the corn being stored in there, as in tear the doors off. Why they were carrying bags of corn aroumd, I don't know.
We get a few scorpions around the house too. Fortunately, in 30 years I've only been tagged once.
HAH! The adventure continues!
You might try befriending (maybe even buy one) a bull snake. They are popular w petting zoos as they domesticate easily. They're also welcome neighbors or under-the-house pets as they are known to keep the mice and rattlesnakes away.
First hand, I am crap at befriending anybody and possibly anything. Also, we have our share of Texas Rat Snakes to help keep the fieldmouse population down in the barns.
Javelinas are really interesting animals, but I prefer to observe them from a distance.
I probably don’t have 30 good years left so if I can schedule getting tagged thirty years from now; I’ll be a happy camper.
As for bull snakes or any non-poisonous snakes, I’ll gladly welcome them to my yard. But you know me, Michael, I’m too cheap to buy one. After seeing the size of the desert rats around here, one rat would keep a bull snake fed for awhile. We are throwing the kitchen sink at them with traps, coffee grounds and cayenne pepper.
John, one (packrat) moved into the engine compartment of my 3-cyl metro. When I opened the hood it stood up on the air cleaner and indignantly demanded to know why I was disturbing it. We had a three day battle that I won using several pounds of cayenne. All I can say is: GOOD LUCK!
Greg, I swear to god....as near as I can tell you have AT LEAST three friends, John, myself and Steve(?), the other guy who inquired about your whereabouts after you went silent. That's THREE more than none. You're making a liar out of yourself. Please consider that whether you consider us "friends," the fact we keep coming back must mean WE like you. Of course, it has to be reciprocal to qualify under the rubric of "friend" so you're *probably* safe for awhile.
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