May 12, 2015 (by Angela)

Two or three days after I posted Critters Large and Small – Some are Welcome, Some Not at All, I noticed that the number of ants I would see grew smaller each day. By the end of last week, as we were getting ready for our trip to Savannah, GA, I wasn’t seeing any ants inside. After returning yesterday from our trip, I have not seen ANY ants inside the RV (happy dance)! It did take several days and patience, but the Terro ant bait traps seemed to have worked for us.

In other news, a member (or members) of the Squirrel Gang is suspected of vandalism of private property while we were away. Immediately upon return yesterday late afternoon, we noticed that the yard rug had a section about the size of a quarter that had been chewed to the point that several “threads” (for lack of the correct word at the moment) had been eaten through. The spot is almost directly in front of the steps to the door. Dang! I’m not exactly sure how to repair this.

Damaged Yard Rug

Personally, I believe that the Squirrel and the Blackbird Gangs of Green Acres RV Park committed acts of vandalism because they were angry with us for leaving an empty bird feeder. In addition to the “chewed” yard rug, there are excessive amounts of bird droppings on the rug and on the sides of the RV near the door; I suspect this was a fly-by bombing also in retaliation for the empty bird feeder. I’m not as distressed over the bird poop attack as I am the chew attack of the squirrels, as the vandalism left by the birds is more easily resolved (I’ll save you the foul photos of the mess made by said fowls).

Empty Feeder

Neither the Blackbird Gang (comprised of brown cowbirds of the blackbird family) nor the Squirrel Gang have been seen near the RV since our return. I’m sure they expect that we will take our revenge upon them for the vandalism. Unfortunately, shooting pellets at the squirrels and birds will not really do any good, so while they probably do deserve payback, none is forthcoming. Though it is tempting to prolong the re-filling of the bird feeder, it is not fair to the innocent song birds, so it will be filled either today or tomorrow. As for the ant gang, I’ll be just fine as long as they stay outside of our territory.