God Bless the Skunks and Raccoons

[CarlinAnnArbor]

So, I was out back doing some much needed mowing, when my wrist felt like it was on fire

Turned out I disturbed an underground nest of yellow jackets. The little critter bit down on my wrist and wouldn't let go. Before I could detach him he got a couple stings in.

I left the mower (ran like hell) when I started feeling the "burn" on my ankles, then my neck

These things are super aggressive.

Do you know what keeps these monsters under control? Skunks and raccoons! They find these nests at night and destroy them!

Treat these animals kindly. They serve a useful role in this world

 

[odanny]

That's interesting, I just bought a coon trap and haven't used it yet, they are crapping beside my arbor vitaes and one climbed up in one and was raiding a bird nest at 1:00 AM, the racket woke me up. Not sure yet if I'm going to relocate them or not.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

I feed the ones passing thru my property. But then I'm a kind conservative who respects God's creation

 

[Rye Catcher]

50 years ago a yellow jackets had an nest in the wall of rocks in the backyard. The kids couldn't play so I called someone to take it away. At this time it cost us $100.00 dollars. That was a lot of money then, so I decided to kill them with the hose.

I took the hose and a full pressure water went into the hole in the wall. General Quarters came flying out of the hole. My wife and children were looking out the slider as I raced to the house. She wouldn't open the door, so I ran around the house with plenty of stings and turned the front hose on the grass and sat on the water over my head.

Guess what? I called the same guy who recognized me when I called him, and the first words out of his mouth were, "how many stings did you get".

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

So, I was out back doing some much needed mowing, when my wrist felt like it was on fire

View attachment 805044

Turned out I disturbed an underground nest of yellow jackets. The little critter bit down on my wrist and wouldn't let go. Before I could detach him he got a couple stings in.

I left the mower (ran like hell) when I started feeling the "burn" on my ankles, then my neck

These things are super aggressive.

Do you know what keeps these monsters under control? Skunks and raccoons! They find these nests at night and destroy them!

Treat these animals kindly. They serve a useful role in this world

.

This is good to know!

Know what's good on yellow jacket stings? It's called Amish Black Salve. Let me know if you'd like a recipe for making it at home. I had a yellow jacket sting that refused to quiet down for about a month and slapping Black Salve on it two or three days in a row really nailed the swelling and itching.

.

 

[whitehall]

Saw a raccoon last month staggering out of the woods and acting drunk. It could have gotten into some fermented stuff or it might be rabid.

 

[1srelluc]

The possum is a natural predator of yellow jackets.....Take care of your possum and your possum will take care of you.....Not to mention they are a lot better to have hanging around the homestead than skunks or coons.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

The possum is a natural predator of yellow jackets.....Take care of your possum and your possum will take care of you.....Not to mention they are a lot better to have hanging around the homestead than skunks or coons.

.

Besides, possums are cute!

.

 

[westwall]

So, I was out back doing some much needed mowing, when my wrist felt like it was on fire

View attachment 805044

Turned out I disturbed an underground nest of yellow jackets. The little critter bit down on my wrist and wouldn't let go. Before I could detach him he got a couple stings in.

I left the mower (ran like hell) when I started feeling the "burn" on my ankles, then my neck

These things are super aggressive.

Do you know what keeps these monsters under control? Skunks and raccoons! They find these nests at night and destroy them!

Treat these animals kindly. They serve a useful role in this world

Yes they do. I have a family of skunks on my property. If times are tough we feed them to keep them healthy!

 

[westwall]

.

Besides, possums are cute!

.

But very dumb. I watched one go to sleep in the middle of a road once.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Yes they do. I have a family of skunks on my property. If times are tough we feed them to keep them healthy!

The mama skunk brings her little ones to eat from the low hanging/fallen fruit.

A couple of times she's turned upside down on me during chance meetings whenever we cross paths in the night, If I'm out there for something.
But I keep moving and she calms down and does the same.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

50 years ago a yellow jackets had an nest in the wall of rocks in the backyard. The kids couldn't play so I called someone to take it away. At this time it cost us $100.00 dollars. That was a lot of money then, so I decided to kill them with the hose.

I took the hose and a full pressure water went into the hole in the wall. General Quarters came flying out of the hole. My wife and children were looking out the slider as I raced to the house. She wouldn't open the door, so I ran around the house with plenty of stings and turned the front hose on the grass and sat on the water over my head.

Guess what? I called the same guy who recognized me when I called him, and the first words out of his mouth were, "how many stings did you get".

These things bite into your skin to get a good grip on their prey (you) THEN get you with the stinger multiple times.

They were hard to remove, especially when I was panicked and running

I always wondered how people actually die from these stings, but I'm not allergic. My father was, and was hospitalized once after pissing off these temperamental little demons

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

.

Besides, possums are cute!

.

They're so ugly they're cute

 

[westwall]

The mama skunk brings her little ones to eat from the low hanging/fallen fruit.

A couple of times she's turned upside down on me during chance meetings whenever we cross paths in the night, If I'm out there for something.
But I keep moving and she calms down and does the same.

Yeah, our skunks treat us like family now. We only intervene if things are bad for them, but they know we like them. So they will come up on our porch from time to time to just hang out.

We have a little dog bed set aside just for them.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

The mama skunk brings her little ones to eat from the low hanging/fallen fruit.

A couple of times she's turned upside down on me during chance meetings whenever we cross paths in the night, If I'm out there for something.
But I keep moving and she calms down and does the same.

They don't fire unless they need to. They do their little stomp first as a warning. Skunks are cool.

 

[White 6]

Saw a raccoon last month staggering out of the woods and acting drunk. It could have gotten into some fermented stuff or it might be rabid.

If it is a wild animal staggering, it is worth a bullet and a call to Rabies control to pick up for testing.

 

[odanny]

The possum is a natural predator of yellow jackets.....Take care of your possum and your possum will take care of you.....Not to mention they are a lot better to have hanging around the homestead than skunks or coons.

Absolutely correct. Possum's eat a lot of mosquitos, too.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Absolutely correct. Possum's eat a lot of mosquitos, too.

.

Don't they also eat ticks?

.

 

[odanny]

I feed the ones passing thru my property.

That's stupid. Leave your garbage out for them, they'll love you. Make sure you wear a mask when cleaning up their shit.

Oh wait, you're anti-mask.

 

[whitehall]

If it is a wild animal staggering, it is worth a bullet and a call to Rabies control to pick up for testing.

Scuse me but I'll let someone else deal with a possibly rabid animal.