TheBanyanTree: Groundhog Day

[Cecil]

At 9:37 AM -0400 6/16/04, Sharon Mack wrote:
>I have been having the "Battle of the Groundhog(s)" going on at my house
>for three summers.  First it was one fat little old lady (I really
>didn't know if she was old or  a female at the time).  I dutifully
>sprinkled all of my plants (her delectables) with Cayenne pepper and it
>seemed to be keeping her eating at the weeds on the lawn until one day
>it rained and I was away and couldn't refresh my sprinklings.  I came
>home to all of my Zinnias, marigolds and black-eyed Susans eaten down to
>the nub.  I was horrified and very angry at our fat little fiend (no
>spelling error here).
>
>Since it was near the end of the summer, I left well enough alone and
>continued my pepper sprinkling on the remainder of my flowers (which
>weren't many) to finish out the season.
>
>Last summer was more of the same, only this time I added mothballs and
>dog doo-doo to my regimen.  I hung moth cakes from the bushes, garnished
>the yard with moth flakes and dumped mothballs and dog feces down the
>holes.  She temporarily took her appetite elsewhere, but I had to keep
>those mothballs, flakes, cakes and doo-doo fresh or that would be the
>end of the flowers.  Once again, toward the end of summer, I took a
>short trip to Maryland to see family.  While I was gone she kicked the
>mothballs and dog feces out of her hole, avoided the hanging cakes and
>ate the bulbs and roots under the ground.  I came home to wilted and
>dead flowers and no bulbs came up this spring!! Now I was MAD!!!!  I
>vowed next year to kill her.
>
>Well, I have tried poisons in the holes, breaking down the holes (which
>are only redug), and spraying repellants on the yard,  supposedly used
>on golf courses to keep the critters at bay.  For a while I didn't see
>her and I began to sigh in relief.  I'd done it, I'd killed (or
>repelled) the critter. (I have NEVER felt glad about killing a critter
>before).
>
>Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Too soon did I sigh.  She has now reappeared
>(and I say "she" with confidence) with four.....yes that's right,  FOUR
>little exact images of herself!  I was horrified.  Now I'm taking the
>dog out there ten times a night chasing them off.  So tonight means
>WAR!
>
>I am buying the mothball supplies....lots and lots of them, several
>large bag of rocks, and a longer hose.  I am going to flush the last two
>holes (at least I think they are the last two....on my property at
>least) and then load each hole with mothballs and dump a LOAD of stones
>to close them up.  Then when I am done I am staking the dogs out in the
>yard until it is dark.  If I was good with a gun and didn't live in the
>city limits, I'd shoot them, I swear.
>
>Unfortunately, it is illegal to trap them and move them here in my
>little city.  They tell me you can't take your pests and dump them on
>someone else (which I would definitely be upset if someone did that to
>me).  You can either kill them or put up with them (that's what they
>told me, honestly!) or make them so miserable they move on their own.  I
>guess I'm stuck with making them miserable.
>
>Now I ask you....is all this worth a few flowers??  Maybe next year
>I'll give it all up and plant day lilies all over.  They don't seem to
>like those at all.
>
>Any ideas anyone??  I'm fresh out!

Trap 'em and then kill 'em. Is it illegal to shoot a BB gun there?

Cecil