Mouse Hunt 2011

There is a mouse in the house. There may even be a couple. He's a tiny field mouse; in fact he is probably smaller than the tarantulas in our yard. Why the tarantulas in our yard have not yet eaten the mice is beyond me - it would be nice if the circle of life kind of solved this problem for us (and the snake would then eat the tarantula, of course).

I run a pretty tight ship when it comes to food storage, so I suppose it is successfully feeding on Landon's crumbs these days; he is becoming more insistent on feeding himself and it is a splatterfest three times a day.

First time the mousey mouse was too quick and got away despite my pursuit to eradicate him from the pantry at an ungodly 4am hour. My bait boxes haven't been working, either. So tonight I am stepping it up a notch with some new traps and some peanut butter. I had to ponder whether they would prefer creamy or crunchy and I went with crunchy because it's the best. Yumm-o!

"Get out of my house, mouse. I can't sleep soundly until you do. Thank you! All my love (but not really), your friend Kate."

South Texas in the Springtime

Meanwhile, in South Texas when we open our door this evening...


We were warned about scorpions, so this isn't a big surprise. This pairs well with the tarantula scurrying across the patio floor at the O Club on Friday night. Which also accompanies the small army of red ants that attacked my foot this morning while weeding. And its not even summer time yet. Have I told you that I keep my son under a net whenever we are outside?


In all fairness, I can find beauty in simple things around this interesting South Texas town. Like the field across from our house...


And the random old telephone booth that my neighbor insists on having outside at the end of his driveway (presumably as an art piece or a cozy place for scorpions to mingle)...


And the black-eyed susans that are doing their best to hang on in the arid terrain...

This is War

We ran into a chemical conundrum this week. To spray or not spray, that was the question. And the answer is...? Spray. Spray like you've never seen spray. Spray, spray, spray.

There have been some issues with wasps in the house over the last couple weeks. And not like regular wasps, but huge ugly mongoloid wasps on 'roids. What seemed like isolated incidents turned into "Okay, this is officially a problem" when I found the 7th wasp the other day while baby boy and I are were gleefully having a Skype chat with Grandpa and Uncle Jamesy. One swooped over Landon and I tucked him under my arm, monkey-style, and ran for the hills (or outside the room, at least). After I got Landon situated - blissfully ignorant while chewing his hands on his jungle mat on the other side of the house - my dad stayed on video Skype and remotely supported me while I smacked the legs off #7. Seriously, I had to hit him about 20 times before I could really spray him and left him under a plastic bowl to wallow in the fumes. Sounds cruel, I know, but this is what they look like:

The Polistes Carolina wasp species (minus a leg or two)

Wouldn't you want to annihilate that ugly sucker, regardless if he threatened your first born child? Anyhoooodles, after that whole bit, Landon and I encountered wasp #8 about 20 minutes later while in the kitchen. At that point, we got out of dodge.

After sitting at Whataburger and regrouping for a while (country gravy helps soothe my nerves), I decided that we must go back to the house. I cleared the back bedroom for any signs of wasps and set up the pack n play for Landon to sleep next to me. We had the exterminator come by in the morning and I ultimately decided that spraying around the house was better than Landon being carried away by mutant wasps.

Erik chooses the best weekends to be away.