Bunny Trails

[Joy]

And for keeping one's bones not broken from stepping in holes in the ground?

[Grace]

I only saw one groundhog, once this year. Through the crosshairs of my “chuckster”. He did not see me.

Sorry about my naivete, but what is a "chuckster"?

A chuckster is a tool for preserving one's vegetables while they are growing in the garden.

Oh wow. We have neighbors who would call the cops if we shot a "chuckster". We did get bombs from the local hardware store, which are put into the holes. However when I was closing the hole up with dirt after putting the bomb in, I could hear the baby groundhogs crying as they were being gassed down in the hole. I felt so cruel and decided never to do that again. One thing I did learn is that groundhogs hate used cat litter. And we have a cat in the house. So the solution is to dump the used kitty litter in the holes. Excellent deterrent. But I suspect they just find a new location on the neighbor's property.

[Sudsy]

We have a few trails running through our property; mostly small ones...

We have chipmunk highways. There is even a merge of two such paths from the woods that enter the "superhighway" of our row of blueberries that runs up to the exit leading to our bird feeder.

Strangely to me, I haven't seen any chipmunks here in TN, and only a few squirrels. We live in the country with lots of trees...

We don't 't have chipmunks here in the southernmost point of Canada either but as you go further north into cottage country there are lots of them. We do have flying squirrels in Point Pelee that are growing in population and they are the size of a chipmunk. They have a flap of loose skin between their front and back legs and they can soar up to 100 feet from branch to branch.

When we would go north for summer vacation often houseboating along the Trent waterway we would stop at various spots and I would feed the chipmunks peanuts in the shell. I would put the peanuts in my pockets under my glasses, in my ears and lie on the ground or sit in a chair and they would come climb all over me to get the peanuts. Fun to watch how many they would try to stuff in their mouth before taking them to their hiding place. Small red squirrels would come also but they were a bit more timid and they would get into spats with the chipmunks.

I fed squirrels even as a boy. The challenge was to get a black or grey squirrel to trust you enough to climb on your lap and take a peanut from your hand. Sometimes this took hours of sitting still, not even blinking until they gained your trust. It gave a sense of accomplishment to be patient enough to gain their trust.

[Josh]

Personally I’d prefer my neighbours to shoot guns than set off bombs.

[temporal1]

Sorry about my naivete, but what is a "chuckster"?

A chuckster is a tool for preserving one's vegetables while they are growing in the garden.

Oh wow. We have neighbors who would call the cops if we shot a "chuckster". We did get bombs from the local hardware store, which are put into the holes. However when I was closing the hole up with dirt after putting the bomb in, I could hear the baby groundhogs crying as they were being gassed down in the hole. I felt so cruel and decided never to do that again. One thing I did learn is that groundhogs hate used cat litter. And we have a cat in the house. So the solution is to dump the used kitty litter in the holes. Excellent deterrent. But I suspect they just find a new location on the neighbor's property.

For years we lived next to a forest preserve, the trees in our back yard were wonderful everyday.
The squirrels were evil. They drove my mind to dark places.

Their worst sin was commandeering our loved bird feeders.
i attempted numerous deterrents, including covering one metal pole with Vaseline. Temporary inconvenience, at best.

One day i noticed 3 engineers chatting in my kitchen.
my husband, my son, my neighbor.

i formally addressed them as engineers and requested they devise a method to deter/be rid of squirrels. nothing.
i presume the pay offered was not enough.

as far as i know, the squirrels still own that lovely piece of real estate.

Grace,
this is a good example in my mind to reflect the distance between dark thoughts and dark actions.
in my thoughts, i can be “determined” to do “the worst.”
yet. in reality, i could not imagine picking up a gun (or other) and harming or killing.

this started from young. before i can remember. i know because i was told.
my father TRIED to teach me to be practical. total fail. i even felt sorry for him. he was trying to do the right thing. i could see that. but i couldn’t. total fail.

in later years, my mother told me he had some regrets about it. i felt bad. it wasn’t his fault. it’s just that i couldn’t.

even so. i sometimes have dark thoughts. esp about squirrels.
it’s not that i want to inflict harm. it’s just that i want them to-go-away.

Groundhogs are also awful. i would not care to have to deal with them/their networks. i’ve seen them in action.
i would have dark thoughts.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/anim ... /groundhog

Tennessee is tempting. But the snakes. Termites. Pests.

[Robert]

In all the places I have lived, there is always some kind of vermin that causes issues.

I tend to find the country ones much easier to deal with than the two legged city kind.

[Wayne in Maine]

The Chuckster also works good on squirrels. If I notched the stock of my Chuckster for every grey squirrel I shot in the past three years (they ruined my hay barn - even gnawing holes in the siding) it would be whittled down to a stick. I recently swept up the shells around my garage window from where I used to poison the gnawing beasts with lead. I retrieved almost 100 .22mag casings.

What I like most about the Chuckster is that it is a merciful tool. It is extremely accurate so when I aim for the head of a varmint I hit the head. I use Hornady polymer tipped loads and I’m certain that the beast in my sights does not even hear the shot before it is incapable of hearing anything again.

[Grace]

Personally I’d prefer my neighbours to shoot guns than set off bombs.

LOL, before someone sics the ATF and the FBI on us, maybe this website will explain the type of bombs I put in the groundhog holes.

https://www.the-daily-record.com/articl ... /308269509

[Josh]

Personally I’d prefer my neighbours to shoot guns than set off bombs.

LOL, before someone sics the ATF and the FBI on us, maybe this website will explain the type of bombs I put in the groundhog holes.

https://www.the-daily-record.com/articl ... /308269509

I’d actually prefer my neighbours to take a clean shot at a groundhog. Why are your neighbours ours busybodies?

[temporal1]

The Chuckster also works good on squirrels. If I notched the stock of my Chuckster for every grey squirrel I shot in the past three years (they ruined my hay barn - even gnawing holes in the siding) it would be whittled down to a stick. I recently swept up the shells around my garage window from where I used to poison the gnawing beasts with lead. I retrieved almost 100 .22mag casings.

What I like most about the Chuckster is that it is a merciful tool. It is extremely accurate so when I aim for the head of a varmint I hit the head. I use Hornady polymer tipped loads and I’m certain that the beast in my sights does not even hear the shot before it is incapable of hearing anything again.

I’m not sure where I am at this stage of life. Could I be changing? I don’t know.

A couple of weeks ago, my grdaughter, who is also very tender about such things crafted a small snare and placed it under their bird feeders (goal, to be rid of squirrels! lol).
We had NO idea that soon a big bunny would appear!
It lingered, getting closer+closer to the trap!
She was so excited.

I was afraid the thing might actually become entangled, then panic. I could foresee horrible drama - from the rabbit AND the child. Who wouldn’t harm a flea.

I quietly tried to approach her with “what about reality?!” rabbits can kick hard and bite. I saw disaster. I saw a cruelty to animals write up in the Seattle Times.

She told me her overall plan, execution by .. strangling? included. I was not convinced. Well. Possibly the animal might die over days if sufficiently entangled.

I became the wet blanket.
And began asking her if she’d ever fished, cleaned her catch? Or watched? She watched her father once. Ok. That’s a start.

I asked her about BB guns. We stopped at a sporting goods store. It’s Seattle area. No BB guns.

I’ve never had a BB gun.
I’m advising her parents, if they want this, choose a style that’s OBVIOUSLY a BB gun. I think the fake look alikes are dangerous, tempting problems.

I want her to think of consequences. To know hunting+fishing are not cartoon animations. To know real animals are involved - that will fight to live.

What to do with the dead animal?

I think she may be like me on this? I’m not sure. She needs the facts and a lot of them to decide.

BB guns. They come in pink.