Here's what happened to me: Last Sunday morning, it got really cold, so, for the first time this year, I turned my heat on. Not fifteen minutes had passed before I smelled this AWFUL smell, like burning hair, and my smoke alarm went off. :-( Now, to explain a bit, I live in a fairly new trailer, which I got in June 2014, and, all last winter, I didn't have any trouble with rats or mice. But, for a few weeks prior to turning the heat on, I had been hearing sounds like mice or rats scratching around in the ductwork. Still, I didn't really worry about it, since I had had mice in the ductwork of my old trailer, which I had from 1993-2014 every single winter, and none of them had ever caught fire. They would just run around like crazy, when it would first kick on, and then, I would assume, they simply got the hell out of Dodge, and waited for it to kick off again, before they would get back up in there. Whenever I would actually see them INSIDE the trailer, I would set traps for them, and dispose of them, of course. But, as for them being up in the ductwork, I just figured "Out of sight, out of mind", and didn't really worry about it. I had heard quite a bit about mice and rats chewing on the electrical wires inside the walls of trailers, and causing them to catch fire in the winter, when the heat would kick on. So, needless to say, when that one caught fire, it scared the hell out of me, and I immediately turned the heat off, not wanting to run the risk of my trailer burning down, particularly with me in it. ;-( So, yesterday, I put some poison traps down under the trailer, but, the whole time, I kept thinking: "What if they eat this and crawl off back into the ductwork and die?" "How will I ever get them out then?" :-/ I realize now that it was the wrong thing to do, and will take them out, and use snap traps in the vents instead. But I guess I was just wondering whether anybody else had had the same experience, with one actually catching fire like that, and the smoke alarm going off? You'd think mice would have better sense than to just hang around and let themselves get singed like that, unless it was actually STUCK in there and COULDN'T get out? That's the possibility that worries the hell out of me. :-( Do they ever go up there and then get stuck?

Yes, I think we feed every single bird and squirrel in our town by the amount of $ we spend on seed, plus bread and peanuts. We have 4 feeders plus a hummingbird feeder and birdbath in our back yard and 5 feeders plus a hummingbird feeder in our front yard, plus two tube feeders and 3 watering dishes/birdbaths. We call our front yard our "Wildlife Entertainment Center". Some of those crazy squirrels we have named: Barny, Metal, Logger, Chewy, Loco and Loco Jr. Soon we will have an influx of redwinged blackbirds that will strip all feeders clean. This happens twice a year. They stay around at least 3 months each time.Our feed bill doubles then. Our hummers have left now to travel further south and won't return until April. Sure miss those little darlings.

christine - I would probably lick my own fingers. My dogs views on peanut butter... "what kind of pill are you trying to get me to take this time?" :) mimipadv! I just had my first blue bird! Before I could really enjoy his presence, something scared off all the birds, darn it. From what I've read, blue birds can be hard to attract so I wasn't expecting to see one so soon. Hopefully this one will come back and bring a friend or two.

I got both the pellets and the smoke-bombs from the County Ag office. The smoke-bombs are literally a large firecraker-looking tube that you light, throw in the hole and quickly fill-in the opening with dirt so the smoke doesn't come out. The smoke is laced with some poison. This is very effective because the dead body/ies stay in the ground. This can only be used when there is no chance of a fire hazard. And, I'm not sure how this would work with the equipment above. You have to be super careful with the pellets so that no other animal gets them. I guess tossing them in the hole might work - unless the squirrels shove them out. I had special containers that were a long, upside-down T-shaped tube; you put the pellets in the top so the pellets stayed in the middle of the tube; the squirrel/rat can get to the pellets from either end of the bottom. This can be used any time of year. Albert, you are correct in that the pellets will be stored this time of year and eaten in the winter. So, no immediate kill, but, no babies in the spring. Or, you can get yourself a dog that loves to kill squirrels. Rosie would catch the squirrel and literally shake it to death. She and DH had a squirrel 'thing'. She would catch and kill them and line them up on the back patio waiting for DH to come home from work and praise her for her efforts; and, no one was allowed to touch those squirrels until he had done so. Then there is a rifle. DH's method of choice. All of which were used to even just keep the critters under control.