Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Well, That was Certainly One for the Books!

         Last fall, my grandson started working with me with the intent of taking over my Pest Control Business ( https://www.nfpestcont.com/ ) OK, that's the commercial for this blog post. Anyway, we were out doing jobs on Monday and just finishing up when I got a call from the caretaker at a local Senior Housing project where I have done work in the past (Usually trapping and removing the raccoons with their young getting into the dumpsters in the May/June time frame! Anyway, I told the guy we'd be there shortly. Seems one of the residents had a bird in her wall and the caretaker couldn't figure out how it got into it. We arrive and go to the unit. Sure enough, coming from the wall at the head of her bed was a "chirp", "chirp", "chirp" sound. The exact sound a bird would make! The woman said she'd been hearing it on and off since early last winter, so the bird would have to be able to get in and out or it would have been dead long ago! Stepped outside to check the roof line looking for any hole where the bird might get in and didn't really see much. There was one spot, but that was a long shot. Didn't hear any chirping either. Went back inside. There was the sound again! Went into the adjoining unit and heard nothing. Now, if a bird was in the wall, wouldn't you think you'd hear it from both sides of the wall?
            Went back into the offending unit and started looking around. My grandson got down on his knees (I have trouble doing that any more), and put his head under the little table that was being used as a night stand. He said the noise was pretty loud under there, so could it be a cricket under the dresser that was right next to the night stand? Pulled out the dresser. Nothing! Pulled out the drawers. Still nothing! So I decided to pull out the drawer in the night stand and the sound got a lot louder. All three of us almost simultaneously saw the problem and said "hearing aids". The woman had put her hearing aids in a little bowl in the drawer without turning them off, and the noise was the hearing aids getting feedback from each other. Problem solved! So even though we deal with "critters", it isn't always "critters" causing the problem!

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Just Trying to Get a Good Night's (Day's) Sleep!

       Last Thursday I got a call from a woman who told me she had a possum in her garage. I informed her I wouldn't be able to make it to her house until the next day. She was fine with that. I told her she might try leaving a trail of dog or cat food out the open garage door and then go shut the door when she went to bed. The possum should have left by then for it's evening foraging. She called me back later, and said she chickened out and didn't want to go into the garage.
       When I showed up the next morning, I found two garage doors with a regular door next to them with passage into the garage and stairs up to the house. I went in through the regular door and checked under the stairs and there was the possum looking at me. "Piece of cake" I thought, and went to get my heavy gloves and hoop pole. I came back in, went under the stairs, and the possum is gone! So I start the search. Looking everywhere. I came to the guys workbench and pulled out a box of rags that had been rounded out in the center and rags plied up around that center area for a nice little bed. Not many possums have that kind of 5 star hotel to sleep in.
       I continued the search, and couldn't find him anywhere. I was about to give up when I saw him under a dresser that was in the garage. I poked around under there to get him to move, because I couldn't get him with the hoop pole under there. Finally, he moved and disappeared again! Now where the hell was he? I went back to the workbench, and saw the tail sticking out of the box of rags. He got tired of my BS and went back to bed! I grabbed his tail, pulled the box out a little and got him behind the head with my other hand and carried him out the door. Of course, the husband had to take the obligatory photo of me holding him before I let him go. The photo must have been good because he (the possum) had his mouth open, looking all vicious! He was a little undersized so I assumed he was one that had been born last spring, and hadn't quite reached full adult size yet. I let him go at the side of the garage and he ran around the corner of the house and through the lattice work surrounding their deck. Told them he would be fine under there. Wouldn't cause any problem..