Dec 2nd, 2016: World War 1-A
In the spring of 1918 there were two wars going on. Of course you know about the one in Europe against the Huns, but your teachers
probably never mentioned the war in California… against Ground Squirrels. Quote:
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Those things are, in fact, downright pestilential! Some years back, my mom was getting upset because although her chickens were young and healthy she thought they had stopped laying eggs. She had like 7 hens, and was getting maybe 2 eggs a week total.
And then one day she opened the coop just in time to see good old O. beecheyi (which is found all over the West Coast) rolling a fresh egg down a burrow hidden under a corner nest box. They're NOT just vegetarian. They'll eat just about anything if they think they want it, up to and including live baby chickens, eggs, dog food, beehives, and anything in a bird feeder. And they breed FAST--they start young and have big litters that don't come up out of the burrow until they're already fast enough to dodge a dog. We have a different species of ground squirrel around here where I live, maybe Richardson's but I haven't checked carefully. With all the pets and kids around here, I think the preferred methods of colony eradication are 1: pave the open, shortgrass spaces where they like to hang out (they don't like being in tall grass because it obstructs their view of the sky) and 2: pump inert, odorless heavier-than-air gas down the warren (and then plug holes because OMG the stench). The high school grounds are completely infested, despite routine gassing to keep the football field pristine. |
What kind of Alt-Right hate mongering is this? I demand the cellar create safe spaces for squirells! And squirrels, too, I suppose. While we're at it.
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Are you a tree rat or ground rat? :eyebrow:
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They are rodents and will eat house siding, car wire harnesses, rubber gasket on house vent pipes, tv cable wiring, fuse boxes, shingles etc, just ask me, I am not a fan of this furry little creature. Chipmunks are number 2 on my list.
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But they're so cute ... until you see them gnawing on a dead bird's wing right under the bird feeder. That was when I looked 'em up and learned that, yass, these cuties are rodents and (like rodents everywhere) are omnivorous and will do whatever it takes to survive.
Which isn't so different from the rest of us ... And they're darned intelligent, which is a dangerous weakness of mine. I'll forgive an intelligent animal quite a lot. Enlisting children to poison squirrels, though? Wow. Handle the poison carefully, children! But still handle it! |
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