Not a nice job!

[Britsmoothy]

Had a pest control job tonight.
Nothing to feel proud about but someone got to do it.
It made a change using a muzzleloader for this job compared to my usual choice.
Why am I reporting this?
Just to emphasis a muzzleloader is still capable for pest control. And in this world of nitro someone somewhere used the old choice!
No pictures for this one folks.
However, on the way I filmed me wearing my BPMS badge

 

[SDSmlf]

And it’s not backwards this go around.

 

[hanshi]

Staying true to black powder! That's the way to go, Nate.

 

[Patocazador]

What were the pests you were controlling?

 

[PathfinderNC]

Looks like something from times long ago: man with his gun and dog walking the English countryside. Thanks for posting- made me smile

 

[ord sgt]

As it should be, an English gentleman and his dog on the hunt.

 

[Spikebuck]

Ever step on Jess' leash when it's hanging down like that while walking along? I could just see me doing that and taking a nice tumble!

I'm also interested in what pest you were controlling? It's the double, so I'm thinking crows?

 

[Britsmoothy]

Ever step on Jess' leash when it's hanging down like that while walking along? I could just see me doing that and taking a nice tumble!

I'm also interested in what pest you were controlling? It's the double, so I'm thinking crows?

Jess soon learnt not to get under my fat feet!
No sir, I rejoice shooting crows!
Fox cubs. There's to many fox's around here and the farmers of sheep and chickens only give me freedom on the condition I control the fox population.

 

[Spikebuck]

I can see why it's not a pleasant chore.

I remember about three decades ago when we started to see the first coyotes starting to show up in my area after many decades of absence. I passed several of them up while deer hunting with my bow for the first several years since they were a great rarity. I kind of liked seeing them and on occasion would hear a lone coyote howl in the distance as I walked out of the woods after dark.

I wish I had shot them all based on the population of packs we have now!

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a red fox that lives down in the woods below the house, last year he had the mange, I saw him this morning siting out past the front yard, his whole mid section was almost bare from mange. I wonder how long it will take for the mange to kill him.

On pests, I had no idea how many new born lambs or lambs being born were killed by crows and ravens until I watched a youtube video of a guy who killed as many as he could with a long range rifle. He had videos of crows pecking the lambs eyes out when they were half way out of the ewe.

 

[Spikebuck]

I have a red fox that lives down in the woods below the house, last year he had the mange, I saw him this morning siting out past the front yard, his whole mid section was almost bare from mange. I wonder how long it will take for the mange to kill him.

I had to do a little internet searching but found that most infected foxes will die from it. Rarely, some do recover.

"... if left untreated, death typically follows in four to six months." A pretty cruel disease.

Below was a good article discussing the disease in fox. In this article it was interesting to note that it says the common house dust mite is "benign." But I can tell you that the Golden Retriever we had was terribly allergic to common dust mites. At one point, she had a lot of the beautiful long hair on her tail chewed down to stubble and would rub her back bare of hair reaching around and pulling out gobs with her teeth. Steroids provided some relief, but long term are very hard on major organs. Immuno-suppressants can cause all kinds of issues. We tried allergy shots, but her allergy was so bad that the shots actually created more problems. Finally we found what I considered to be the closest thing to a miracle treatment have ever seen: Cytopoint. It is a biological medication (a protein, not a chemical) that works like your dog’s own immune system to block the main protein that sends signals that trigger allergic itch. Zero side effects and since it's not like traditional medications, it can be given with other medications a dog may be on. Anyway...off the topic a bit but if anyone has a dog with allergies that cannot seem to be controlled, Cytopoint is worth checking out. Your dog doesn't have to suffer like a wild fox!

https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/how_mange_a_terminal_disease_afflicts_red_fox