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Dueling with terrestrial invaders. Thief's in the night. Ah! the game is afoot.

Well the secret is out. I have fish and a fish feeder in an unsecured greenhouse. Oh us stupid humans. As a Ferengi I use to know would say. Hue-Mons they are strange. It seems a terrestrial Invader has found first my fish feeder and then my gallon jar with fish food. A racoon I surmise. Woe is me. I have heard the many stories of the cunning invaders. They can open jars and navigate wires. All may be lost but the thrill of the Game is on. Sure I could go the mundane route of a steel cabinet, locked and with secure food containers in it. But then where is the fun in that. First I will have to cover the fish tank or I won't even notice that the buffet has been cleaned out.

I couldn't resist, I went for the cunning food solution first. I hung a canvas bag with a plastic gallon jar of fish food from the rafters. Oh I wish I had night vision Critter cameras in there. Once when I was fighting these invaders in Tarpon Springs. They would bring their dead catch to my pool and clean it and or their ?hands. A truly disgusting thing to see the remains of when you are pool bound with flops and float in hand. I proved the more evolved adversary. I finally got a Critter Chaser ultrasound sonic radar thingamajig. It worked fine. I just had to find the right spot so it would go off and chase them when they come in MY Zone. Well who knows for sure they found other facilities to clean up at.

Back to this invader. I had guessed there was an intruder when I found 5 gallon buckets turned over. A mess where there wasn't one before. Then finally I found the feeder I had left on a table thing on the ground and a lot of food gone. Still I was clueless. Maybe is was just a short trip to the land of denial. But finally I found the feeder knocked over in an adjacent tank almost in the water. Bungie s Pulled off and it was a harsh reality. THERE BACK.

So tonight the one gallon jug of Aquamax 5000 was GONE. Just GONE. What the *$#!! I got my backup container and then the inevitable happen. While rummaging around for a solution. None settled on. My better half in may ways and of course IQ simple said "why don't you hang it". DUH I hadn't thought of that yet.

So the game is afoot. I will keep you posted on my next episode.

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Comment by Chi Ma on April 18, 2011 at 7:49pm: Thems some good eating

Comment by Green Acre Aquaponics on April 18, 2011 at 5:07pm: I love when the critters outsmart the COSMO!!!!!!!!

Comment by Susanne Friend on April 16, 2011 at 8:21pm: We got no steenkin' racoons. We got steenkin mongoose. (The plural of which is "plenty mongoose".)

And they stay far, far away.

Comment by TCLynx on April 16, 2011 at 5:53am: We had a horrible time with rats one winter and between fish food and a nice greenhouse we had quite a job dealing with them. I was actually really happy when I saw a couple big rat snakes around the place but then again, there are only a few species of venomous snakes here in FL so I don't need to be too worried about snakes around here.

Currently I have 1/4" hardware cloth wrapping up my feeders and then a bucket over top and the critters don't seem to have disturbed them, just make sure they are secured in some fashion to keep them from being knocked over or into the tanks.

Also had some raccoon, squirrel or opossum attack the feeders when I first started searching for feeder options. The feeders I currently use seemed to thwart them when I had them mounted in a secured milk crate with a bucket over it.

However, if your critters are able to make off with a 1 gallon plastic jar, I'm impressed that seems pretty tricky for a Florida sized raccoon to manage.

Comment by Paul Ellinghuysen on April 14, 2011 at 11:55am: Kobus, I always say Hail to the snakes. There always a wecome visitor to my garden, I know how rats like to chew on liner.and that I really dont like!

Comment by Kobus Jooste on April 13, 2011 at 11:51pm: My biggest concern is rats! We have a partially developed piece of land behind our property, and in this drought, water and green plants attract a lot of attention. Snakes follow the rats, and I have had issues with both recently.

Comment by Sahib Punjabi on April 13, 2011 at 7:13pm: Dear Cosmo Sir,

Glad I am not the only one experiencing "strangers in the night". Looking forward to you solution. I was seriously thinking of getting a Critter Chaser ultrasound sonic chaser but was not sure if they would be effective for both Racoons & Squirrels or Posoms or whatever other "strangers in the night" amy want to venture in.

God bless,