Oh Rats! The Summer of 2017 was filled with getting rid of lots of rodents – squirrels, mice and rats – at Grieb Ranch. The job fell primarily to Connie who tried many different methods of getting rid of the pests. If you have any secrets to getting rid of squirrels, rats and mice by the hundreds let Connie know. Even with all the rodents she has eliminated, she could still use some advice!
Connie on the Rodent Hunt
Grieb Ranch was beginning to be inundated with rodents, especially ones impacting the living space of the ranch residents. Starting in late May and still working on ridding rodents through October, Grieb Ranch caught, or disposed of 138 Squirrels. In the weeks of October the pest hunting focused mainly on trapping over 63 mice. Rats are the hardest pests to catch. The tally for rats stands at only 4 thus far.
Critter Damage Control
Most of the time Connie simply leaves nature to run its own course . . . however, the health hazards and the damage these little creatures do is UNREAL! These pesky critters carry on a variety of damaging activities like: chewing holes in the walls of the house, carrying rice from the kitchen into the bedroom, chewing holes in Great Grandma’s handmade afghans and much more. Not only that, they cause all to scream as they scurry away trying not to be caught.
Grieb Ranch has employed a wide variety of methods designed to catch these pesky and sneaky critters. They have tried the Ez Set, Squirrelinator, snap traps, Havaheart, 5 gallon buckets with rollers and more.
Critter Encounters
Connie had some interesting encounters with many different types of critters on her quest for pest elimination. Once when checking on the Squirrelinator trap – which holds the live pests in an open metal crate – Connie found it had attracted a rattlesnake!
She also realized migrating eagles were beating up the trap to get at the squirrels. Eventually she removed the trap so the eagles could hunt their own squirrels. Her favorite discovery was finding a baby gopher snake attached to the mouse in the EZ Set trap. Of course she released the mouse so the snake could finish its meal. Hopefully the snake will catch many more mice, just not ones in the set traps.
Ridding the ranch of rodents continues as more squirrels, mice and rats are caught in the traps set up around the parts of the ranch where the people reside.