A Better Moth Trap

Yes, you read that right.  A Moth Trap.  Last year we lost a hive of bees to wax moths.  I'd like to avoid that this year, if at all possible.  There are chemical treatments you can do, but we don't want to use chemicals.  I began to search for natural methods.  The reason this search was intensified was due to what I saw in the first hive on the left.

The two hives on the left that only have 1 deep box are two swarms that we caught in the yard.  While I was watching all the activity, I watched a MOTH crawl out of the box on the left!  Oh no.  The best way to ward off wax moths is to have a strong colony.  A healthy hive of bees will get rid of the wax moths and larvae because there are enough numbers to protect the hive.  We have a problem here.  The swarm is small.  The queen just started laying, so the numbers are low.  In about a week or so the colony should be growing exponentially, but will the hive be destroyed before the cavalry arrives?

I read about some traps that you can build to attract moths and kill them before they damage your hives.  The idea is to lure them away from your bees.  The trap is made with some plastic bottles that you cut a quarter-sized hole in the neck.  You make a concoction of 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup warm water and a banana peel.  You put that concoction in the plastic bottle and hang it near your bee hives.  That's what I did.

I actually made two.  Now, we wait.  The moths will smell the decaying banana peel and sugar, vinegar and water fermenting.  They go into the bottle and never come out.  Or so I'm told.  Let's see what happens...

The same afternoon I went out to check the traps.  There was already a moth in one of them!

A day later, I checked them and there are drowned moths in both bottles.

These moth traps work.  Moths are drawn to them like... well, like a moth to a flame.  Hopefully, we can catch enough of them to put a dent in the wax moth population.

Three Blind Mice

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.

See how they run. See how they run.

They all ran after the farmer’s wife,

Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,

Did you ever see such a sight in your life,

As three blind mice?

When I was just a tiny tot, my Grandmother we named "Bumby" sang us this nursery rhyme.  The song was upbeat and perky.  It was very uplifting and invoked upon the listener a sense of happiness, peace and calm.  Yeah, no.  Nursery rhymes were disturbing, dark, and twisted.  

Practically speaking, however, rats and mice are vermin.  I make it part of my mission statement to eradicate (e-rat-icate) them from our property.  When the weather begins to cool, they seek refuge in our barn.  The barn is cozy, filled with hay for the winter - perfect for rat nests.  There is always some leftover grain that the rats devour.  They are nasty animals.  They carry disease.  They pee on the hay.  They make a mess.  Therefore, they must go.

I am not going to cut off their tails with a carving knife.  I trap them in my heavy duty rat traps.  These traps are deadly.  I bait the traps by smearing chunky peanut butter on them and set the trap.  You must be very careful.  If the hair-trigger goes off and snaps on your finger, it will break bones.  In the last six days, I have ended the lives of four rats...

SNAP!

CRACKLE!

POP!

These were all young rats.  Where young ones are, there are older ones.  I'll keep trying to kill them.  I don't want them blind.  I want them dead.  Perhaps listening to dark nursery rhymes as a child affected my civility.

We're Caught in a Trap

"We're caught in a trap

I can't walk out

Because I love you too much, baby

Why can't you see

What you're doing to me

When you don't believe a word I say?"

-Elvis Presley "Suspicious Minds"

We have two separate varmint problems going on simultaneously.  It is high time to get the problems under control.  First, in our barn, we have a rat problem.  The infestation has gone from bad to worse in recent days.  I have caught several young ones by simply placing a bucket against the wall in the feed room.  Young rats jump in and cannot jump back out.  I then ensure their jumping days are over.

We've caught several rats in buckets full of water.  Apparently rats get thirsty and lean over the water bucket to drink and fall in.  Unable to climb out on the slick sides of the bucket, they drown.  We've caught several by NOT killing a rat snake that has made our barn his home.  The snake is like a heat-seeking missile and is knocking off the rats one by one.

I took out a small animal cage and baited it with dog food, thinking it would add one more rat eliminator alternative.  So far, so good.  I've trapped three in three consecutive nights.

He realizes the gig is up!

You dirty rat!

Rats cause a sanitary problem in the barn.  I like to clean them out prior to storing hay in the barn.  Cleaning them out is easier said than done.  The barn borders a patch of woods an a lot of rats live in the woods and move in the barn when colder, inclement weather sets in.  Just this evening, I took my Marlin .22 rifle loaded with rat shot and killed three rats by shooting them off the rafters.  We're slowing thinning out the population and having success, but we still have a lot of rats to kill.  We'll keep at it.

One of our trapping operations, however, is not so successful.  We lost a laying hen the other night to a predator - an old possum.  I got out my large animal trap and baited it with dog food.  I walked out to the woods and set the trap right on a trail leading out of the woods to our pasture.  This morning... BINGO!  I noticed that I had caught something in our trap.  Uh oh!  I caught our neighbor's cat!

The cat was very unhappy and was hissing at me and carrying on.  I quickly released the fierce and ferocious feline, after asking the cat not to "rat" me out to the neighbors.  The cat was none the worse for wear and after giving me an evil look, he ran back to the neighbors property.

I don't give up easily.  I'll keep my trapping exploits up and running until I eliminate the rat and possum problems.