Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Our New Neighbors

A friend in the ward here said that everyone in Colorado hibernates during the winter. She is definitely right as we haven't met any of our neighbors. That is, until a few weeks ago. It was a very nice, sunny Saturday and we noticed that the neighbors were out playing. Our first thought was "They look so nice", and "How fun!". And then we started to get to know them a bit better. Now, I'm researching extermination methods and learning so much more than I wanted to know. See, the neighbors that I'm referring to are the prairie dogs that inhabit the field behind our house. At least we thought it was confined to the field behind our yard, but we have recently discovered that our yard has not been spared in the prairie dog tunnel network.

Growing up, the prairie dog exhibit at the zoo was always a family favorite and I was always led to believe that prairie dogs were endangered. Turns out that in Colorado not only is the opposite true, there is a serious population control problem. So much so that Colorado approved a new extermination method a year and a half ago--the use of gas and explosives in their tunnels! While I don't know what we are going to do just yet, I do know that we've met our nearest neighbors and we've been less than impressed. So watch out little prairie dogs--you've overstayed your welcome!

1 comment:

Kristi said...

I know a gal who moved here from Colorado. She said they had prairie dogs too. She said they put chunks of dry ice down their tunnels and then covered them up with dirt. She swears by it. However, we have voles in our yard and it didn't work with them. Good luck with getting rid of the little critters.