Small town rural Maine is simpler living whether you are on vacation or considering moving here full time.
And even though the fresh air, blue skies, clean water and friendly people are on the list of perks, sometimes pests need to be handled. We’re not talking mosquitoes and black flies this time around blogging. Maybe it’s Canadian geese on the war path leaving their calling card on your Maine lake property front lawn.
And everyone knows the mother duck with the babies in tow out front the waterfront cottage are a cute but returning bothersome fertilizer depositor up on shore or covering your boat dock. Think about what happens after the introductory feed of stale bread to the quackers. And if you don’t, how do you feel about swimmer’s itch? Pass the medicated lotion please. At least the singing or crying Maine lake loon stays out on the water. Can not walk or come up on shore to be a nuisance.
Raccoons, porcupines, noisy crows, ravens on so big they seem to be on steroids. Maine black bears thrashing around in your garden’s fresh on the stock corn that go wild in a feeding frenzy. Whooping it up late at night. Over eating and making a mess of things. It happens. Just keep the red fox or coyote out of the hen house because they like you and I love chicken dinners too.
What other pests can happen in Maine?
Well, colder winter temperatures help curb lots of what other hot and humid areas can offer you for pest irritations. We lack the poisonous snakes, the large array of spiders that bite you just once and that’s all it took. Call the funeral home. Make the arrangements.
Sometimes a relocating Maine real estate buyer moving is from an area where there are termites eating their woodwork. Those folks can infect their own household in Maine with what hitch hiked up I-95 hidden in the trailer or truck load of personal belongings.
I have not seen evidence of termites in my travels but around a lake with wet decaying wood a carpenter ant, a cousin to the termite can leave their calling card of handiwork. Powder post beetles I have heard of attacking a barn in Maine but it seems isolated, less occurring. I bet Jack Frost and old man winter help keep the pest uprisings to a minimum in four season Maine. More on Maine pests.
Pigeons, they are peaceful and don’t appear to be the smartest bird in Maine.
But once they decide your property is a good place to nest and rest, word gets around. More show up and then what do you do? You may not want to remove them using firepower and a bee bee gun is not the weapon of choice to encourage them to move along. When they are high up on a farm barn that can be fifty or more feet in the air. Just a tad out of reach with the Daisy red rider rifle copper pellets.
Live trapping the pigeon is an option. The cage large enough for eight to ten of the pigeons. Who swoop down to see what’s being served up for a snack inside and behind the wire cage with fresh popcorn, peanuts or something that welcome them in. To the Hotel California in Maine that you can enter any time you want but you can never leave.
Don’t pigeons know how to fly long distances? They are used by some to carry messages on their stick like legs in a capsule delivered by air mail. What’s to keep them from flying back? It’s what homing pigeons did over and over before Express Mail, next day Fed Ex, drone deliveries, pony express right?
Heck even beavers that are causing the waterways to back up behind your Maine homestead in the brook or stream that becomes a growing larger pond from their paddy whack dams. They too may need to be relocated, the dams removed so the flooding water can return to normal level conditions. But I know of one person who had the animal control folks trap and take a trip. To release a beaver transported thirty five miles from where they were caught in the live trap. And it only took three weeks after the open the door, here you go relocation into the deeper wilds of Maine. As they go over hill and dale to return to the original home they were evicted from not so long ago. Did you miss us while we were gone? The pests sure did you at the home sweet home they were forced to leave against their wishes.
How did the Maine property owner know it was the same not a new beaver?
Don’t they all look alike, the same thing the wildlife says about us? One beaver in the exodus had a white spot on it’s nose which I am told is rare like two eyes each a different color David Bowie, Jane Seymore were born with for peepers. I don’t think they checked the DNA to be sure but all I know is they’re back. The beaver returns or more just like the ones evicted showed up to keep the water rising. We all know how hard beaver work around the clock like a Maine farmer who has logged a forty hour week by Tuesday noon.
Have had a woodchuck under a building that liked nibbling on the flower garden bloom that was live trapped. Then set free in an unorganized township. It did not return but that does not mean another that gets the same idea to dig in and hang around won’t do the same free loading on the Maine farm. Ever heard of the Colorado potato beetle?
Winter approaching means lots of rodents want to hurry scurry to get in under cover for the lower temperatures and blanket of snow days forecasted ahead.
The two legged animals bank their Maine homes, pile the firewood, dig out the snow shovel and wool socks, mitten, head wear. It’s called survival right? Pass the acorns, nuts, berries and hunker down to hibernate until spring returns.
Where did I hide the Jiffy ice auger for winter lake fishing and the cross country snow skis? Up over the garage or was it down in the basement? Mainers are outdoors year round. Just dress a little differently to reflect the changing seasons.
Chipmunks are cute but very destructive inside a Maine dwelling of any kind. Show of hands of anyone feeling differently that has had them move in and take over. No one wants to see a red squirrel take up residence either inside the walls or up over the ceiling of where you live. And where you try to sleep when the lights go out as they run back and forth, up and down all around you, keeping you up at night. I have one older daughter living in Boston who says newer cars have wiring made with soy that attract city rats. Her 2009 Subaru has been spared when others parked around it were targeted. Peppermint oil is supposed to help thwart the rats and cause them to move along looking for another vehicle to nibble on when it is meal time.
City living getting you down? Maine, small town simple living. Looking for a piece of that?
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA