Bats Caves and Other Critters

Where ever we have owned a home we had had critters. Our own special pets. Not.

The first house we owned was in a country setting in Rural Southern New Jersey. The lot was about an acre and fully wooded. The people we bought it from, as an aside, mentioned that they had an exterminator come out every month 'cause it was buggy. What she did not mention were the bugs were sand fleas. OMG by the time we figured out what was going on, the house was infested and I was pregnant. The pregnancy had nothing to do with the infestation.

We hired an exterminator and I moved in with my parents for a few days until it was safe to be inside the house.

The next house we owned was lovely. We were in a subdivision this time. The house was only 3 years old when we bought it and was a great place to raise the messy boys. They had lots of other messy boys in the neighborhood to play with, without the need to drive them everywhere for play dates.

A couple of years after we moved in Spousal Unit and I were in the kitchen and I saw some movement coming up the stairs from the basement. I told Spousal Unit and we went looking for what it might be. We found it up against a window in our bedroom. It was a bat. We got dressed for bat hunting. I had a racquetball racket, hat, and winter coat for protection and Spousal Unit was similarly dressed, but he wielded the baseball bat. It is also the middle of a St. Louis Summer. We looked rather silly. We were successful and got the bat. Unfortunately, several days later the bat resurrected itself.

We called the exterminator. The exterminator determined we had bats in our belfry. Lots of them. A whole colony. We moved out for a few days while the colony was relocated to more bat friendly areas and had the pencil sized holes sealed up.

We moved to the current house. I call it my fiefdom. The house is just outside of the city limits and worlds away from town style life. I have several neighbors that have similar fiefdoms. We are all friendly, but usually keep to ourselves unless someone is in need or we have a gathering. This house has pets also. We have a herd of deer that live in the forested area of the property. The deer come to visit often, munching their way through my orchards and gardens. I do not think the blueberry bushes will come back this year. Because of the move, I am not planting a vegetable garden. Poor things will have to go visit the neighbors.

We have still more pets. Recently, I went out to the screened in porch to get some seed for the bird feeders. I turned on the light to the porch and was greeted with....Zoom, out goes a raccoon. I, of course, scream like the little girl that I am. I jump on the picnic table bench and ... Zoom, out goes another raccoon. Screaming yet again, Son #2 is now outside looking for me, thinking that I fell down the stairs and broke something. Just in time for Zoom.... yet a third raccoon ran past me. They had figured out how to open the birdseed bin and were having a little snack. We changed the container and now they just come by, on occasion, to say hello.

Last, but not least, is our opossum. He lived in the gas grill. Spousal Unit discovered him while changing out the propane tank. Both were a little taken aback, initially. The possum decided that visiting hours were over, for the moment, and went his merry way. He comes back to visit on occasion also, but has decided that he only wants to vacation there, not have a permanent address.

On a later post I might discuss the circle birds, squirrels, and coyotes.