@GTE I use a bug a salt gun too, but for flies in the house. The flies are SO bad with the warm weather.
She originally wanted to use an axe! I told her that would be a great way to lose some toes, so she settled on bats. Hopefully I gas all of them before then; there's another colony under an old concrete slab in the back yard; the driveway gassing was a good "proof of theory." About your black widow problem: poison, or just learn to live with them. My old shop is literally crawling with brown recluse spiders; too many to take on. Just be careful where you stick your hands.
UPDATE: some rats either came in or out from the driveway. I'd provide pictures, but it's too dark right now. The gassing will resume tomorrow. More updates to come.
Hoping this is the right place. We have had reports of vultures/buzzards in my neighborhood and I just saw 5 chilling scoping out my dog when I went to let her in. Any tried and true methods to get them gone? Noise gets them away for a little bit but I'm looking for a you picked the wrong yard thing. Talked to US Fish and Wildlife and they said I can basically do anything short of killing them or destroying a nest.
cheapo airsoft pistol off amazon. Just shoot it at the branch they’re on to scare them away. If it hits them it won’t really hurt but will scare them off. It’s what I use.
They're likely there for a reason, a food source. Someone's trash, dumpsters nearby, someone dumping carcasses from hunting. Maybe they'll move on soon if that food source dries up. We get them occasionally because of deer and fish carcasses being dumped nearby. They hang out over one guy's house in particular because of fish guts
I'm in the middle of a residential area where most lots are a half acre so I don't think its a recent food source that popped up. I know they're around because of the creek around a mile away and the city has had to put in temporary sonic cannon things near there. I should mention my Mom made me watch Hitchcock's The Birds when I was 4 so its as much not wanting to be terrified as it is don't want them messing up my roof.
roadkill is always a food source. A flattened squirrel or skunk will bring in half a dozen of them, you’d be surprised. I generally like having them around because they coyotes, coons, hogs and what not I’ll occasionally have to dispose of. But when they bring in the hawks with them, that’s when I get more worried for my dogs and cats and try to scare them off.
That, and you'd be surprised how close your city folk neighbors that hunt will dump there guts, spines, heads, legs and hide from a deer after skinning and processing it. Any patch of woods can become a dumping ground for that stuff, particularly if your city doesn't offer some way of disposing of it, and even if they do offer it.
That makes sense. We do have that creek area that's probably a half mile wide of whatever amounts for woods in a city. I extremely dislike the fact they can bring hawks with them. Have 2 that "live" here but as a bird disliking person I don't want any more.
It's supposed to freeze tonight so we pulled tomatoes. This is one plant. I'm off to pick more now. We also processed 3 ducks. It's been very homesteady here today. My mom has been in town and it's been awesome having her help with these tasks.
Agh! I ran out of daylight. Too much stuff to pick. It's going down to 29 tonight and then warming up again so I'll go pick more green peppers tomorrow. I just got the ones I most cared about in but have fucking gobs of cayenne and paprika waiting. A lot of the San marzano and yellow pear toms had split due to heavy rainfall after I stopped watering to hasten ripening. It'll be duck fodder this week. My parents have been extremely impressed with the quality and quantity of toms I've grown. I have to say I feel a little proud.
You definitely kicked some ass this year, nice job! My yield this year was shit... still have a half decent crop of Swiss Chard left, but that's about it. It's all about next year right now... setting up a new indoor seedling and herb setup with Technology Version 2.0.
@Nettdata thanks! I look forward to seeing what you cook up, especially for your herbs. Part of the fun in the off season is planning on how to improve on the next go. I think I'll spend some of the off season reading up on growing certain things that I've never done at all or succeeded with before like beets, turnips, broccoli. I have turnips going now but don't think they are going to turn out well.
I bought a new "weed growing" enclosure that I plan on adding my automation to. It is enclosed, has major ventilation, and I can water/spray all I want and it won't leak out. Initially my setup was just cheap plastic and strapping from Home Despot, and this is definitely an upgrade. The ventilation and filtering alone should be a huge step up. I just have to find the time to modify the cage to better fit the top of my laundry room counter tops... I'm hoping to get that done before XMas. At that point it should house all of my herbs and new seedlings for next year, complete with timed watering, fans, lighting, etc.
Well today didn't go exactly as planned. While doing a deep clean of the goats' shed, I noticed one of them wasn't acting right. Long story short, I suspected he couldn't pee, and the most common cause is a stone blocking the urethra. The vet said she could come and try to do a procedure here, or we could take him to Cornell School Of Veterinary Medicine where they would be able to anesthetize him in a surgical setting. That would also cost at least $1000 so I told her we'd do it the hard way. She came out, and sedated him. With the help of my dear wife who helped me hold him still she had to dig into the sheath a ways to pull his little goat pecker out ( they have weird anatomy, these animals ), ensure the stone was there at the tip, and then cut the tip of his penis off. This resulted in removal of a 2mm stone, and me getting a splash of goat urine and blood in my face. Fortunately my medical background makes keeping my mouth closed during a procedure second nature. I was expecting a completely traumatic shit show and blood bath, but in fact it went really fast. The vet said it was the easiest time she's ever had with one and she was really happy with it. His prognosis is good, I think I caught the signs fast enough to avoid his bladder bursting and killing him. Which would have happened had we not snipped part of his penis. He's sore, but he's peeing. So we have to follow up with our regular vet and make some dietary changes. It was also suggested we have the water and hay tested to check for the calcium and phosphorus levels, which causes this issue for male goats, particularly neutered males. Thankfully it was only a couple hundred bucks, and that's only because it was on a weekend. This shit never happens on weekdays, ya know.