I am not computer literate so I will rely on my husband (the computer genius) to post my story. Bless his heart, he has never faltered in believing me (after 37 years, he still listens). One fine day in November of 2011 I decided to purchase a bird feeder to help the birds thru the winter. We thought it was such fun to watch them and then the squirrels (who broadcast the seed when they jumped onto the feeder). On occasion when I was running low on bird seed, Iâd throw stale bread. That created a frenzy��"way too much fun! More bread Iâd say! More seed too. The long, dark days became fun. Until dooms day. Dooms day was somewhere around the end of January 2012. I was in bed (my love sleeps in the next room due to his disabilities). What was that moaning sound? Moan, moan. Then nothing. Until Iâd start to doze off. This would occur in no particular pattern so, of course, it could not be heard by anyone but me. Being terrified of rodents, rats in particular, I was on the phone to Exterminator #1, a guy we had come to our home previously for bee control. He was nice and admitted he was going to retire so he didnât want to go in the crawl space. He also didnât bill us. Enter exterminator #2. He had never heard moaning sounds and did not have a clue as to what might make these sounds��" after 22 years in the business. A friend asked a local gardening store what they thought might make these sounds and an employee said he had squirrels and they were what I was hearing��" the babies crying for mama. I called exterminator #2 and played him the sounds of baby squirrels (which the afore mentioned computer guru found). He was at our house the next day to once again look for evidence of squirrels. He even made an extra trip to pick up squirrel repellant (cost to us $50 for the extra trip) and left us with the valuable information . . . âIf you find where she is getting in, do not plug the hole or she will eat through the side of your house to get to her babiesâ. Exit exterminator #2. I decided to have my older granddaughters come and spend the night to document those moaning sounds and reaffirm to myself that I am sane. Would you believe that there was absolutely no sounds made, no movement detected, no evidence whatsoever that we âhad companyâ. Remember, I am a grandmother! So now, behind my back Iâm getting the snickers and rolling eyes because POOR GRAMMIE HAS lost it. Before I called Exterminator #3, I had more occasions than I can recall to jump out of bed, take apart my bed; right down to removing the mattress and box springs and even take the mesh material off the box springs BECAUSE IT SOUNDED LIKE ONE OF THE CRITTERS MOANED UNDER MY PILLOW. Because I am relatively regarded as being intelligent and still possess all of my faculties, I did not pass on to my family my escapades during the night but instead kept this to myself. They could NOT be in my mattress��" theyâre squirrels. NOT!! So, now Exterminator #3 tells me a good news and bad news story. The good news, I AM NOT NUTS. The bad news, the moans I was hearing were not that of squirrels but were from a similar sized animal: NORWAY RATS. Take a peek at these guys on the internet. Twelve to 14 inch bodies. Oh, and mice too! Did this happen because we have total slobs living at the end of our block who opt to not have garbage pickup? Folks, I never realized that this was not a requirement in my neighborhood of $300,000-$400,000 homes (weâre evidently in an unincorporated section of Vancouver, WA. Code Enforcement tells me). Well, anyway, it doesnât help me in my quest to have my home back to just the two of us! Exterminator #3: total cost about $3500 (possibly more later) has removed most of the vermin��" all they could find which included rats and mice, they took out all of the insulation in the crawl space and the vapor barrier. I think I have reason to celebrate. Every possible entry has been plugged, every inch disinfected, all furnace pipes vacuumed, tunnel holes plugged and cemented; in other words my world is so good and free of vermin. Unless you count last night. Iâm so tired because of constant sleep deprivation for going on five months now. I fall into bed knowing we are critter free��" now approaching $6000 because we did not replace the insulation now so weâre, hopefully, not giving anybody a place to nest. The reinstall of the insulation will occur in August at a price of $2000. I put my head on the pillow with the knowledge that we are free (are we?? Two seniors 70 or so, one disabled, now depending on social security and owing so much). I almost jumped out of my skin when the little squeal came from under my pillow. At this point I want to just give up. As I tell my poor husband, I think I have mice in my mattress, am tearing apart my bed in and enlisting help to move the mattress on our back porch. I am wondering if I have lost my mind. Time will tell. At least I did one thing right in my life when I married probably the one and only man who would say he believed me.

I've never trapped any but other rehabbers have trapped them and brought them to me. I believe the way they did it, was put up a barrier than lead them to the trap. I have released several on my property and last year, I raised two batches of babies, five in all. This is a picture of Henry and Edsel just prior to being released in my yard. I do live on 50 acres, but I probably have as many flower beds as anyone here, and I have never found them to be a particular problem. The only problem I had with them was they could suck down about a dozen night crawlers per feeding, and since I couldn't raise enough to keep up, it got a little expensive feeding them.

Several of my planting areas are under a huge oak tree that drops millions of acorns every year and I'm constantly pulling the sprouts. Haven't found a thickness of mulch/leaves yet that will prevent this, aside from just burying the plants. I do try to keep a bit of space around something like a knockout rose so I can reach in to pull sprouts, which is necessary to do often, weekly, so nothing becomes an infestation or too well-rooted to come out. You may want to use an organic smother layer (that can be left in place to decompose) wherever there's space. Just don't let stuff drop ripe seeds and you'll stay ahead of the curve, except those darn tree sprouts. IME, tree sprouts are the most constant and prolific weed of most gardens, and pulling them often is just a requirement if you don't want your beds to quickly turn into a young forest. A tree doesn't need to be invasive or 'trash' to bless you with a million sprouts.

I just opened my hose yesterday and saw this warning as well. The hose is made in China, surprise, surprise. The warning is there because of California law and the PVC that is in the hose. Practically everything in your house that requires rubber-like flexibility (extension cords, power cords) has PVC. This too is according to B&D who spins the exposure to PVC from extension cords, etc. as the same as using their hose. I kinda doubt that. One can choose to believe that or not. One alternative to PVC hoses is to use natural rubber hoses, or according to this article (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=3369894&page=1) use a hose made for RV's which is vinyl. I believe that somewhere between the assurances of B&D and the near paranoia of the ABC article lies the truth probably. Since the ABC article is from '07 I'm just going to hope that flushing the hose before use will be adequate enough, (brass fittings and all) and that the re-formulation of the PVC content of present day hoses has improved things. I live in a house that was built in 1891 that had cars that burned leaded gas driving by for x-number of years before unleaded, plus the general fallout that occurs from living in a big city like Chicago has probably done a number on the soil here anyway. I've amended the soil with topsoil and manure so if toxicity existed, then I've certainly diluted it. It's too bad that hoses have the potential to leech lead into the water. There are also many sites that discuss this as one has only to search for PVC, lead, hoses, etc to find more info.