Happy Hallo October

“Flies, Spiders and Mice, Oh MY”

There are lots of people decorating for Halloween.  Bushes are covered with stretchy fake webbing, and lighted ghosts and goblins are on lawns.  This is all in anticipation of Trick-or-Treaters coming by for something sweet.

Yet in any house, at any time, one can find unwanted visitors;  Flies, Spiders or maybe a mouse!

I  do really like animals.  But I don’t like some these creatures in my home.  Actually, I’m okay with a few spiders in the basement.  They eat the insects that I don’t want in my house.

I try to be creative and caring about nature. I approach getting them out of my home in some quirky and odd ways.
a
In fact, just before I wrote this I was folding laundry in my bedroom when a small spider was suddenly there, dangling in front of me.  Unlike Miss Muffet in the rhyme I did not run away.

Here are some things I do to get rid of these critters….

With the spider I grabbed a large plastic container… one I got from a chinese restaurant when we ordered soup- reusing it – and scoop spider up into the container.  They are not too difficult to get into the container.With it in the container I then went outside and shook it off into the bushes.  All was well again.

With flies: I don’t want to expend my energy trying to race around after something so small that can hide anywhere  and try to splat it with a fly swatter.  I instead open a couple of windows wide, one in the kitchen and one in living room.  I close the bedroom and bathroom doors and wait.  Well
actually I go back to what I was doing before the fly was noticed.   It will inevitably land on the screen to try and get out of the house.  Then I quickly close the window and trap it in the window. Next the tricky part, I open a window a little and push up the screen and close the window. Eventually the fly goes outside, and all is well again. It works….  Not instantly, but it is a lot easier than chasing it around the house.

Then there is a mouse.  hmmm, a mouse.  We haven’t had many, but we have had one or two here and there.   The mouse is entering dangerous territory when it comes into the house.   We don’t mess around with them.   I will admit here they have this ability to actually spook me… especially at 4 in the morning when I’m not really awake yet  and finishing going to the bathroom.   I’ve had one literally zip by me within inches of my feet, to escape the human (me) in the night.  I can’t help but think about this.  I wonder why the mouse didn’t just stay hidden until I shut the light, left the bathroom and went back to bed.   But the mouse panicked and ran past me.    I guess you could think of that as brave too…. or maybe too brave,    Me, I ended up letting out a scream and started shaking because I was spooked.  That spelled the beginning of the end for that mouse.

We had a mouse in the house just a week or so ago.  And I will tell you it was rather brazen.
My husband told me he was watching TV when it went across the floor. In front of the TV, when the lights were on, people awake and around.  It looked right at him.  Froze.  When he moved the mouse zipped away.   What was it thinking…that it wouldn’t be seen?

I came out of the bedroom when he told me. A little while later, when I was standing in the livingroom it zipped by me.    I must say I’ve never seen anything move so fast as a mouse in the way it does.  In a moment its there, then its gone.   Spooky!   Another evening it zipped under my chair at the table while I was on the laptop computer.    We had traps around in the kitchen and the living room.  My husband had put peanut butter in them, saying that mice like it.    We had our neighbors cat come in for a time.  No sign of the mouse then.   I do wish I wasn’t allergic to cats, because If I wasn’t I’d have one.

Another evening my youngest daughter and I were sitting on the couch. She didn’t see it , but I did. It did seem a little more intelligent.  It tried going by the other side of the table in hope that the obstacle would prevent me from seeing it.  But I didn’t miss a beat on that one.  I saw it.  I yelled out “Noooo”.  Not that that helped. It ran and hid.

One of our neighbors mentioned some don’t like peanut butter.  My husband put cheese in the traps.  Next day, mouse was caught.   You might say here: “When all else fails.  Cheese.”

Lisa G.

Feature Art:

“Great Horned Owl”
scratch board

Prints available at fineartamerica.

Check out Great Gift items at Lisa’s Art & Horses

Art  News

“Le Cadeau du Cheval“
Several artists in the Equine Art Guild were a part of this unique tribute to the horse. Click on the image above to read all about it and the artists who participated in it’s creation, as well as see where it will be coming to a location near you in the coming year!

Soldier Portraits
Darla Dixon organized a group of artists who will create no-charge compassionate portraits for the families who have lost a loved one in Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom. We are looking for artists to join our efforts, and also for non-artists who will help spread the word about this free service and token of our gratitude to families who have sacrificed so much.”