Like when I was vacuuming up ladybugs? There's a valve in the cleaner bag so I didn't think anything of it. I went back an hour later and they were crawling all over the hose.. You'll be lucky if it doesn't beat you home!
Moving a young raccoon
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ponytug
Super Member
I'm sure that there is a story behind why you were vacuuming up ladybugs in the first place. Did they invade the house? Your truck...?
They migrate and overwinter in a couple places near here, and it is wild to walk down the trail and see what looks like all of the trees and shrubs around you are alive, covered with moving, shimmering bark, packed solid with ladybugs so densely that they are all crawling over each other.
All the best,
Peter
(Who is currently waiting for the annual influx to turn up and start munching on the aphids in the garden...)
Yeah, the closer you get to raccoons, the less cute they begin to appear. If you have ever trapped a large boar raccoon in a cage and go to pick it up, you honestly begin to fear for your own safety. The growl they emit sounds like a mountain lion.
And they can back it up... A groundhog can slice up a dog in a fight.
A large raccoon is looking to eat the darned dog after the fight...
They are omnivores - if you have a garden or orchard (as I do), they can do tremendous damage in one night. Those peaches you spent all year spraying...gone, except for the pits at the base of the tree... Bread, fruit, corn, eggs, chicken...well, you get the idea. Thank the Lord they aren't bigger or they would be out in the fields at night with our beef and a bottle of A1 sauce.
To put it in perspective, my lovely wife is the kindest person you might meet. But...after a large amount of glassware she had was absolutely destroyed by a raccoon sow and her kits in a storage building on the farm, I captured the offender in a cage and placed it on the tailgate of my truck. As she passed the shop, I pointed to the raccoon and gave the thumbs up or thumbs down sign to her. Without hesitation, she turned her thumb down.
Lessons learned...first, raccoons do tremendous damage. Secondly, never piss off a quiet woman.
What I call ladybugs are something released at some point in an attempt to get rid of another pest, I don't recall what. They are bad here in late winter, getting into houses by the hundreds. They are an annoyance just because there are so many; flying into your face, landing in your pot of spagetti sauce on the stove, dying and leaving carcasses everywhere.
Dftodd
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The ground hog was crying after being shot according to the post.Cryingover a ground hog?Jeessh, as a teen I used to trap them for sport and club the fers in the head or shoot the little destructive suckers.
Can't imagine crying over a damn GH. I try to run them over if I'm in the truck.
over a ground hog?Jeessh, as a teen I used to trap them for sport and club the fers in the head or shoot the little destructive suckers. Another member misread said post.
That's hilarious. Thank you for sharing that. Some of the folks get way too serious on here. If you've still got your major limbs after an event, say thank you to some deity and move on. And for heaven's sake, laugh a little bit...
Dftodd
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Back in highschool my grandparents lived across the road from us and up the hill.
Both houses overlooked the horse pasture in front of my grandparents house.
3 mornings in a row, a 1/2hr before I needed to wake up, I would hear a gun shot.
Then the phone would ring and my grandmother would say "woodchuck 1, grandpa 0"
There was a wood chuck that would climb up on a stump near the lower gate. And grandpa was looking to get rid of it, before one of the horses found a hole and broke a leg.
Three days in a row, grandpa missed the groundhog.
Day 4, I set my alarm, went out with my 30-30 onto the front porch. Lined up the wood chuck and sqeazed the trigger, dropping the wood chuck just before grandpa took his shot.
I then went inside and called over and said, the wood chuck is taken care of, I was going back to bed
Both houses overlooked the horse pasture in front of my grandparents house.
3 mornings in a row, a 1/2hr before I needed to wake up, I would hear a gun shot.
Then the phone would ring and my grandmother would say "woodchuck 1, grandpa 0"
There was a wood chuck that would climb up on a stump near the lower gate. And grandpa was looking to get rid of it, before one of the horses found a hole and broke a leg.
Three days in a row, grandpa missed the groundhog.
Day 4, I set my alarm, went out with my 30-30 onto the front porch. Lined up the wood chuck and sqeazed the trigger, dropping the wood chuck just before grandpa took his shot.
I then went inside and called over and said, the wood chuck is taken care of, I was going back to bed
My father had a lifelong war with woodchucks; which got a little tougher when the city expanded it's no shoot zone. After he passed away in 2017 I told my mother "let's not worry about them. You don't have a garden and they really aren't bothering anything.
It's amazing how many there are on the property now. The entrance to one den is under the garden shed; one year there were 3 babies and when I mowed the lawn they would all come out and watch.
It's amazing how many there are on the property now. The entrance to one den is under the garden shed; one year there were 3 babies and when I mowed the lawn they would all come out and watch.
Suburban Plowboy
Platinum Member
I have to come clean. I was the one I cried about the groundhog.
