| |
Country
cures
tame pesky farm crittersby
Delbert Trew | |
Most
western people have heard that placing a lariat rope on the ground around your
bedroll will keep snakes away.
All my life I have heard this tale but never
trusted the saying as the gospel truth because some racers are going too fast
to stop at a rope.
No
one knows why, but occasionally rats will choose to invade a farm or ranch. As
this is definitely a health and safety hazard, every effort should be made at
eradication.
A friend near Shamrock suffered such an invasion on his ranch
overnight. It was frightening for the family, plus as damage soared, he was at
wits end as rat poison would also be dangerous to family pets.
An employee,
hailing from another country, solved the problem with a bale of hay, a 2-inch
by 2-inch board and a half barrel of water. He placed the half barrel in the barn
and filled it about half full of water, then placed the bale of hay nearby. Wedging
the board under the bale wires on one end, he extended the board out over the
barrel about halfway. The rats ran down the board trying to get a drink of water,
fell off into the water and drowned. They buried buckets of dead rats for days
before complete eradication.
My mother always stuffed steel wool in every
little mouse hole she found. A few years ago we remodeled, and behind nearly every
baseboard we found steel wool. Whenever she passed her remedy on to someone else,
Dad would always smile and say, "I hold their little legs."
Grandpa
and Grandma Trew dipped snuff
as long as I can remember. Before planting their garden each spring, they soaked
the seeds in "snuff water" overnight to keep the bugs, worms and birds from ruining
the seeds. They always had a beautiful garden.
We had a neighbor during
the Dust Bowl years who always scattered snuff into his wheat drill seed box to
keep the Army worms away from seed after planting. Don't know if it worked, but
he believed it faithfully. I have heard that you can mix snuff with water and
spray it on plants, shrubs and small trees to keep the deer away.
Ivy
Alexander of Lefors, a deceased friend of mine, told of an early day oil-field
problem where woodpeckers sometimes pecked holes in the old soft redwood or cypress
tank batteries, causing leaks. How this solution was derived I can't imagine,
but merely by painting a circle around the pecked place with white paint, the
bird would never return.
To stop woodpeckers from pecking holes in your
house, a 1980 magazine article says to mix a thin slurry of flour water, add finely
chopped jalapeno peppers, chopped cayenne peppers, a small bottle of Tabasco sauce
and a touch of turpentine. Paint this mixture around the most vulnerable parts
of your house. One peck and the ornery pest will never return.
The article
further states that any mixture left over can be used as a dip with chips. It's
quite possible this will also keep unwanted guests away from your next party.
(NOTE: Don't use too much turpentine in the dip.)
© Delbert
Trew
"It's All Trew"
June 12,
2007 Column
E-mail: trewblue@centramedia.net.
More
Texas Animals |
|
|
