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I just want it to be possums. It would make me happier than rats.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:31
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we have a possum in our yard. He’s extremely fat
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Feb 29, 2024 17:32
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Dr. Lunchables posted:I just want it to be possums. It would make me happier than rats.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:34
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I suspect I have rodents in my attic; I can hear something running around at night, and the traps I set on the main level weren't triggered. I can't check the attic for the time being, because my ladders and other tools are being shipped across the country, so I can't actually get up there. However, if there are rodents, then I assume they're getting in here: I hear mice in my ceiling pretty often but it's an interior ceiling and they go for the traps in the unfinished basement luckily. When they're active, though, it's some pitter patter of tiny feet on the drywall or drop ceiling (old kind, not the new kind you can easily pop up), and then sometimes you hear nothing then a big burst of movement, or at the worst times there's wood chewing noises. Gable end vents often have something behind them to prevent birds or other critters getting in but yours may not or it could be damaged. If it's mice it has to be fairly fine and hard to chew, a couple of youtubers like Matthias Wendel and Mousetrap Monday have found around 15mm or 3/5 of an inch is roughly mouse sized, so a 1/2" grid should stop them. Larger animals may chew on the surroundings to get in. Hardware Cloth is what hardware stores call the typically 1/2" metal mesh product that might be useful here. I think you just moved to the general area (I'm in NJ but just over the Delaware River from PA) and we've used Western Pest Control here for years. They're mainly on contract for termites and carpenter ants but we expanded the service a while back since there's a constant mouse problem and occasional ant incursions (usually little pharaoh ants/sugar ants). Their guys are pretty knowledgeable but they vary a bit in how good they are since it's a big company and we don't always have the same guys come by. With the coverage plan we have they come out like four times a year to check for termites and carpenter ants, but also we can call any time to have them come out to look at something related to whatever else we have covered. It's a bit expensive, I think around $650 a year or so, but they have different plans that target different pests. They do always want to get you on some kind of subscription plan which is kind of a negative if you don't have constant issues, so another pest control place might be better if you just want someone to add exclusion material to that vent. If you haven't done it yet you may want to look at how to access the attic. Here it's just a tiny pop up panel in the pantry but we never use that and just go in from the garage with a ladder, which has a wood panel you can remove and crawl through.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:43
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Leperflesh posted:are you sure they're in the attic, and not just on the roof? No, I'm not certain. My only data points are: 1. I only ever hear the sound at night. Call it, I dunno, 11PM to 6AM? 2. If they're on the main level, they're ignoring mousetraps containing cheese, as well as my dog's food dish (which doesn't contain food, but probably smells good, and they'd knock it around while licking it) 3. There's no poop or other obvious physical evidence inside the house. It's not the basement, because the basement is carpeted so I wouldn't be able to hear them. That leaves four possibilities I can think of: the attic, the roof, the space between the basement and main level, and inside the walls. If it is the roof, then how the heck do I stop it? It's noisy enough to intrude on my sleep. EDIT: ^^^ thanks, Rexxed. I haven't used pest control services historically, they just weren't an issue in my California place. This area is a bit less densely-populated and certainly has more trees close to houses. I know how to access the attic; it's a pop-out panel in the ceiling in one of the rooms. I'll be going up there ASAP once all of my possessions arrive. They're currently in a truck somewhere in the middle of the country. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Feb 29, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 17:43
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:No, I'm not certain. My only data points are: Bait those traps with peanut butter or nutella instead of cheese, cheese is kind of antiquated for mouse catching.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:45
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Yeah peanut butter works for us. In some cases the mice would be able to eat the PB without setting the trap off so we'd start to double them up and they'd get caught in the second trap. We're gutting our kitchen next month and hoping that reveals wherever their entry point is.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:49
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The Dave posted:You could also set up an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that ends with squeezing the trigger of a loaded handgun that is pointed at the vent. A squirrel catapult is both quieter and more fun. VVV: a specific jar of pb just for the traps is exactly what my dad did when I was a kid, for that exact reason. Arrath fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Feb 29, 2024 |
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Feb 29, 2024 17:54
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The main issue with peanut butter is that the stuff I keep in the house is "real" peanut butter (i.e. no stabilizers or additives) and kinda melts if I try using it as a trap. But I guess I can just buy a jar of Skippy specifically for use in traps. Still, I don't think that the intruders are in the living space of the house.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:55
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The Dave posted:You could also set up an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that ends with squeezing the trigger of a loaded handgun that is pointed at the vent. 
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Feb 29, 2024 17:58
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Mmmhmm (he tested it unloaded). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM09ZgY2qPM
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Feb 29, 2024 18:19
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Take note if you decide to do the rube Goldberg handgun style trap, you should get shot shells. .22 and iirc 9mm can be had with poo poo rather than a solid bullet. Sometimes referred to as "rat shot" or "snake shot". It is meant for pest control purposes.
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Feb 29, 2024 18:29
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no I'm just gonna say absolutely do not make a trap with a gun, nobody I hope is taking that remotely seriously
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Feb 29, 2024 20:41
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My rat trap success was bits of dog food hot glued to the trap trigger. Clever rats would just carefully pull the loose stuff off without setting it off but they'd get greedy and tug at the glued ones. These same rats would carefully lick off the peanut butter without setting the trap off
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Feb 29, 2024 21:50
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When I was a kid, we had a problem with smart mice licking the peanut butter off the trigger plates without springing the traps. After a couple weeks of this Mom left the traps out, un-set, and loaded them up with peanut butter. Did this for about two weeks. She then resumed setting the traps up, armed, with a tiny bit of bait, and nailed three of them. And boy, were they chonks by then. So: slower. Mom was stone-cold on the mouse situation.
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Feb 29, 2024 22:17
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Leperflesh posted:no I'm just gonna say absolutely do not make a trap with a gun, nobody I hope is taking that remotely seriously I am and I will, yr not the boss of me
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Feb 29, 2024 22:27
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NotNut posted:I don't know unfortunately, but I've got a bunch of the same type of glue as well as a bunch of the same type of vinyl to test, so I can throw stuff at the wall until it sticks. I'm guessing the glue isn't very expensive or heavy duty so that's where I'd start.
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Feb 29, 2024 23:37
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Flipperwaldt posted:Is the glue flexible and tacky, or hard? What was glued to what? If it's like label residue on a window frame, I'd try wd40. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Is it just a random jar labelled 'vinyl glue?' How do you not have any idea what kind it is? It's a product I bought with a bunch of plastic pieces glued to a bunch of vinyl pieces. I only need one of them, but I need the plastic and vinyl separated. The glue itself seems hard, not really flexible.
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Mar 1, 2024 01:21
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My dishwasher (made by GE, model GDF570SSF0SS) seems to not be using its detergent properly. I ran it once, and when I opened it, I saw that it'd opened the compartment where the detergent goes, but said detergent had just spilled down the inside wall of the dishwasher: I closed the compartment and ran the dishwasher again, figuring I'd just pressed the wrong button or something; no change. There's steam and water droplets on the dishes, and everything looks clean, so I'm not really sure what's going on here. Maybe the water sprayers are failing to hit the opened compartment? Maybe the compartment isn't opening when it's supposed to, only releasing near the end of the cycle? I'm stumped on what this means and what, if any, action should be taken. EDIT: found the model, GDF570SSF0SS. The manual has an entry for "detergent left in the dispenser cups" saying basically "don't put dishes where they can block the sprayer from spraying the dispenser". I guess it's possible that one of the like 8 dishes I put in the dishwasher was precisely positioned to block things...I'm running the dishwasher nearly empty because most of my dishes are being shipped across the country right now. I'm not sure I'm convinced by this explanation, but I guess I can re-run after repositioning things. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Mar 1, 2024 |
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Mar 1, 2024 01:56
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My GE dishwasher loves to have a nice long area along one side that’s perfect for cutting boards or pans, except putting one there will 100% block the soap dispenser from opening. Run it empty and see what happens
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Mar 1, 2024 04:19
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i like nice words
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"What're you gonna do, shoot me?" - rat
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Mar 1, 2024 12:32
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Anne Whateley posted:My GE dishwasher loves to have a nice long area along one side that’s perfect for cutting boards or pans, except putting one there will 100% block the soap dispenser from opening. Yeah, I shuffled the dishes around and ran it again, and it worked. Wow, what a lovely dishwasher.
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Mar 1, 2024 13:10
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We had mice. Then we got two cats. We stopped having mice.
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Mar 1, 2024 13:49
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Yeah but now you have 2 cats
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Mar 1, 2024 13:55
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tater_salad posted:Yeah but now you have 2 cats You just get 3 dogs. Easy.
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Mar 1, 2024 14:47
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tater_salad posted:Yeah but now you have 2 cats Don’t remind me. They’re currently not yelling at me (because I’m at work)
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Mar 1, 2024 16:54
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You clearly don't WFH
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Mar 1, 2024 17:34
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:You just get 3 dogs. Easy. But then what? 4 lions?
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Mar 1, 2024 21:25
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PainterofCrap posted:You clearly don't WFH represent  
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Mar 1, 2024 21:34
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:My dishwasher (made by GE, model GDF570SSF0SS) seems to not be using its detergent properly. I ran it once, and when I opened it, I saw that it'd opened the compartment where the detergent goes, but said detergent had just spilled down the inside wall of the dishwasher: Looks like the cutlery tray is going to absorb a lot of the spray before it reaches the door. Can you put that tray somewhere else?
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Mar 1, 2024 23:34
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tuyop posted:Looks like the cutlery tray is going to absorb a lot of the spray before it reaches the door. Can you put that tray somewhere else? It can be removed, but that's the only spot in the dishwasher that it fits in. It has to hook onto two little protruded loops of wire. There's a second spot for silverware on the upper rack, maybe I should be using that more heavily.
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Mar 1, 2024 23:56
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Nah that makes me think it’s designed to be there and shouldn’t cause a problem, but maybe it’s just designed badly as a joke
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Mar 2, 2024 00:29
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We'll see how it fares once I have all of my dishes on site and can actually fill it. It's entirely possible I'll be shopping for a new dishwasher soon, though. This one has failed to impress me on multiple counts: the detergent thing, the silverware rack doesn't work that well, and the main racks don't fit my dishes well (plates tip over, bowls slide around).
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Mar 2, 2024 00:33
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I hate my loving dishwasher. It’s a GE something or other and just has the worst layout of pegs and corners and the top shelf is way too short. Maybe just compatibility with my dishes, but we’re coming from an apartment with the smallest dishwasher I’d ever seen that worked really well. ours is now almost twice as big and holds only slightly more dishes. I’ve been coveting some of the dishwashers mentioned in the home threads but marginally more capacity seems like a bad reason to buy a new dishwasher.
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Mar 2, 2024 00:40
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My GE dishwasher does an incredible job of cleaning, but I hate the rack layout. It’s a pretty good combo because everything gets clean even though I load it stupidly in stacks
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Mar 2, 2024 03:42
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:It can be removed, but that's the only spot in the dishwasher that it fits in. It has to hook onto two little protruded loops of wire. I've noticed this problem before when a pot handle was hanging down below the rack, preventing the spinning part from making a full rotation. If it worked after rearranging things, that might be your issue too.
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Mar 2, 2024 15:06
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I have a deck and the boards are laid too close together. Water pools up in some areas. I think I have two options. 1: Pull them all and relay them spaced out properly to allow drainage. Essentially rebuild the entire deck surface. 2: Run a saw down the joins between the boards to saw like 1/8 inch gap into them. I'm trying to do option 2 because it sounds like way less work than 1. Is there such a thing as a "wide kerf" blade for a 6 1/2 inch circular saw? Is there a better option?
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Mar 2, 2024 18:35
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Vim Fuego posted:I have a deck and the boards are laid too close together. Water pools up in some areas. Screw down a board as a straightedge, make one cut with the saw, stick a shim to the fence or the edge of the foot of the saw a little less than than the width of the blade, repeat. Or just drill a few drain holes where the gap between boards should be.
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Mar 2, 2024 19:08
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Vim Fuego posted:I have a deck and the boards are laid too close together. Water pools up in some areas. Drill drainage holes where the water pools. Or just cut out and patch that spot so there are larger gaps. No reason to gently caress up the entire deck unless there’s a problem with water draining in a few specific locations I guess
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Mar 2, 2024 19:48
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This is my gas meter: Is that rust on the rounded pipe a concern? If so, is this something where I just tell the utility company about it and they deal with it?
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Mar 2, 2024 21:05
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