OCR Text |
Show 4 - BORROWED TIMES - MAY 1994 More MICE from Page 1 inside our house from pre-dawn to full Birds dusk is quite effective. It needn't be a of a stuffing steel wool pads into all the crevices and openings larger than a 1/4“ in diameter, keeping the pet food outdoors, and swabbing the pantry with Mr. Clean (the hantavirus is susceptible to most general purpose household disinfectants). The experts also recommend using an Environmental Protection Agency-approved rodenti- cide under a plywood or plastic shelter inside the home. We have not gone to Feather The Deadly lllusron of Space Cheerios in the early morning a particularly hazardous move. The Mortality and Morbidity Report failed~to mention a more natural approach, one less likely to result in a broken finger. Cats. We have two of them. One I have nicknamed Hanta. The other is Virus. Mexico or from South America, a straight-line distance of perhaps 1,500 miles. But have you ever watched a are really not very satisfactory; the long-winged creature just returned from swallow? Straight lines are seldom of interest. This bird probably had flown keep birds from flying into their and died. windows, without obstructing the view, Birds fly into windows primarily place, a continuation of what they just successfully navigated and not into an invisible pane of glass. Both the bird seldom consider that in certain light conditions some windows just become mirrors. Birds don’t get a second chance to do anything about the matter, but people often do. To prevent—or at least discour- trap, and within moments Hanta drags the trap into the bedroom to show us what a great hunter he is. These are smart cats, perhaps the first in Cat History to rely on mechanical devices to trap their prey. In the spirit of community service, I am putting these cats up for pennanent adoption. Give me a call if you would like this Hantavirus Swat Team patrolling your home. Should my daughter answer the phone, you better just hang up. —Charlie Kulander If anyone has a foolproof way to I’d appreciate hearing about it. because they are innocently duped into believing they are flying into a safe mail basket is'a chic ltalian-designed cat box. Then bang, off goes a mouse- birds don’t notice them or they $00n realize that the statues and silhouettes are not real and ignore them. 10 or 15 or 50 times that number of miles from its wintering grounds in getting back. And then hit a window and the owner are innocent. People Their sole purpose for being allowed in the house at night is to catch rodents. Instead they spend the wee hours terrorizing the eockatiels, ransacking the garbage, and pretending that my pie plate fluttering in front of the window will help. Some use dark netting stretched across, but this does interfere with the view for a few weeks. Cardboard birds of prey silhouettes and statues of owls are available, but A tree swallow. A little six-inch this extreme. Instead, our house is a minefield of spring—loaded mousetraps, which makes reaching up for the large wattage bulb; go outside and see if the mirror effect is eliminated or reduced. Some have found a device such as a wind sock or aluminum foil ribbon or age—birds from striking windows, here are a few tricks to try. All are intended to break up the mirror deception and warn a bird away from the “opening” which is in fact a deadly obstacle. The problem, it should be noted, mainly concerns migrants not used to the neighborhood, so any avoidance method needs to be in place only for a month or so in spring and a couple of weeks in the fall. That is unless you have a regular and continuing slaughter taking place on your particular window. We’ve found that a lighted lamp placed behind particular windows Choose a gift that’s one of a kind. Unique, wearable, airbrush art. Something special for Someone Special. 7e51, a azsvga 259-8252 ———Sally Rains Wra p-u p o n th e Clea n u p Many of our places look a little tidier, thanks to the county pick-up last week. The huge piles of debris lining CV Drive have been reduced to dust and a few scraps of wire and tin. It would be great if each of us would check where we placed our trash and pick up any odds and ends that remain! The annual clean-up went well and all of our trash is gone. It took the county 2-1/2 days to haul it all away. They took everything, even the loads of household garbage that weren’t supposed to be there! We had been informed that they wouldn’t be taking cars and trucks this year, but as it turned out that was the bulk of the junk. We received a call from Sandy Sterne half way through the clean-up. The Grand County Waste Management has established new rules which we will be expected to follow in the years to come. In the future, as a step toward arranging the pick-up, we will need to attend the board meeting of the GCWM and request a fee waiver for the dump. They will no longer accept any appliances or automobiles;'we will have to make arrangements with Bert’s Auto to salvage these. Also, because of hazardous waste, no appliances or cars will be accepted with motors, engines, or batteries. ButtonsflDecorative, or made to order for your club or personal opinion. A word of thanks to the county for the cleanup, and next year we’ll try to remember all the rules. ——Jil Kulander |