Ann, this might help: Years ago, I lived in a tiny cottage behind a big house, with fields behind. We had a terrible hot spell, and a black snake (though probably not the same as a Tennessee snake) got into the cottage and took up residence between the metal shower stall and the wall (I discovered this while taking a shower, but I'll say no more about that...). My mother took to calling me on the phone and saying, "And how is Mr. Snake today?" And, of course, after she did that there could be no killing - I would see his little head poking out from his nook behind the shower, and I would be hopelessly anthropomorphic... So just try to think of them as Mr. Snake (or, of course, Mrs. Snake), and maybe you will feel more kindly towards them.

Raid wasp killer works great. But then you have to track their horrible, convulsing, dying selves in order to prevent anything else (in my neighborhood: birds, dumb housepets, opossums, etc) from eating them. So I wait until they land on something non-edible then blast 'em with wasp killer. After they twitch their way onto a flat surface (and be warned- it is pretty gruesome) I use an empty nursery pot to cover and contain them. Because they are so big, I usually put a brick on top of the pot. After a few hours (or even better overnight) I dispose of them. I never garden in the early morning, so when I see them, they're super fast and never easily squashed. Even if I were able to catch them, I don't think I could tear their head off. Ugh. But the bottom line is they are widespread in my neighborhood, horrifyingly HUGE, prolific egg layers and each and every one of them is more than capable of eating the indiscriminate crap out of anything in any of my gardens. I don't like killing things, and I don't like poison, but I really hate those creepy-ass, destructive grasshoppers.

Looks pretty happy now. Amazing what a little TLC can do. Jan

I've had birds for many years and currently have a pair of cockatiels. It's always amazed me as to how they communicate with each other and share the parenting duties while breeding a clutch of eggs. Most birds are social and very flock dependent. Without any romanticism involved, they definitely mourn the loss of their mate. Some die from the loneliness afterward. While wild birds may be less attached to their mate and have stronger instincts for survival, their bodies still experience normal hormonal changes when breeding that make them more attached to their mate & their young. That poor male is surely very confused over his missing family. I've lived in several areas that had many different animals that caused havoc with pets and people, alligators and snakes in the south, coyotes in California, and raccoons and deer here in Michigan. When ever someone complains about them causing trouble I have only one thought and that's that they were here first and it's part of living in the area that we choose to live in. I wonder what they think when they almost get hit by our cars, or can't find food because a builder has bulldozed their forest down.