Having Fun With Endangered Species Can Be Fun

By:b hirst

Yes, do have FUN with endangered species in your home and garden, just like you have fun with NASCAR. Enjoy watching from a distance those who are at great risk, rooting for them to live through all their "trials and tribulations." Make sure that we all can continue to have fun with endangered species and think very carefully about where you place traps and poison baits for mice and rats. Seriously, if you accidentally kill an animal of an endangered specie, accidentally or not, the result is still a dead animal none of us can afford to lose one more of...

It's true: Nibbling field mice do more damage to young trees than deer and rabbits combined. Yes, combined!

It's true: Mice inhabit just about every single structure that surrounds us. Mice live in practically everybody's house, most definitely including yours! We just don't realize it.

The little house mouse eats only 3 grams per day, like a hundredth, 1/100, of a pound total. It requires even less water. It doesn't seem like much until you see the critter in you kitchen or pantry. Any real estate agent will tell you how commonly sellers of houses who dearly loved their homes, kept 'em spotlessly clean, kept 'em perfectly maintained, and honestly told the buyers there were, of course, no mice at all, when large heavy pieces of furniture are moved from the corners of dead-end rooms, especially rarely used storage areas, often in the basement, mouse droppings, even dead mice, are found. This can be considered "not fun with not-endangered species." But it's true. It happens all the time.

Black rats, also known as roof rats, are incredible when it comes to being vertically adept. As the moniker "roof rat" implies, these guys are well known for inhabiting the insides of roofs, but even moreso, the uppermost floors of skyscrapers. No foolin' around here, the fleas on the fur of black rats were responsible for the spread of the Black Plagues, the Bubonic Plagues in Europe. Forget for the moment what's in the saliva of the rats. The Black Death first struck in 1347-1352, and has reoccurred occasionally every century since. There was a notable pandemic in 1855 affecting India and China. Today, rats with infected fleas are found throughout the entire United States. Wanna have one climb on you while you're sleeping? Do ya, huh?

The point of the information presented above is that we all must accept how mice live with us; always have, probably always will, and they're not at all welcome. They obviously come in to houses through open doors and unscreened windows, but any little gap in the foundation, floors and exterior walls, etc. is "Mouse Highway 101."

There are good reasons why we at Highland Hill Farm advocate the use of baits and poisons for mice and rats. We don't take the matter of killing lightly.

It's true: There are proven examples of Black Rats and moreso, the larger, meaner, Norway Rats, the other main specie of "rodentus rattus," that come up through septic field discharge pipes and sewage pipes, swimming through the waste water in the "P-trap," and then through the water in toilet bowls to leap out and into bathrooms. Yikes.

These little rodents are "commensual," as biological scientists describe them. Therefore, we all have to give in and do battle. When the weather turns noticeably frigid in winter, the mice and rats seek warmth as well as food, and that means they seek the "inside." Having housecats does help keep 'em away, or remove the successful intruders. There are some repellents, natural/organic, chemical, or ultra-frequency sonic soundwave generators, that will help. But nothing is 100% effective. Sorry. Nothing.

So, we "murder" the mice and rats that get inside our homes, or ravage the precious trees and crops we work so hard to plant and nurture outside. Just be sure you don't commit negligent "animalcide," or, "animalslaughter" in the second degree. Seriously, placing traps and baits outdoors has be so much more selectively designed, ya gotta think about it's consequences so much more carefully, than placement in a storage room in your house.

It can be a felony to kill endangered species. Wouldn't that be a fun way to get yourself into prison? "Hi, I beat up and robbed four different people, what are you in for?" Then, you'll be able to answer, "Oh, well, I um, accidentally poisoned an endangered species animal."

Be sure that you kill the right critters. Then, in Pennsylvania, enjoy watching the Small-footed Myotis Bat, a superb insect eater, or the fuzzy feathered Least Shrew, or the magnificent Horn-Rimmed Owl, for instance. Have fun, knowing the members of such endangered species you are watching are not further endangered by you.

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Article keywords: Nursery, Tips, From, Highland, Hill, Farm, Having, Fun, With, Endangered, Species, Can, Be, Fun, Kindly, Killing, Backyard, and, Household, Critte

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Bill likes to dumpster diver and is Americas most sucessful Urban miner - farmer. His web sites include www.seedlingsrus.com www.highlandhillfarm.com and www.zone5trees.com