What kind of Wildlife Problems do you have? (Montgomery, Perry: attorney, home)

[Ohiogirl81]

I used to hear coyotes calling at night from my house in Madison Place. Once you hear that, you'll never mistake it for any other animal.

My dad freaked when he saw a deer walking down the middle of the street at dawn one morning when he was visiting. "But you live in the city ..." he said. Silly Dad.

Other than the moles that used to tunnel under my backyard every four or five years or so, that's the wildest it ever got.

[Wilson513]

I saw a family of three deer strolling by Carl's Deli on Observatory in the middle of the afternoon.

In my back yard, I can walk up to them within 10 feet, then I get a little spooked and back off.

[Sarah Perry]

Hubby nicknamed one of our cats "Dances With Deer" because the little guy will go right up to them and walk around their legs while the deer just stand there. Or maybe it's just one cat-loving deer. Anyway, it's quite a sight.

[kjbrill]

My neighbor came around the side of his house one morning and surprised a big buck standing on his patio. The deer took fright and bolted right through a sliding glass door to the family room. Now a frightened deer can cause quite a bit of damage flailing around inside the house. Finally the deer bolted back through the door outside and took off into the woods. There was no obvious trail of blood so difficult to determine if it injured itself significantly.

When I was a boy I can't recall hardly ever seeing a Canadian Goose except on a fly through. Now they seem to be everywhere in large numbers. Does anyone know what altered their migration pattern?

[Wilson513]

That's a good point about the Canadian Geese. I remember hearing them when we were at my grandfather's place on Lake Michigan as an unusual sound. Now we see them migrating right over head here in Cincinnati.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

That's a good point about the Canadian Geese. I remember hearing them when we were at my grandfather's place on Lake Michigan as an unusual sound. Now we see them migrating right over head here in Cincinnati.

My point is the Canadians seem to have altered their migration patterns considerably. More and more, rather than migrating all the way North to Canada in the spring they arrive here in Cincinnati and just stay. And it seems they leave later and later in the fall, I am not sure some of them don't stay year round.

I do not know about closer to the City, but here in Mason we are overrun. A lake or pond of any size harbors a large number of them, including retention ponds deep enough to contain water consistently. Golf courses seem to be particularly to their liking, and their droppings make it a real adventure to putting on the greens. A local course until it closed seemed to have the answer. The owner had a dog who lived on the premises, not sure what breed. But I do know there was not a goose anywhere on the 200 acre property, while just across the street they were abundant.

[Wilson513]

I saw a bunch of sea gulls in the Walmart parking lot last year. Weird. I think its the global cooling we are experiencing. Its going to get a lot worse now that the sun spot activity is way down. Theorists think that the sun spot hiatus is what caused the Little Ice Age.

[Tubby513]

I live in Madisonville and we have all kinds of crazy activity around here. When we first moved in, we had to get our garbage storage situation locked in because the raccoons were on it, every night if there was something to get. We had to drag the can back into the shed to lock it up, which is sweltering during the day...I got to discover a nice maggot surprise in there one day. Anyways, finally just bought the Cadillac of trash cans and can leave it right by the back door now. Those raccoons were something else though. They've got balls, you could come out and watch and they didn't care, just kept on about their business. Oh, and raccoons are incredible climbers, saw one climb up 50 feet into a tree in a matter of 15 seconds. Once you get past the whole they eat garbage thing, raccoons are awesome creatures. Possums hang out around here too. Kinda gross looking, but real sneaky little things, they have very strong survival instincts and aren't going anywhere.

There are local cats (not exactly wildlife, I know), probably around 6 that hang out in about a 100 yard diameter area around my house. It's funny, they are all unique and have their own personalities. When one or more are in heat or whatever, there are some very interesting sounds that fill the night air...

Deer. It's been awhile, but sometimes I see them daily...Hyde Park by the country club a lot. Oakley, all over the east side. Amazing to me that they live around here. I guess there is a lot of woods, but damn.

I also see those lizards all over the place while running, biking, walking...they do seem to love hanging out on hot stone-y areas.

I keep finding holes in my lawn from moles or some damn thing. I have a pretty large tolerance for nature, but my lawn already looks like ass...can't they just move to the neighbors lawn?

Last year had a battle with carpender bees who wanted to decimate my new shed. I won that battle...

Like I said, I like nature and animals and stuff, and I find it intriguing that so many can thrive in urban areas.

[deg1114]

My biggest problem right now is raccoons. I found them getting in the trash and tried several things to keep them out. I bought bungee cords to keep the lid down and I could not believe that those things are now trying to chew the lid off.

And squirrels all over the place. One day I think I counted close to 10 in the yard.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by deg1114

My biggest problem right now is raccoons. I found them getting in the trash and tried several things to keep them out. I bought bungee cords to keep the lid down and I could not believe that those things are now trying to chew the lid off.

And squirrels all over the place. One day I think I counted close to 10 in the yard.

Been a long time since I had a personal run in with raccoons, but I know they can be tenacious little buggers. Remember years ago when they were an absolute nuisance at my inlaw's place in Indian Hill. They would sit on the top of the trash cans and rock them back and forth until they walked the can to the top of the hill the drive had down to the street. Then they would tip the can over so it rolled down the drive and broke the top ties as it bashed into something.

You may need to consider a lockable enclosure for the cans. If you do, make sure the sides and top are of a vented material like stamped expanded metal, perhaps in an angle iron frame. If a solid material the internal heat buildup will likely create an undesirable stench.

On your second item, yes it seems like the rabbit and squirrel populations are both on the upside this year.