Now that Spring has finally come to stay (since Mother Nature decided to quit giving us her cold shoulder and threatening us with late frosts), we’ll be able to get busy fixing the flower bed the voles ravaged last year.

But wait.  About those voles.  We haven’t seen any in quite a while, though their holes kept reappearing sporadically no matter how many times we covered them up.

Until recently.

The holes have mysteriously gotten larger (which we were blaming the dogs for), but there have been no new plants randomly disappearing.   Except for the ones the wild rabbits think are being planted just for them.  Like the new group of hostas the hubby planted around the apple tree to fill in the bare area the dogs had created simply because they could.  We blocked that area off to the dogs, but the rabbits are tricky critters and have been having a field day munching on the new plants.

Damn rabbits.

The other day I was upstairs switching laundry as I’m wont to do during the day, and as always looked out the window over the back patio watching the birds get their fill from the feeders and admiring the red cardinals that are regulars.  Suddenly I noticed movement near my rose bushes.  At first I thought it might be one of the many wild rabbits that are running rampant, and since I happened to have my camera in my pocket, thought it the perfect opportunity to get a shot of the culprit.

Blog fodder, you know.

To my surprise, it wasn’t a rabbit.  Nor was it a vole.  Or a mole.  Or a squirrel.  I’m not quite sure what it is, but my first thought was that someone lost their pet ferret.  The only other critter I could think of is that it might just be a weasel.  Here, decide for yourself:

You can click on the picture to see it a little bit bigger.  Sorry for the lack of quality – I was shooting through dirty 193 year old ripple glass.

That’s quite possibly why we haven’t seen any vole activity as of late.  The weasel must be having quite the feast.  While I don’t mind him (or her) getting rid of the voles for us, the weasel holes are much larger than the vole holes – which run all under our brick patio, and some of the bricks near the steps to the walkway are starting to sag.

We borrowed a trap from the neighbors (the ones who caught the baby skunks that were living under their shed last year) but are trying to figure out how we load the trap with bloody meat (as recommended to catch a weasel) without attracting other carnivorous creatures that think this would be a great place for them to relocate to.

Stay tuned.  The Weasel Wars have only just begun.

21 Comments

  7. Wow! This makes me feel bad about cursing the chipmunks burrowing under our flower beds.

    As for the rabbits eating your hostas – we bought a bottle of stuff that is all natural but smells absolutely VILE to spray on the plants the Evil Fluffy Bunnies dine on in our yard. It’s a bit on the expensive side, but it seems to be working.
    .-= Jan would like you to read ..Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa =-.

  9. I don’t think I have ever seen either of those in my lifetime. We have a swarm of bees on a palm tree as of Saturday. Good luck catching it!
    .-= Debby would like you to read ..TAG YOUR IT ! =-.

  10. EWWW ok so to take this in a different direction …. we used to have horrible problems with the moles and they’d leave trails all over wreaking havoc on our lawn… they give me the willies!
    .-= Fiona would like you to read ..Stay At Home Moms ROCK Social Media All The Way To The Bank =-.

  11. Whatever it is…let it live, let it grow…It’s kind of how I see things now..

  12. I am kind of a sissy and would remove myself from anything that involved bloody meat. Good luck solving the weasel problem. Although since they don’t eat your plants, they are probably better than the alternative.

  14. Oh, jeez. Let’s hope you don’t find something BIGGER when you get rid of the weasels!

    It was so good to har from you today, Stacy. I hope all is well with you 🙂

  15. Hi Stacy,

    I got back from my niece’s wedding yesterday. It certainly looks like a weasel…..yikes! Do they bite? I wouldn’t want Princess Nagger to run up on one if they do! I have to catch up on how she is doing. I missed reading your blog while I was gone!
    .-= veterankindergartenteacher would like you to read ..Budding Authors Ceremony =-.

  18. Oh, the voles! My neighbor had big trouble with them and hired this guy that was just like Bill Murray in Caddyshack to get them for her. He had this whole system that involved injecting the holes with a caulking gun. He was a hoot!

    That critter sure does look weasely! Remember that movie Ricki Ticki Tavi? Was’t he a weasel and he saved the kids from the rats?
    .-= Jennifer Juniper would like you to read ..Boutique Tassels – Tutorial =-.

  20. That sure looks like a weasel. And I can tell you from my own skunk killing experience (not legal in this state so I’m not really admitting to the DEATH of said skunk, only my wish for her pregnant self to be dead) that the whole experience scarred me for life. I’d definitely hire the Bill Murray character mentioned above if you can find him. A task best left to the hardened experts, no matter how bizarre they seem, I assure you … <>
    .-= Julie at MDMA would like you to read ..Time Well Wasted =-.

  21. if you could only get weasels to eat weeds… now that would be cool!!
    .-= rxBambi would like you to read .. =-.

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