Rodent magnet.
So. Haven't had a mouse problem for close to a year now, since I figured out how they were climbing onto the pantry shelves. Imagine, then, my surprise, on arriving home just now, to discover the Pop Tarts and chocolate chips strewn about the pantry floor, another bag shredded, a jar tipped.
Here's where it gets bad. It's not a mouse.
A large hole has been gnawed or clawed into the kitchen window screen (less than a year old: the landlord will be happy about that). I'm on the second floor.
It's an effing SQUIRREL.
If the squirrel is still in the kitchen, it's dead, because god knows those suckers can't keep quiet when they panic, and I've been clomping around and swearing enough that it would have panicked.
Pros: Squirrels are marginally smarter than mice. This one apparently knew how to get out of the kitchen, whereas the mice always seemed to get sort of confused about that. If the pillaged shelf is any indication, bowel control is not as much of an issue for squirrels as it is for mice.
Cons: Way the hell larger. They can climb anywhere. The claws can obviously do some serious damage. I don't think you can buy an indoor squirrel trap, and I don't even want to consider how I'd handle emptying such a thing. Squirrels are cute enough to make you feel guilty for wishing them dead, too.
Sarah suggested that I sprinkle capsaicin around the window. But the cayenne doesn't seem to be doing much in the garden. (Maybe I should upgrade to pepper spray. Do you think that would work?) Sarah also mentioned a friend who has managed to keep squirrels away by pouring coyote urine around the area to be protected.
Coyote urine. Okay. It makes sense that this would work, but I have several questions. Where does one obtain coyote urine? Do you have to find the dealer standing beneath a pair of cowboy boots slung over a power line? Is there an enterpreneur out there who, even now, is scheming to become chief coyote urine supplier to the whole Midwest? Is it safe to assume my neighbors would react poorly if I started pouring coyote urine out of the second-floor window? Is it possible that, in combination with the pepper spray, it would just make our clean, woodsy little alley smell like every other alley in Chicago?
Here's where it gets bad. It's not a mouse.
A large hole has been gnawed or clawed into the kitchen window screen (less than a year old: the landlord will be happy about that). I'm on the second floor.
It's an effing SQUIRREL.
If the squirrel is still in the kitchen, it's dead, because god knows those suckers can't keep quiet when they panic, and I've been clomping around and swearing enough that it would have panicked.
Pros: Squirrels are marginally smarter than mice. This one apparently knew how to get out of the kitchen, whereas the mice always seemed to get sort of confused about that. If the pillaged shelf is any indication, bowel control is not as much of an issue for squirrels as it is for mice.
Cons: Way the hell larger. They can climb anywhere. The claws can obviously do some serious damage. I don't think you can buy an indoor squirrel trap, and I don't even want to consider how I'd handle emptying such a thing. Squirrels are cute enough to make you feel guilty for wishing them dead, too.
Sarah suggested that I sprinkle capsaicin around the window. But the cayenne doesn't seem to be doing much in the garden. (Maybe I should upgrade to pepper spray. Do you think that would work?) Sarah also mentioned a friend who has managed to keep squirrels away by pouring coyote urine around the area to be protected.
Coyote urine. Okay. It makes sense that this would work, but I have several questions. Where does one obtain coyote urine? Do you have to find the dealer standing beneath a pair of cowboy boots slung over a power line? Is there an enterpreneur out there who, even now, is scheming to become chief coyote urine supplier to the whole Midwest? Is it safe to assume my neighbors would react poorly if I started pouring coyote urine out of the second-floor window? Is it possible that, in combination with the pepper spray, it would just make our clean, woodsy little alley smell like every other alley in Chicago?