Along with all the wildlife outside, we get some wildlife inside too.
This house has a "daylight basement," a term I was unfamiliar with before moving here. We are built on a slope, and the lower half of the slope is built up with cinder blocks, creating a basement of sorts. It's not finished by any stretch. It looks more like an enclosed underside of a porch. The chimney base for the fireplace is there, and there are rafters from the floor above. The previous owners built some shelves into the sides (not very well) and we put our gas water heater down there.
It's just a dirt floor with tarp over it, and we discovered it can flood when it's been raining a lot. I hope to build new shelves and box stuff in more plastic tubs this summer.
We have to be careful to keep it closed up, otherwise we'll have critters take up residence down there. We *really* don't want skunks or possums down there. Liberty (our dog) helps to keep some of that away, but smaller rodents can be a problem.
I think they can find their way up along the chimney. There's an open area in the back of the fireplace, and it's also possible there are large enough holes from pipes & such that weren't sealed off. As we fix up the house, we're taking care of some of these things, but we're working on the other side of the house right now.
So, occasionally, there's a mouse. Regular old mousetraps work well. The kids tried a few times to "save" the mouse to get it outside, but it escaped each time. Last night, we heard the mousetrap snap. So Lee's managed to get 2 total now, in the 6 years we've lived here so far... As of yet, the mice have not attacked Lee.
:)
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3 comments:
Cats are much better at pest control than dogs. Dogs scare critters into hiding. Cats are sneaky little bastards (don't get me wrong, I like them) and take great pride in their work. You can't beat that combination for pest control!
My mom tells of a mouse\rat catching dog called 'old dumb' from her youth on the farm. He was a neighbors dog, he would drop him off at the various farms for a week and he would proceed to kill every rodent on the ground and leave them in a pile on the driveway. He did this for enjoyment while the cats did it for food. So he would have a greater rodent death per hour then your average cat.
Sure, there are always exceptions to the rule. Dogs acting like cats and vice-versa. I have seen cats that fetch and answer when they are called. I wonder if our pets have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy when they behave contrary to their society norms?
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