Hi, one county over from you. I shoot them. They are a vector for Chagas Disease. For a pet dog who contracts it, there is no cure. Doggy Death Sentence. I know Chagas is becoming more common here, but since it’s a third world disease, lots of times it gets diagnosed as congestive heart failure.
We have relatively few coons and possums here-the human population density is very low, and apparently they don’t multiply as much where that is so-I know there is more of a problem in Kerr county-you have more people and an actual city there-more outdoor food and temptation for varmints, I suppose. There are more people in the Kerr county seat than there are in this whole county, but I’d live there if I didn’t like it here so much...
I don’t know if there are enough predators to keep down the population of varmints where you are-but we are good here-I see the tracks of predators almost every time I go into the woods by the river-and I’ve gone for as long as 2 weeks without seeing any prey animals other than deer, birds and squirrels.
The owner of the company I worked for in the 90’s had done a lot of research on Chagas because it was already becoming more common-he was from NM, and it was already starting to be a problem there-he was convinced it was brought by mostly illegal immigrants, but I’ve no idea if he was right or if it was spreading via stuff brought in by truck from S America...
I haven’t been out in your direction in a few weeks-the river is still full here, which is great-how is it over your way?