The pest control fellow comes to my house every month, doing the outside one month, then the inside the next month. This month was an “inside month.” It drives the dogs crazy, but I guess it is one of those things that just needs to be done. He usually comes when I’m not at home, so it is rare that I get to see him.
The other day I got a desperate message from home, “The Bug Man found a snakeskin in the garage.” We’ve all seen snakeskins before, but this one was in the garage and logically you have to think that a snake left it behind or one of the dogs drug it in there. I don’t have those kind of dogs. They are not much on toting stuff around. They would have probably just eaten it.
The message was desperate and simple, “You (meaning me) have to do something about it right now!” My first response, “Well, where is the snakeskin now?” It seems the Bug Man left the snakeskin in the garage where he found it, either for me to examine or because he was too scared or lazy to pick it up.
My message back, “I will get rid of the snakeskin.”
Of course that wasn’t the issue, the issue was that there was a possibility that the snake was still in the garage. I keep a lot of cool stuff/junk in the garage, as a lot of men do. Therefore, if you were a snake, there would be an abundant number of hiding places for you to hang out, get in or get under in my garage.
It was a pretty long snakeskin, about three, possibly six feet long. Snakeskins are like fish, they get bigger and longer, the more you talk about them. Where I found it was pretty close to the garage door, under some shelves. If I were a snake, it would have been a good place to hide and maybe shed some skin. In other words, it was a logical location and being that there was a little hole in that corner of the garage door, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the snake probably came through the hole looking to rid my garage of a mouse or two.
Next time, the Bug Man should consider that. Just maybe, he should get rid of the snakeskin and not tell anybody about it. Why? Because a free snake taking care of mice is much cheaper than a monthly pest control bill.
In talking to a fellow a work who used to work for the park service, he noted that the snake probably just chased a mouse in there, ate it, shed its skin and left. That made sense to me.
That wasn’t good enough for the other person living in my house.
I had to do something about it…
“Doing something about it” means a trip to the hardware store to get a bag of stuff that looks important. Things like snake repellent, sticky pads to catch mice and snakes and something to patch the hole in the garage door.
Of course, I did all that. I did it because I love going to the hardware store for any reason. The ladies at the checkout call me “Baby,” “Sweety” and “Darling” – and I like it. After discussing options with the fellows at the hardware store, I came home and fixed the hole and spread some granules that are supposed to keep snakes away. I got the sticky pads, and will put those out eventually.
Have you ever seen a dog with a sticky pad mouse catcher stuck to his nose? It’s not a pretty site. So you have to be careful with their placement.
Then I sat outside and thought about it all. What were the consequences?
My wife said, “I am not going back into the garage until you can tell me that there is not a snake in there.”
The garage, my garage, has been a really sore subject for many years. Therefore, I cannot, nor will I ever be able to definitively say that there is NOT a snake in my garage. I just can’t…
If any of you fellows need a snakeskin, I’ll put mine in a plastic bag and mail it to you. However, I do want it back.
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Cranks My Tractor
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I'm BN Heard and I like semicolons, dogs and going to the hardware store on Saturday mornings.
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