While I was disassembling my old blog today, it occurred to me that I never crossposted a few articles I wrote about humane methods of “pest” control from there to here. So, here they be…two years late, but still totally in season. With updated links, to boot.

The articles in this particular series include:
1 - How to Tell If There’s a Mouse in Your House
2 - How to Mouse-Proof Your House: A Natural, Humane, and Effective Form of Pest Control
3 - Spare the Snap-Trap and Have Mercy on the Mice: A Guide to “Catch-and-Release” Mouse Traps

Teh fine print: You’re permitted - nay, encouraged! - to reprint these articles elsewhere, as long as all links remain intact and clickable, and the resource box is included at the bottom of the page.

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Spare the Snap-Trap and Have Mercy on the Mice: A Guide to “Catch-and-Release” Mouse Traps
By Kelly Garbato

Summer is slowly winding down; the little ones are back in school, and each day brings with it a slightly chillier frost. Just as you’re preparing to hunker down for the winter, your furry neighbors are plotting to invade your home. If you don’t act quickly, your house could quickly be overrun with - mice!

Though you might be tempted to turn to lethal traps at the first sign of company, now’s not the time to resort to toxic or lethal devices, which serve as an attractive “quick fix.” Rather than relying on poisons or lethal traps - neither of which are natural or humane - consider buying “catch-and-release” live traps instead.

(more…)

While I was disassembling my old blog today, it occurred to me that I never crossposted a few articles I wrote about humane methods of “pest” control from there to here. So, here they be…two years late, but still totally in season. With updated links, to boot.

The articles in this particular series include:
1 - How to Tell If There’s a Mouse in Your House
2 - How to Mouse-Proof Your House: A Natural, Humane, and Effective Form of Pest Control
3 - Spare the Snap-Trap and Have Mercy on the Mice: A Guide to “Catch-and-Release” Mouse Traps

Teh fine print: You’re permitted - nay, encouraged! - to reprint these articles elsewhere, as long as all links remain intact and clickable, and the resource box is included at the bottom of the page.

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How to Mouse-Proof Your House: A Natural, Humane, and Effective Form of Pest Control
By Kelly Garbato

It happens every fall; at the first signs of frost, you start to hear mysterious squeaking and scratching noises emanating from your attic. Within weeks, you find wood shavings beneath the garage door. By November, you have already been forced to throw out three boxes of perfectly good cereal because of the conspicuous teeth marks at the bottom of the bags. Once you find the first pile of droppings, there’s no doubt about it - you have company!

Although it’s oftentimes difficult to rid your home of mice once they’ve taken hold, it can be done. However, there is a better way. The old saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is applicable in this case. Rather than trying to round up and kick out Mickey, Minnie, and their offspring, why not just stop them from gaining entry in the first place?

Mouse-proofing your house is easier than it sounds. First you will need to sanitize your environment, and then you must seal it up so that it stays sanitary.

(more…)

While I was disassembling my old blog today, it occurred to me that I never crossposted a few articles I wrote about humane methods of “pest” control from there to here. So, here they be…two years late, but still totally in season. With updated links, to boot.

The articles in this particular series include:
1 - How to Tell If There’s a Mouse in Your House
2 - How to Mouse-Proof Your House: A Natural, Humane, and Effective Form of Pest Control
3 - Spare the Snap-Trap and Have Mercy on the Mice: A Guide to “Catch-and-Release” Mouse Traps

Teh fine print: You’re permitted - nay, encouraged! - to reprint these articles elsewhere, as long as all links remain intact and clickable, and the resource box is included at the bottom of the page.

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How to Tell If There’s a Mouse in Your House
By Kelly Garbato

You’ve just settled down in bed and are twenty minutes into Letterman when you hear it: a light scratching overhead, accompanied by a squeak here and a squeal there. You assume that it’s the wind making strange noises (after all, it is windy tonight!), or perhaps the house is just settling (you do live in an older home, so it would make sense…). Maybe the sounds are just the result of an overactive imagination. You hope!

Of course, you just can’t get around the obvious conclusion - you have company. Whether it’s a bird, a bat, a squirrel, or an entire family of mice, there’s something up there. Given that you’ve had recurrent rodent problems, the latter option is probably the safest bet.

However, how can you be sure what type of animal you’re dealing with - assuming that you even have unwelcome visitors at all? Before you can evict them, you need to know who “they” are.

Above all else, your first step is to inspect your home for signs of mice. Different problems call for different solutions; if your visitors are actually squirrels instead of mice, you’ll need to develop a different strategy.

(more…)

I’ve been tagged! And by pattrice jones of Superweed/Aftershock fame, to boot. Talk about good company.

OK, The Rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Like Neva, I started to pen a memoir, and then realized it was TMI.

So the short of it goes like this:

1. I give my dogs massages. (Is that totally weird?)

2. I haven’t paid for a haircut since 7th or 8th grade (I forget). I used to have my mom trim my hair; now my husband’s stuck with the chore. He hates doing it because he’s terrified of mucking it up and reducing me to tears (or murrrrdurrrr!).

3. I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but have been scared to get one. Not scared as in “OMG IT WILL HURTZ!” scared, but scared of becoming addicted and ending up with “freakshow”-quality ink within ten years. If I were to go to the tattoo parlor (do the kids still call ‘em “parlors” nowadays?) tomorrow, I’d probably get the IPU logo, the SSOV insignia, or a little masked animal liberator. Probably all three. Which is why I’m getting absolutely zero.

4. I’m a book fiend, but I especially love anthologies. The short, discrete chapters must appeal to my noncommittal, ambivalent side. (Currently reading: Bitchest, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?, She’s Such a Geek, Igniting a Revolution, and the Way of Compassion.

5. Guilty tv pleasures: ER and The Real World/Road Rules challenges. “Guilty” as in, I feel silly if anyone so much as passes by the living room while I’m indulging in either.

6. I’m a picky eater by any standards. As far as veg*ns go, I’m a crazysuperpicky eater. Some might even call me childish as far as food preparation goes. (As a side note, back when I was a yung’un, I made my parents strain the pulp out of my OJ. Even when they bought the no-pulp kind.)

I don’t like tofu. I don’t like celery, peppers, avocados, or water chestnuts. I don’t like brown or wild rice. I don’t like all but the blandest of ethnic foods - if I’ll try it at all (Chinese and Mexican, yes; Thai and Ethiopian, no). I used to blame my fussiness on my mom (i.e., for not introducing me to a wider variety of foods when I was a kiddo), until I found my feminism and realized how sexist this is (so, why couldn’t dad ever cook, hmmmm?).

On the plus side, I am making a good faith effort to try new foods. Last month I had a bite of the Thai lettuce wraps at the Cheesecake Factory. Didn’t like ‘em.

7. I kinda sorta miss the marshmallow-ey breakfast cereals. Especially Count Chocula. (Ummm…should I be concerned that I mentioned food twice?)

8. I really, really wanted to tag Moby, but I didn’t think he’d play along.

And the tagee becomes the tagger!

I choose:

1. Meshell (my sis)

2. Shane Brady (the husband)

3. Liberal Serving

4. apie

5. Vegology!

6. Soul Veggie

7. A Liberal Atheistic Vegblog

8. Dee

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Tagged: vegan meme navel gazing