We've got three kittens who we think were born under our deck last fall. They're pretty cute, and the live mostly in our backyard.

But I've interacted with three pests today as well:

1. The weed from hell

• No one has ever successfully killed this type of weed.
  
• It seems to feed off some types of weed killer.
  
• Roots can go down 20 feet.
  
• You can't pull it up by the root - it just breaks off.
• It grows by splitting it's roots underground and by seeding.
• It is growing through our wall in one room that's 1/2 under ground in our split-level house.
• It's now not just growing by the house in the front, but in the backyard as well.

So I went to weed the garden a bit, and was reminded of another pest.

2. Wasps - yellow jackets. I don't know where they're nesting, but there's always 1 or 2 right in front of & right behind the house. I've killed one small next as it was starting, but can't find others.

3. Mice - we get them in our garage, though never yet in the house. Occasionally the kittens sneak into the garage, catch & kill a mouse, and bring it onto our deck by the door.

As I was walking back into the house, barefoot, having pulled plenty of the weed from hell, and avoided the wasp that was buzzing...

I stepped on a dead mouse on the deck.

Lovely.

2 comments

1. Dan Luebcke on 5/19/07, 12:00 AM

   Great post bro! Love the weed from hell...I am just crying laughing...I have on the side of my house and I am convinced it's roots go straight to hell!

    
2. Kristen on 5/24/07, 9:21 PM

   my husband is convinced that the mother root starts in Kansas