Re: [CH] Re: I'VE BEEN ATTACKED

Chad A Gard (gard@indy.net)
Fri, 1 Jun 2001 11:31:50 -0500 

>It just hasn't been my experience that one has to shoot cats to get them
>out of a home garden.   The hose gets the point across just fine.

I'm owned by a cat, and love them, so I, of course, wouldn't agree with
shooting one, either.  I'm still thinking that the particularly pepper
trauma described doesn't sound like a cat.  My cat doesn't eat plants
('course, it's an indoor-only cat), but my old room mate's cat did.  It
wouldn't cut the stems off clean that way, but would rather chew/shread off
the leaves.

But, for the non-violent trying to get rid of many pests (not my problem
possum, obviously), there are ways to have fun getting rid of them.  I am
into home automation using a macintosh software product called "XTesnion."
XTension has a pretty active email list, and pest control often plays into
discussion.  One of the most popular ways to deal with dogs, deer, birds
(especially geese, which it seems many people have problems with), and
unruly neighborhood children is utilizing an irrigation system and motion
sensors. If the system doesn't think/know you're out there, it turns on the
sprinklers.  After a few occurrences of getting dowsed every time they
enter the garden, the pests tend to go bother someone else.

There's a fun way I took to dealing with my squirrel problem.  I rent and
can't install an irrigation system, and irrigating trees up 90 feet is
pointless anyway.  My problem was the squirrles, which I don't usualy mind,
would throw accorns at people and cars.  They seriously would aim for you,
and an accorn dropping from 90 feet hurts the head and dents the car.  So,
I took a toy, called the "skyway racer" and gave them another way to amuse
themselves.  The skyway racer was discontinued in the late '80's or early
'90's, but is a really cool toy (you can occasionally still find them at
Toys 'r us and at KB kids' website.  It is a little gondola that hangs from
a "track" of monofilament cord, simmilar to fishing line.  It has a remote
control with two buttons, forward and reverse.  I used some green
plastic-coated steel cable to replace the track it came with, and made a
little circuit through the trees in the back yard.  I then hacked the
buttons for the remote into the home automation system.  Now, at random
times in the evening and morning, the skyway racer zips forwards and
backwards arround the track.

My initial thought was that it could scare them away.  But it turns out
even better.  They actually enjoy the thing, and "play" with it.  That's
nice, because the squirrels can be fun to watch and don't really bother me
now that they're not dropping accorns on people's heads.  They just needed
a diversion.


Chad Gard, CTS KB9WXQ
INCHASE: http://www.inchase.org  Co-founder
SCOA: http://www.stormchasersofamerica.org  Member #3
INSWA:  http://www.insw.org Unit #21