Alas, the very proud senior member of this elite squad, Raffi, was asleep, curled up on my bed, purring, oblivious to the newcomer.
(The junior member of the crack team, Imposter, was away on an overnight hunting trip.)
After turning off the TV and GameBoy, I directed them all to get busy. Then a bit of reconnaissance work was called for. How exactly did that scurrying little rodent get inside?
A check turned up the likely entrance: a tiny garden window used by the task force to scamper through on its supply runs back to base camp. It's wide open during the warmer months.
That is one nervy mouse — entering through the task force's secret door, feasting on their provisions and leaving evidence on the Commander-in-Chief's carpet!
Still, I had absolutely no intention of seeking and attacking it myself. So I left the sliding door open during the day to give the interloper a sporting chance.
The next morning, however, there was Imposter, back from her hunting trip and sprawled in the living room, proud as punch. One very badly tortured mouse was at her side.
Medals were awarded to the worthy, and this story ended happily for all involved, except the mouse, of course.
The lesson in this story, for me and for others, is that pest problems that occur are almost always preventable. That goes for bats in the belfry, carpenter ants in the crawlspace, birds above the bonus room.
It's all about moisture, shelter, food and opportunity. Eliminate these, and you will reduce the risk of infestation. And sometimes professionals are guilty of these same oversights.
Last week I visited a home that had been treated professionally for carpenter ants for quite some time. Carpenter ants love moisture-softened and rotted wood. Eliminate the rotted wood, remove the moisture, and they will move on down the road to the stump two doors down, or get after the neighbor's old deck.
But in this particular house they kept coming back, despite the treatments. One treatment is generally enough to kill carpenter ants.
Unfortunately a small amount of rotted siding trim had not been discovered or removed in the 8-year-old house. Down in the crawlspace two heat ducts and the dryer vent pipe had come completely disconnected, feeding more moisture into the wood. Add a flooding crawlspace and they would have had a mess. The pest person kept collecting checks and applying pesticide though. So check these access, food and moisture risks out yourself — and keep checking.
Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question |
