When we arrived home after a recent trip to Denver, I hopped out of the car, took a deep breath–and began coughing.
“Skunk!” I said after a moment. “I hope it hasn’t taken up residence.”
It’s the time of year when wild creatures either head off to more clement climates, or look for shelter. From black widow spiders and mice to skunks and bears, all manner of creatures are hunting for winter homes.
Unless we draw a clear line, they can’t know that mi casa no es su casa. I like skunks, and mice, and bears, and I even appreciate black widow spiders, but I don’t want them living with me.
How can we draw the line for our more-than-human neighbors? Winterize: Seal up cracks and crevices–which will help reduce your heat bills and your carbon footprint, and don’t feed them, intentionally or not.
In the case of larger wild creatures, including the skunk that perfumed our yard the other night, keeping them out is pretty easy: block up holes that lead into crawl spaces, porch undersides, sheds, house walls, attics, and any other spaces that could be used as winter dens.
Don’t neglect small holes. A mouse can shimmy though a hole about the diameter of a quarter, a skunk needs a hole no larger than the diameter of a soda-pop can.
Also, don’t leave pet food or bird feeders outside, and keep trash bins inside or secured until collection day, so you don’t inadvertently set up a “feeding station” for wildlife.
Once a wild animal associates humans with food, they look for food where people live, making conflicts inevitable. In Colorado, the saying “a fed bear is a dead bear” is true: “problem” bears and other wildlife are killed after two or three incidents.
Drawing the line for smaller creatures, like the black widow spider that wandered into a friend’s sweatshirt after he took it off and then bit him when he pulled it on the next morning, winter proofing means sealing up cracks around windows and doors, and fixing leaks in water faucets and pipes that provide moist habitat for all manner of tiny but not welcome guests. (Our friend was mildly sick the next day, but survived the black widow bite without other incident.)
Humans have a paradoxical attitude toward those other species with whom we share this planet. We may enjoy watching them, but we prefer them to know their place (whatever that is) and we’d rather if they weren’t quite so, well, wild.
A deer is charming until it munches our prized roses, a fox a beautiful sight unless it eats our chickens; a mouse can be quite cute as it scurries about until “it” turns into a pregnant “she” who has 10 children and in short order, each of her female children have ten more….
Perhaps as we learn to appreciate these lives as unique parts of our larger community, we’ll also learn how to let them continue to be gloriously and uncompromisingly wild, without getting in their way.
Copyright 2009 Susan J. Tweit
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