Courtesy of Joan Morris of www.bayareanewsgroup.com:
With lots of folks headed out soon for trick-or-treating, it pays to give some thought to those furry "kids," our pets, who may be freaked out by all of the odd creatures showing up on our doorsteps.
More and more, people are including their pets in the celebration, joining in on Halloween pet parades and dressing them on Halloween night.
However, not every pet likes the loud noises, costumes and general creepiness of the day. To help with pets that don't embrace the macabre the folks at the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council offer some tips to help keep pets safe until all the goblins go home.
Quiet places
Noise such as constant doorbell ringing and door knocking may stress your pets. Find a quiet room in the house with food, water, litter box or crate and give your pet a safe, quiet haven until it's all over.
Keep away
Candy and candy wrappers can be toxic to pets. Never leave candy unattended or within reach of your cat or dog. While chocolate is toxic to pets, the wrappers can cause just as much damage. Foil and cellophane wrapper, if ingested, could lead to emergency surgery or death.
If your pet eats candy or other toxic substances, consult your veterinarian, local animal emergency hospital or call the Pet Poison Helpline at 800-213-6680. The helpline, which sees a 21 percent increase in the number of calls each Halloween, is staffed around the clock. There is a $39 per incident fee for the consultation and follow-up calls.
Play nice
Reports of animal cruelty seem to increase during the Halloween season. Keep your pets - especially black cats - indoors to reduce the possibility of harmful pranks.
Beware the flame
Be especially careful with your pets around jack-o'-lanterns and other decorations with flames. Cats and dogs have been known to knock over lighted candles, resulting in fires. Consider flameless candles as part of your decor and try to eliminate as many electrical cords as possible to prevent an anxious pet from chewing on them.
Buckle up
If you're going outside with your animals, keep them on a leash. All the excitement and strange sights can cause a normally obedient animal to make a dash for it. Also, make sure they are wearing tags.
For cats and other pets that usually aren't on leashes, be sure to secure them in another part of the house where they won't have the ability to run out of an open door.
To costume or not
There's no denying that our pets look cute in costumes, but some animals just don't like them. If your pet is one of those, don't force him or her into a costume. Experts say it can make them overly anxious.
If your pet is okay with dressing up, be sure the costume doesn't restrict the animal's vision, movement or hearing.
Calm down
Ask children not to run or make quick movements around animals. These actions could be perceived by your pet as an act of aggression, which could then lead to someone being bitten or scratched. If your pet appears agitated, remove him or her from the action.
BirdLodges.com wishes you a happy and haunted Halloween! And to continue the Halloween theme, if you'd like to help keep the bat population thriving, consider installing a bat house!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Christmas Gifts for Wild Birds: Seed-covered Birdhouses and Edible Ornaments
Join us for some holiday spirit with new candy cane edible ornaments and seed covered birdhouses from BirdLodges.com:
Candy Cane Bird Seed Covered Ornaments
Colorful candy cane bird seed ornaments - a set of six are waiting to add a festive winter holiday touch to your home. Just transfer them to the garden in the spring and the wild birds will eat them like candy!We use a combination of red groat oats, green groat oats, white safflower, and sunflower seeds to cover the wooden-base candy cane ornaments and each one includes a jute rope for hanging.
Candy Cane Edible Birdhouse
Colorful candy cane edible birdhouse will add a festive winter holiday touch to your home. Just transfer the bird seed house to the garden in the spring and the wild birds will eat from it like candy!We attach a combination of white proso millet and red milo to a wooden birdhouse frame and top it off with a ribbon bow, cedar, and small pine cones. A wire or cord is included and the Christmas birdhouse arrives ready to hang.
A Christmas Holiday Edible Birdhouse
Cheery colors makes this a truly decorative Holiday Edible Birdhouse. White roof and gable enhance the red and green winter theme.
Yellow pine bird seed birdhouse is covered with decorative red and white proso millet, grits, canola, green groat oats, and sunflower seeds. The wood frame is decorated with cedar, red berries, and pearl millet columns - a real beauty!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Wild animals love to eat Jack-o'-Lanterns
How to keep wild critters from eating our Jack-o'-Lanterns?
by Joan Morris of ANG newspapers:
Hot peppers. Buy the largest, cheapest bottle of hot sauce you can find and either paint or spray it on the pumpkins. You can make your own by mixing powdered chili, water and a
drop or two of dish washing liquid in a spray bottle. Squirrels really
don't like spicy things, and it can deter other critters, too. The oil
in the peppers will saturate the skin of the pumpkin, so even if you
don't see the hot sauce, anything taking a bite out of it will
immediately taste it.Also, a note of caution: Some folks
recommend sprinkling dried peppers around the pumpkins, but the pepper
can blow away and can be harmful if the creature or a human gets it in
their eyes.
Lacquer. Spray the pumpkin with lacquer and let it dry. This could help preserve the appearance of the jack-o'-lantern, too.
Dog and cat hair. If you have a pet, then take a blanket from their
favorite snoozing spot and place it under the pumpkins. Squirrels
especially don't like the aroma of eau de dog, and it might warn them
away from the pumpkins. Raccoons are less likely to be bothered.
Vinegar. In fact, vinegar may be the most useful thing you can have in
your house, good for so many household chores. The astringent smell is
effective shooing away creatures with sensitive noses. Because the
vinegar can damage the pumpkin, apply sparingly. Pour some on a rag and
wipe down the surface of the pumpkin.
Eucalyptus
oil. Pour some onto a rag and wipe the surface, or soak a cotton ball in
the oil and drop it inside the pumpkin, but not near the flame.
Commercial animal repellents. I have limited faith in these. Some of
these sprays can be rather pricey, and if they worked consistently well,
everyone with issues would be buying them. However, some folks have
great luck with them. Spray the outside of the pumpkin and repeat as
necessary.
Hair spray. This creates a sticky
texture on your pumpkin, which the creatures won't appreciate. Spray the
entire pumpkin but be sure to get the exposed flesh of the gourd.
Petroleum jelly or a menthol chest rub. But be aware, this approach
also can be messy, and if birds get it on their wings, it can be a
problem.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_24284218/morris-whats-been-eating-our-pumpkins?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
by Joan Morris of ANG newspapers:
There are a number of things you can try.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_24284218/morris-whats-been-eating-our-pumpkins?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Bats: Nature's Insect Control
Why Should We Provide Bat Houses for Bats?
Bats have long been disliked by humans -- shunned and thought of as a taboo creature. Some consider them ugly ("a face only a mother could love"), furry little animals that fly and seem to be half-bird and half-mammal.
With proper education and communication, humans are giving them their proper recognition as valuable to mankind in the ecological system. Many night-blooming plants, such as bananas and saguaro cactus, are dependent upon bats for pollination. Give bats credit for helping to reseed tropical rain forests through their inadvertent dispersal of seeds.
Their most appealing feature is their enormous capacity for consuming insects. A nocturnal mammal, they eat when the insects are out, in contrast to birds, which eat during the day. Some bat species consume half their weight in one night -- as many as 600 or more gnat-sized insects in one hour!
The most common bat in North America, the brown bat, can eat 3,000 to 7,000 mosquitoes each night, and a bat can live to be 20 years old. That's a pretty effective insecticide, especially when you consider that they do not poison other creatures or create holes in the ozone layer.
Bats are Cute!
Bats are harmless to people. They do not become tangled in your hair, nor do they attack humans. They are far less prone to be rabid than your everyday household dogs and cats. "In more than four decades, public health records indicate that only 16 people in the United States and Canada have died of bat-borne diseases. Placed in perspective, this means that the odds of anyone dying of a disease from a bat are much less than one in a million. In contrast, in the USA alone more than 10 people die annually from dog attacks, not to mention dog- and cat- transmitted diseases." (Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle America's Neighborhood Bats, Univ. of Texas Press, Austin, 1988.
There are approximately forty species of bats throughout the United States and Canada, the most common being the little brown bat.
In Asia, bats are symbols of good luck, long life, and happiness. They are meticulous in their grooming, spending much of the day and night combing their fur. They generally congregate with their own gender.
Bats are the second most common land mammals, with rodents being first. As they fly, they navigate by means of a sophisticated echolocation system. The bat sends out signals of sound energy, which are reflected back, giving it the location of an object as well as its texture and other characteristics. They can avoid a single human hair with extreme accuracy, even in total darkness, giving lie to the myth that bats are blind.
Bat Housing Crunch
Places for bats to roost have become increasingly limited as their favorite old hollow trees, barns, and old houses disappear.
Bat houses have narrow crevices at the bottom for bats to enter and rough surfaces inside for them to hold onto. A bat house should be hung at least 10 to 15 feet above ground, sheltered from the wind, and unobstructed by items that would inhibit their flying, such as power lines. To keep the interior very warm, place the house on the side of a tree or building which receives maximum sun, especially in the morning. If your location is not sunny enough to warm the house to the 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit required by nursing colonies, you may want to add tar paper or dark colored shingles to the bat house roof. Do not paint it, as paints and stains are toxic to the bats. However, a cooler location may attract a colony of bachelors, who frequently prefer cooler roosts.
Bat boxes located near a source of water, especially a marsh, lake or stream, are the most likely to attract bats, as this habitat provides the insects needed for their food. Twelve to eighteen months is a common waiting period for bats to move into a new house. If you hang your bat house in the fall or winter, it may be occupied in the first active season. If it is not occupied within two years, try a new location. If bats live in your area and your bat house is appropriately located they will find it.
During the winter months bats living in Canada and the northern two-thirds of the United States migrate south or to nearby caves to hibernate, as most bat species cannot survive subfreezing temperatures.
Conservation
If bats are to survive, they need our help and protection. They have proven themselves as valuable members of our ecosystem, and we must increase the awareness of people who have the ability to protect or to destroy these little creatures. A bat loose in a house is probably a young one who is lost and looking for a way out. He should not be killed, but gently caught with a towel and allowed to escape without harm. Bat colonies in warm attics can be evacuated safely and encouraged to take up new residence in a bat house of their own.
Cave explorers should not disturb the caves of roosting bats, as rousing them from their hibernation may cause them to use up much of their stored body fat and die before spring. Unfortunately, thousands of bats have been destroyed this way.
Bats are declining, world-wide, at an alarming rate, due to human misunderstanding. They typically have only one offspring per year, making their comeback a slow process in need of our help. Coveside Conservation Products is a supporter of Bat Conservation International, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about these beneficial animals and helping to conserve them.
Products
Our bat houses are handcrafted of select, kiln-dried Maine White Pine for durability, attractiveness, and insulation qualities. The walls are thick to keep the interior warm and rough-sawn to provide a surface for the bats to cling to.
Inside are several partitions, because bats like narrow spaces, and this allows more surface room for roosting bats. The house is open at the bottom to eliminate the need for cleaning, and to prevent birds from nesting in their house.
The bat house is not painted or stained, because these chemicals are toxic to the bats. The pine wood will weather nicely to an attractive silver gray color which will blend in nicely with the outdoor environment.
Mounting Instructions
First, decide where the bat house is to be mounted; then place a nail or screw into the tree, pole, or wall so that the head is sticking out 1/4". Hang the bat house by placing the metal hanger (located on the back of the bat house) over the nail or screw. After the house hangs securely, drive a nail or screw through the bottom of the board.
Thank you for caring about North America's bat population.
Source: Coveside Conservation Products
Bats have long been disliked by humans -- shunned and thought of as a taboo creature. Some consider them ugly ("a face only a mother could love"), furry little animals that fly and seem to be half-bird and half-mammal.
With proper education and communication, humans are giving them their proper recognition as valuable to mankind in the ecological system. Many night-blooming plants, such as bananas and saguaro cactus, are dependent upon bats for pollination. Give bats credit for helping to reseed tropical rain forests through their inadvertent dispersal of seeds.
Their most appealing feature is their enormous capacity for consuming insects. A nocturnal mammal, they eat when the insects are out, in contrast to birds, which eat during the day. Some bat species consume half their weight in one night -- as many as 600 or more gnat-sized insects in one hour!
The most common bat in North America, the brown bat, can eat 3,000 to 7,000 mosquitoes each night, and a bat can live to be 20 years old. That's a pretty effective insecticide, especially when you consider that they do not poison other creatures or create holes in the ozone layer.
Bats are Cute!
Bats are harmless to people. They do not become tangled in your hair, nor do they attack humans. They are far less prone to be rabid than your everyday household dogs and cats. "In more than four decades, public health records indicate that only 16 people in the United States and Canada have died of bat-borne diseases. Placed in perspective, this means that the odds of anyone dying of a disease from a bat are much less than one in a million. In contrast, in the USA alone more than 10 people die annually from dog attacks, not to mention dog- and cat- transmitted diseases." (Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle America's Neighborhood Bats, Univ. of Texas Press, Austin, 1988.
There are approximately forty species of bats throughout the United States and Canada, the most common being the little brown bat.
In Asia, bats are symbols of good luck, long life, and happiness. They are meticulous in their grooming, spending much of the day and night combing their fur. They generally congregate with their own gender.
Bats are the second most common land mammals, with rodents being first. As they fly, they navigate by means of a sophisticated echolocation system. The bat sends out signals of sound energy, which are reflected back, giving it the location of an object as well as its texture and other characteristics. They can avoid a single human hair with extreme accuracy, even in total darkness, giving lie to the myth that bats are blind.
Bat Housing Crunch
Places for bats to roost have become increasingly limited as their favorite old hollow trees, barns, and old houses disappear.
Bat houses have narrow crevices at the bottom for bats to enter and rough surfaces inside for them to hold onto. A bat house should be hung at least 10 to 15 feet above ground, sheltered from the wind, and unobstructed by items that would inhibit their flying, such as power lines. To keep the interior very warm, place the house on the side of a tree or building which receives maximum sun, especially in the morning. If your location is not sunny enough to warm the house to the 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit required by nursing colonies, you may want to add tar paper or dark colored shingles to the bat house roof. Do not paint it, as paints and stains are toxic to the bats. However, a cooler location may attract a colony of bachelors, who frequently prefer cooler roosts.
Bat boxes located near a source of water, especially a marsh, lake or stream, are the most likely to attract bats, as this habitat provides the insects needed for their food. Twelve to eighteen months is a common waiting period for bats to move into a new house. If you hang your bat house in the fall or winter, it may be occupied in the first active season. If it is not occupied within two years, try a new location. If bats live in your area and your bat house is appropriately located they will find it.
During the winter months bats living in Canada and the northern two-thirds of the United States migrate south or to nearby caves to hibernate, as most bat species cannot survive subfreezing temperatures.
Conservation
If bats are to survive, they need our help and protection. They have proven themselves as valuable members of our ecosystem, and we must increase the awareness of people who have the ability to protect or to destroy these little creatures. A bat loose in a house is probably a young one who is lost and looking for a way out. He should not be killed, but gently caught with a towel and allowed to escape without harm. Bat colonies in warm attics can be evacuated safely and encouraged to take up new residence in a bat house of their own.
Cave explorers should not disturb the caves of roosting bats, as rousing them from their hibernation may cause them to use up much of their stored body fat and die before spring. Unfortunately, thousands of bats have been destroyed this way.
Bats are declining, world-wide, at an alarming rate, due to human misunderstanding. They typically have only one offspring per year, making their comeback a slow process in need of our help. Coveside Conservation Products is a supporter of Bat Conservation International, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about these beneficial animals and helping to conserve them.
Products
Our bat houses are handcrafted of select, kiln-dried Maine White Pine for durability, attractiveness, and insulation qualities. The walls are thick to keep the interior warm and rough-sawn to provide a surface for the bats to cling to.
Inside are several partitions, because bats like narrow spaces, and this allows more surface room for roosting bats. The house is open at the bottom to eliminate the need for cleaning, and to prevent birds from nesting in their house.
The bat house is not painted or stained, because these chemicals are toxic to the bats. The pine wood will weather nicely to an attractive silver gray color which will blend in nicely with the outdoor environment.
Mounting Instructions
First, decide where the bat house is to be mounted; then place a nail or screw into the tree, pole, or wall so that the head is sticking out 1/4". Hang the bat house by placing the metal hanger (located on the back of the bat house) over the nail or screw. After the house hangs securely, drive a nail or screw through the bottom of the board.
Thank you for caring about North America's bat population.
Source: Coveside Conservation Products
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Woodpeckers: how to prevent damage to house siding?
Woodpeckers
How do I keep a woodpecker from pecking at my house siding?
From The Today Show on NBC:
String fishing lines randomly across the area where the woodpeckers are attracted and since they do not want to be tangled they will avoid the area.
Flicker House and Woodpecker Houses from BirdLodges.com
Birdhouses - When and How to Clean Out Nest Boxes
How
to Clean a Bird House
Tips for Cleaning Bird
Houses
By Melissa Mayntz, About.com
Guide
Ads:
Remove all old nesting material when cleaning bird
houses.
Birders
who know how to clean a bird house are taking steps to protect their backyard
bird families from pests and disease while making their bird houses even more
attractive for new nesting birds. Like cleaning bird feeders, cleaning a bird house
is essential for good bird health and safety.
Why Clean Bird Houses
Just like a dirty, damaged bird feeder, a dirty bird
house is less attractive to backyard birds. Dirty bird houses can also harbor
rodents, insects, feather mites, fungus and bacteria that can spread disease to
nesting birds. Cleaning a bird house minimizes these hazards and makes the home
more attractive to nesting birds, and a clean bird house encourages reuse with
either the same bird family or additional birds looking for suitable nesting
sites.
When to Clean
Ideally, a bird
house should be cleaned after the nesting brood has
completely fledged and no longer returns to the nest. For many bird species, a
single cleaning after the end of the breeding season is sufficient, but in temperate
regions where birds may raise multiple broods the bird house can be cleaned
between each new family to encourage more nesting. If you aren't sure whether
the house is occupied or not, tap gently on the sides or roof to listen for
responsive scufflings or cheeps, or peak inside the house carefully through the
roof or movable side to check for nestlings. If the birds are still present,
wait at least another week before checking again to give them plenty of time to
vacate the home.
How to Clean a Birdhouse
To thoroughly clean a birdhouse…
1.
Open the bird house or partially disassemble it for proper
cleaning. Bird houses with swinging sides, hinged roofs or removable fronts are
the easiest to clean.
2.
Remove all old nesting material and scrape out any feces or
clumped matter. This material should be disposed of in a plastic bag to prevent
spreading any parasites it might harbor.
3.
Scrub the house thoroughly with a weak bleach solution (one part
chlorine bleach to nine parts warm water). Be sure to scrub all corners, the
entrance hole and drainage and ventilation holes.
4.
Rinse the house well in clean water for several minutes to
remove all traces of bleach.
5.
Dry the house thoroughly in full sun for at least several hours.
This will break down any remaining chlorine and ensure there are no moist
crevices for mold or mildew to grow.
6.
Inspect the house for loose hinges, protruding nails or screws,
prominent splinters and other hazards that can injure adult or hatchling birds.
7.
Check that all ventilation and drainage holes are unobstructed.
8.
Reassemble the house securely and check that all screws and
joins are tight. If the house converts to a winter bird roost box, assemble it in that
configuration after the breeding season ends.
9.
Store delicate gourds or clay bird houses for winter so they
will last longer, or return wooden bird houses to their hooks or posts so they
can be used as roost boxes for cold winter nights.
Birdhouse Cleaning Tips
To ensure that your bird houses are as clean and safe as
possible for your nesting or roosting backyard birds…
·
Buy bird houses with movable or hinged panels that are easier to
clean without weakening the structure of the house.
·
Leave clean bird houses up for winter roosting and clean them
again in early spring so they are ready for breeding birds.
·
Also clean the post or hook where the bird house is positioned
to remove any lingering pests or bacteria from the area.
By cleaning a bird house properly, including duck houses and owl houses, backyard birders
provide a safe, happy home for their backyard birds.
Source:
www.about.com
Owl Houses and Fun Facts About Owls
Whoooo knew?
The belief that owls can turn their heads 360 degrees is almost true. Having twice the number of cervical vertebrae as humans allows them to turn 270 degrees.
Owls have eyes that are proportionally larger than other birds when compared to body size. Being nocturnal, this assists with night vision.
Hearing is enhanced by having offset ears on either side of the head. An owl can tilt its head just slightly to hear within a larger range. The shape of the owl’s face also assists in hearing; the rounded shape funnels sounds to the ears.
The talons on an owl lock in place after grasping prey, allowing for a more secure hold on the next meal while flying to a safe place.
One of the most fascinating features of owls is their ability to fly silently. The top feather of an owl’s wings is covered with a very fine row of feathers which muffles any swishing sound made while flying.
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