We hope to net some critters tonight. Really, we don’t. We want no critters in the net. We want the net to discourage critters and have them go quietly elsewhere.
We put down sod this late fall. Critters, some suspect squirrels, I am currently suspecting raccoons, have been carefully lifting the corners of the sod pieces to dine on grubs and worms. But they are not putting the corners, and in some cases large pieces, of the sod back down. I just don’t see how the sod is ever going to extend roots into the soil if it is constantly being disturbed.
I tried landscape pins at the corners of the sod.
They were pulled out of the ground. (This is when I changed from squirrels to raccoons.)
Frosty nights discourages activity, but this is not the great WHITE north, just the great northWET.
Last night they went on a feast. The sod was turned up in 16 to 20 places.
I went shopping. This time for “bird” netting. I had considered deer fencing, but the openings in the deer fence are pretty large. I found some bird netting at a local nursery, and bought two packages that said they covered 28 feet by 28 feet. This works out to around 300 square feet. Our yard is a bit under 800 square feet.
Ashlan and I set about unrolling the first net. We found that it was actually a “double” net in that one side was sewn together, the other not. I assume this is to ease draping over trees and bushes. Since we were going to be short on square footage and didn’t need to drape, we set about ripping the seam out. My, what seemed like a good idea ended up adding at least an hour to unrolling the first net. Ashlan left me to my net. The sun went down. I got out my headlamp. FINALLY finished unseaming the first net, and 1/2 of this split net covered all but 4 feet of 1/2 of the lawn. Since the second 1/2 of the first net would easily cover the last four feet, I decided there was no need to unseam the second net. I retrieved Ashlan to help with this easier task and we got it unrolled and pinned.
The last four feet did not get netted because; 1) Trying to make sense of a 28′ x 28′ net in the dark is not easy, and 2) we were out of landscape pins.
But I did not want ot just leave the extra netting out blowing around the backyard, so we brought it inside to fold. Added Carl to the mix for an extra set of hands. The only bird that our bird netting caught was a Jay. Several times it tried to trip me. I understand why the birds try to keep their feet away from the netting. I only hope the raccoons/squirrels feel the same way.
I almost want the uncovered 4 feet to be disturbed tonight to indicate that they stayed away from the netting. But not really. If they go around pulling up the pins or biting through the netting I am not sure what my next step will be.
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