Durango Divison Under Attack From The Air

Originally posted by Vic


Priththee mine friend and where doth such thread be located upon this board?:D Methinks that me trigger finger is beset with the dread stiffness of age and that mine eyesight be as murky waters.:D Alas! How doeth I long for the alternative solution:D :D :D :D
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Vic,

Tryeth thee at: one year, 1000 miles and thou shall learnith thee about frogs, flys and the sort.
 
Re: I'm Sorry Val

Originally posted by Vic
I didn't mean to make you Boo-Hoo Val:oops: They can be cute little critters but they are a terrible problem here. The reason being is that here it is not cold enough for them to hibernate in the winter and they multiply all year long:eek:
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Thanks Vic. I understand a lot better now. Another problem with removing the natural habitat is that it also removes the natural predators too, leading to the proliferation of "pests" of all stripe. As I say this I am reminded of the evening a skunk boldly sauntered onto our back deck one evening while we were enjoying the summer air. One of the cats decided to give chase and we watched in dismay, calling her frantically. Fortunately for all concerned the cat thought better of it.
Some years ago a neighbour began feeding the squirrels which led to a massive increase in their population with the result that lawns were dug up, roofs chewed into etc. Raccoons will do this too.
A friend's mother had a family of raccoons move into her attic. Her solution, which I thought was brilliant, consisted of placing an AM radio blasting heavy metal music 24/7. Within 2 days the raccoons left to find a quiter home!
Back when I lived in an older apartment building I had a mouse problem. Sitting at my kitchen table I kept hearing a strange noise. I would look over but couldn't see anything. This happened a few times. Finally I just stared until I saw a little mouse, peaking up from the burner on the stove. It crawled out, ran along the edge of the counter and hopped into the toaster!
I grabbed a garbage bag, put the toaster inside and took it outdoors. I turned the toaster upside down in the bag and gave it a good shake. When I looked in the bag there were 5 cute little mice running around in there. So, being the ______ (a. flaky or b. gentlehearted) type that I am, I picked each one up in turn, brought it up to make eye contact, and gave it a stern lecture. "I'm letting you go this time, but don't ever come back. If you do it will be very bad for you". Oddly enough, they never did!

:D Val
 
The Ant Goddess

While I'm on a roll I thought of another "pest" story. Many years ago I lived in a warehouse studio. My bed was up on a 2x4 platform, and being kind of messy I had left a plate of shortbread crumbs up there for a couple days. Unfortunately it was spring and all the ants were coming out of hibernation and foraging for food. One afternoon I noticed that there was a "caravan route" in through a crack under the window, along the sill, up the power cord and across my pillow to said plate of crumbs. Cursing my sloth I cleaned up, but the next day the caravan was still travelling it's merry way.

A roommate said that ants don't like bay leaves, so I crushed and scattered a bunch along the window sill. The next day the ants were still plying their route. "Ants may dislike bay leaves" I thought, "but I need to make them fear them".

So, crushing some more bay leaves to get the smell all over my fingers and the power cord, I then proceeded to crush some ants as well - about 6 or 7. I dropped a couple onto the windowsill, at the spot where the ants were getting in. Of course, ants, when they come across a dead comrade will carry the body back to their hole, and that's what these did. I dropped a couple more. It was my intention to have the ant associate the smell of bay leaves with death.

Soon, to my complete amazement, more ants came back through the opening carrying the "fallen". They tossed them over the edge, and then jumped themselves!!!!!!!!!! Clearly, they had not only put 2 and 2 together and concluded the smell was the cause of death, but the contaminated ants who were the bearers sacrificed themselves.

I concluded from this astonishing experience that the other creatures of this world are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for.

And, although the guy in the studio beside mine had ants all over his place, I never had another one!

Oh, and just so that I'm not totally off-topic, the CNR yards were at the foot of the street.


:eek: Val
 
Ah, gentle hearted ladies like Val and my wife are the reason I always end up boiling the lobsters......

Personally, I have three cats, so my mouse problems are limited to cleaning up afterward on the rare occaision one comes in (I think it's happened twice in the past 10 or 12 years). Otherwise I'd probably use a similar technique to Val's, "Don't you DARE come back into my home!" <flush>
 
Val...When we had our house about 35 years ago, we got inundated with ants. No matter what we did we could not get rid of them. Then somebody told us to save all our used coffee grounds, spread them around the outside of the house and and throw some under the house. We noticed that slowly the ants dissapeared (disappeared) and as long as we kept spreading the coffee grounds around the house, we never had ants.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
 
Ants In The Pants

From the VAULT OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE comes this tidbit....

The are two kinds of ants prevelent in North America that will invade your home. The first is a sugar ant....that's the little tiny ones who like to get in your chocolate cake....and the grease ant...thats the big black ones that like your garbage pail.

The way "Bubba" gets shed of ants at his house is to sprinkle some uncooked grits where the ants are...the ants eat the dry grits and swell up and die!!.....Try it ....IT WORKS!!!!:thumb: :D
 
Once in Las Cruces

When I belonged to the Mesilla Valley Model Railroad Club our layout was the second floor of a ATSF water treatment building (for steam loco tender water). The meeting room was downstairs.
The building is solid concrete and the upstairs had a door at one end and a small window on the other and is in the middle of the Las Cruces Yard, so as you would think , we thought we were safe from most insect and animal attacks.
We had a 2 week period that covered a holiday and no one had been to the layout during that time .
When we returned and had our short meeting and then retired to upstairs , the unthinklable had happened.
A passer-by had thrown a rock through the small section of window showing above the air conditioner , into which came the 7 pidgions that had found a new warm home for 2 weeks or so.
I could not even begin to decribe the 100's of things a pigieon can do to a layout but it was all there.
Val you would be glad to know that no animals were harmed in the saving of this layout , except the humans who had to clean up that mess.
Wire was then installed over the window glass , not so much for the rock but those birds had to stay out!
Mike
 
Re: The Ant Goddess

Originally posted by spitfire

Soon, to my complete amazement, more ants came back through the opening carrying the "fallen". They tossed them over the edge, and then jumped themselves!!!!!!!!!!
:eek: Val
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Hi Val,
Obviously these were VIKING ANTS!!!....Following a battle the Vikings would toss their fallen comrades over the nearest cliff....and if they had lost the battle the survivors would jump off too to avoid facing their ruler when they returned home.!!!!:D :D :D
 
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