Free Republic

Finally using the perfect mouse trap! It is big news up our way that the mice and other rodent population is out of control. It has been horrendous. I have been using snap traps, glue traps, two cats, de-con..... Never enough. Finally the day before yesterday I set up the perfect trap using this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FTQ6SM1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I bought a couple and two 5 gallon buckets. I installed them on the buckets, filled the buckets about 1/3 full of water, smeared peanut butter on the roller, and laid three pieces of firewoord with dabs of peanut butter on them against the bucket....

There’s a bumper crop of squirrels in New England, and the frenetic critters are frustrating farmers by chomping their way through apple orchards, pumpkin patches and corn fields. The varmints are fattening themselves for winter while destroying the crops with bite marks. Robert Randall, who has a 60-acre orchard in Standish, Maine, said he’s never seen anything like it. “They’re eating the pumpkins. They’re eating the apples. They’re raising some hell this year. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said. Evidence of the squirrel population explosion is plain to see along New England’s highways, where the critters are becoming...

Rat complaints are soaring, and D.C. is doubling down on its efforts to kill them Rats are overrunning D.C., and the city has tried everything from dry ice to solar trash cans to control the population. By Rachel Chason, John D. Harden and Chris Alcantara Aug. 23, 2018 They scurry across alleyways. They chew through trash cans. They make a sound that’s something between a hiss and a chatter. And despite the District’s efforts, the number of rats in Washington seems to be growing. Complaints to 311 about rodents in the nation’s capital reached an all-time high in 2017 —...

HUNTERDON COUNTY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – A tiny parasite could become a big problem this year in New Jersey. It’s an exotic tick that’s never been seen before in the United States. It was first spotted on a sheep in Hunterdon County, and efforts to wipe it out have failed. New Jersey has always been home to different species of ticks – five to be exact. But a new variety of the bloodsucking bug is now in the mix. It’s the East Asian tick, sometimes called a longhorned or bush tick. Originally found in Asia, thousands of them are now in...

The US Customs and Border Patrol says it has intercepted one of the world’s most destructive pests of stored grains, cereals and seeds at two Washington-area airports this year. An agency release Thursday said agriculture specialists at Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport recently encountered the Khapra beetle....

President Donald Trump has complained repeatedly about leaks in the White House, but it looks like he also has a problem with bugs. And mice. A list of White House work orders from the past two years ― including the final year of the Obama administration ― obtained by NBC Washington reveals a vermin problem at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., including mice in the Situation Room. “They are old buildings,” former GSA Inspector General Brian Miller told the station. “Any of us who have old houses know old houses need a lot of work.”

Fall temperatures are on the way and so are the rodents. Orkin released its Top 50 Rattiest Cities list today. For the third consecutive ranking, Chicago takes the top spot. The metro regions are ranked by the number of rodent treatments the company performed from September 15th, 2016 – September 15th, 2017. This ranking includes both residential and commercial treatments. 1. Chicago 2. New York 3. Los Angeles (+1) 4. San Francisco – Oakland (+1) 5. Washington, DC (-2) 6. Philadelphia (+1) 7. Detroit (+2) 8. Baltimore (-2) 9. Seattle – Tacoma 10. Dallas – Ft. Worth (+4) 11. Denver...

Neither a joke nor metaphor, I have a rat problem and seek learned wisdom from others who've combatted these cunning creatures. I have a lone rat (I believe) lurking somewhere in my house. Without regard to the accuracy of that statement or my seeming inability to find its lair, this smart SOB freed itself from a sticky trap and has been Ninja ever since, sometimes not taking my popcorn bait for days (there are NO other food sources other than our occasional lapse in leaving the dog's food out). Spring traps don't work; it's too smart. Or, to be more...

Hungry rodents are apparently menacing parents, nannies and babies on the Upper West Side. There are about 2 million rats in New York City, and some have settled in Central Park and Riverside Park.

Photo by Pat Pat sends us a shot of this monster Friday night: “Check this bad boy out. Found on U Street today.” Ed. Note: I will never ever ever complain about wild bunny rabbits again.

A deadly mosquito-borne pandemic poses a greater threat to humankind than global war, billionaire Bill Gates warns. In a hard-hitting new documentary, the world's richest man said a killer bug could wipe out 10 million people without warning. Footage seen by MailOnline, set to be aired next week, shows the philanthropist's worries towards the danger of disease-carrying mosquitos. An outbreak could mimic the damage of the Ebola epidemic in late 2014 or the burden of that of the deadly SARS outbreak in 2003, experts worry. Climate change warming the planet is allowing for mosquitos to spread from their usual habitats,...

FULL TITLE: Now United Airlines passengers are being attacked by SCORPIONS! Deadly insect crawls out on flight and forces evacuation A United Airlines flight was delayed for several hours in Texas after reports of a scorpion crawling out of a passenger's clothes. Passengers say United Flight 1035 was evacuated on Thursday at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston following the scorpion sighting. The flight, which was headed for Quito, Ecuador was delayed for three hours. News of the scorpion incident got out when passengers started tweeting about the ordeal.

DELTONA, FL (WKMG/CNN) - A squirrel got into a retirement home, injuring at least three people and prompting a call to 911 on Thursday. "It's jumping on people and biting them and scratching them," the 911 caller said. "It's still in there, and people are bleeding." People can be heard in the background asking each other if they are all right. The attack happened around 2 p.m., the woman telling dispatch people are bleeding and need help. "I don' t know if we need an ambulance, but we need some care for people here," the 911 caller said. "The people...

MONTREAL — In the basement of a public housing complex on the outskirts of downtown Montreal is a large walk-in freezer used solely to kill bed bugs. The freezer is a local solution to a problem that has been haunting the city for years and is not improving, says Melanie Sanche, head of sanitation for the public housing authority. As in many large North American cities, cases of bed bugs have exploded here in the past 10 to 15 years, and the problem is particularly acute in areas with transient populations such as students, as well as in districts with...

Entomologists and bug experts say conditions are ripe for the domesticated versions of the brown-colored bugs to get active, including taking to the air. It's an activity they rarely do, said Srini Kambhampati, a professor and chair of the biology department at the University of Texas at Tyler. "Because of the extreme heat, they may be trying to find a more comfortable place in which to live," Kambhampati said. "That is, they are on the move to find a better, cooler place. High temperature cause insects to use up a lot of energy."

The first wave of genetically modified mosquitoes were released Wednesday in the Cayman Islands as part of a new effort to control the insect that spreads Zika and other viruses, officials in the British Island territory said. Genetically altered male mosquitoes, which don’t bite but are expected to mate with females to produce offspring that die before reaching adulthood, were released in the West Bay area of Grand Cayman Island, according to a joint statement from the Cayman Islands Mosquito Research and Control Unit and British biotech firm Oxitec. …

New Zealand is a nation that takes its birds seriously, and it’s got very special ones. The country’s currency is adorned with images of winged species found nowhere else, including the yellow-eyed penguin and the black-masked kokako. The logo of the national air force is stamped with the famed kiwi — a chicken-sized puff of feathers that cannot fly.... “For the first time, technology is starting to make feasible what previously seemed like an unattainable dream,” ... In 2013, environmental activist Gareth Morgan suggested hunting down and killing every feral cat in New Zealand (a proposal that, Morgan told The...

All Air Rifles are not created equal. If you’re not familiar with air rifles than take a look at what Ted HoldOver has done from his bathroom. Ted uses a .25 caliber air rifle, and it has the power and precision to make a lasting impression. Watch and see what great precision and power the new air rifles have to offer and their impacts on pests all caught in slow motion. You certainly will be impressed, watch it here.

A new study suggests a connection between the two A new study finds a correlation between the aerial spraying of pesticides to kill mosquitoes and an increased risk of developmental delays and autism among kids. In the new findings, presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 meeting, researchers looked at the rates of autism and developmental delays from eight zip codes in a region of New York that is exposed to yearly airplane pesticide spraying to prevent mosquito-borne disease like eastern equine encephalitis virus. They compared those to the rates in 16 zip codes where the pesticide spraying doesn’t happen....

Billions Of Cicadas Are About To Rise From The Earth, Have Sex And Die Here's what all the buzz is about. 04/16/2016 01:28 pm ET Hilary Hanson Viral News Editor, The Huffington Post Hope you like the sound of humming.That is, if you live in the Northeastern United States, anyway. Billions of cicadas are slated to rise up from the ground in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio to mate next month, The Washington Post reports.They have been lying in wait since they began life in 1999. This summer, at age 17, they’ll finally...