Woofie, they would put you in jail for that.

Hmmm, don't think I should put out traps along the roadway, eh? Darn! Hey, how big do you suppose they make those Havahart traps anyway?

If it was for some one my size it wouldn't have to be very tall, but would need to be extra wide.

Bait in a Havahart to catch Lynn would have to be some semps like: Hot Boyz or Cherry Tart...

Oh dear, Bev, you have no idea how funny those names are in this particular situation!

I don't have those.
I really must think before walking into something that is displaying those semps.

Hee hee, just be veeeeery careful if you venture into NE WA!

Gotta watch for those Havahart traps, ya know!

Woofie, got those names from Lynn's want list and never thought of the complementary nature of the two...

Old, I was on the Havahart site when I first got the trap and read about the cantaloupe. I did try that as bait before the corn on the cob. Most of the cantaloupe had disappeared from the trap but the trap was unsprung. By coincidence, I baited with cantaloupe again tonight. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

On a related topic, I'm a small fruit backyard grower. I had to work the last three days and was eagerly waiting to get out to my seaberry plants earlier today. On Monday, my young plants (which are just now starting to fruit) had berries that were just starting to color up. I was thinking I would net them today. Well, this afternoon, there was not a single berry to be found. The %&^##@$ robins had taken every single berry. Robins are the worst. I hate them a hundred times more than groundhogs. As a backyard grower of small fruit, I don't have a lot of space to devote to any one type or variety, so when the robbing's show up, they get the whole crop of everything that's starting to ripen. Fighting the robins is a constant battle. Moving plants into the hoop house or covering with net is a constant drain on time and resources. And no matter what I do, the robins win. Later in the evening, I kicked at a baby robin that had fallen out of a tree. I missed it, which is a good thing as I would have felt guilty about killing it. But the gloves are going to come off one of these days. Robins do millions of dollars of damage to small fruits. That's blueberries, raspberries, cherries, etc. They devastate the harvest of backyard growers like me. If rats had wings, they wouldn't be as bad as robins. I dream of omelets made from blue eggs...

Sorry, Lynn, my Hotboyz died, but I do have a Cherry Tart.

I hate robins, too! Nasty creatures. Had one attack me once, too! My neighbor raises raspberries and strawberries and her husband made a rather large dent in the local population of robins. As much work as they put into their garden, can't say I blame him.

We have a nursery up the street that is owned by an older gentleman (I actually believe that he is rapidly approaching 100 years if he is not there already). As his place is tucked in the hills, he has been doing battle with nature for many, many years (I met him 30 years ago and he had already been there a very long time - and, yes, was getting up in the years then, too - I think he was in his 70's when we met (?) ). When I first purchased humane traps from hm, he told me that some critters do get wise to the traps quickly and will steal bait without tripping the mechanism. His suggestion was to tie down the trip plate for 3 days and feed the varmints inside the trap. His theory was that after a few days, they lose their fear and start entering the trap more confidently. On the fourth day, when the plate is no longer wired down, they're trapped. I don't know if maybe the ground hogs are a bit trap-shy?

We also wrap our traps with a tarp or 3 pieces of plywood for 2 reasons. Some critters seem more comfortable entering a darker "hole" than a trap and, also, on occasion we have had the misfortune of trapping a very well-armed skunk who is none too happy to see us the next morning - primed for revenge.

I hear you concerning the fruit. We grow a dozen or so semi-dwarf fruit trees and it is a battle every year to get the bounty before the squirrels . I swear they can strip an entire peach tree in 2 days time. We have tried the netting, too, but it is a pain to have to wrap the tree, put a drawstring around the trunk and then remove it every couple of days to harvest, re-wrap, re-tie, repeat. We were doing too much damage to the trees over the course of harvest season as branches that managed to poke through would be ripped off or stripped when the netting came off. Also, when a tree is 15 or 20 foot square, it can become cumbersome.

I hope your battle goes well!

woofie said: her husband made a rather large dent in the local population of robins.

Do you know how he did it?

His technique is NOT for the tender-hearted, I fear. He was using a .410 shotgun, but switched to a pellet gun because it's cheaper (we are in a rural area a few miles outside of town). He waged war on them big time one year (they were really out of control!) and they haven't been anywhere near as much of a problem since.

Not allowed to use a real gun here, but I'll check into the pellet gun - that may be legal to shoot (but probably not legal to shoot robins)

Maybe low lying groundhogs?

Interview with the groundhog:

GH: If you come near this cage, Im gonna chew you up.

Twit: Why so tough? I'm inclined to mercy.

GH: I ates your garden stuff and I'm proud a it.

Twit: So it was you and you admit it?

GH: The broccoli was good and the peas were in da way, so I ate them too.
I was on my ways back for more when I found dis corn and cantaloupe.

Twit: But why the dahlias?

GH: Day's tasty too.

Twit: But all of them. Isn't that greedy?

GH: If I can eat em, den days mine to eat.

Twit: I see.

GH: Come near dis cage and I'll eat you too.

Twit: Really?

GH: You bet I will. Come closer....

Twit: Perhaps I will, but first let me prepare a few things...

Mr GH was unrepentant and has permanently left the area. I had baited the trap with a little left over cantaloupe and some canned corn, leaving a trail of kernels to the front of the trap, and a small pile of kernels in the trap. GH are strong, much stronger than I thought. This guy almost made it out of the trap. You can see if you look closely at the bottom of the pic that he managed to break off and remove one of the bars of the trap. The trip plate that he's standing on was bent 90 degrees up on the corner behind him. One corner of the trap had a broken steel fastener holding two side together. A little more intelligence or effort might have seen him make is way through the trap.

I wanted to rebait again, but now I have a damaged trap to repair. I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live guy, but GH's are nasty. Seeing one up close and how it behaved when I approached confirms I don't want to share my yard or garden with them. Even though they run away and hide, you never know for sure.

Anybody know if a pellet gun is powerful enough to dispose of them when used close up?

Victory, Twit!

What a cute dialogue! Loved it!!!