The How to Get Rid of Things Blog

The new How to Get Rid of Fleas article is an example of the updated layout and structure of the How to Get Rid of Things website. As you may know, we’ve been working on a redesign for quite some time now. We decided that the current layout was working pretty well for our readers; at least, that’s the impression we’ve been getting from your emails. So, we decided to stick with the 3 column spread, but make it a bit wider, more eye-friendly and sophisticated, with highlights on links to other resources some visitors may not have noticed.

Eventually the whole site will be updated to reflect these changes, and while we’re doing that you’ll probably start to notice fewer articles each week, but better quality articles with more information and better organization. You might also notice there is a link called “community” which is not yet active. We’ll have more information on the “community” available once certain services are put into place. We think you’ll appreciate what we’ve done, and we hope you understand that this new layout and site structure reflects our committment to serving you with helpful, well written articles about how to get rid of things.

So, enjoy. If you have any comments, please register as a user here and leave a comment or go to the “about” section of the main site and drop us a line. We’d love to get some feedback from you.

Every effort should be made to coexist with these cute, relatively harmless, chubby rodents before resorting to something as ugly as fumigation. This here is an article about how to get rid of groundhogs. It’s part of the greater project about getting rid of rodents. It’s interesting to note that groundhogs are actually a member of the squirrel family, so maybe I should have made groundhogs a subtopic of squirrels. But then I thought, “most people don’t really think of a 10 pound groundhog when they think of squirrels,” so I decided to include it in the rodent article.

Eric will be taking care of the squirrels page eventually, and while he’s doing that, I’ll be doing my research for the upcoming and final rodent topic, chipmunks.

Getting rid of rodents is the new topic of a series I’m working on in the pest control section. So far we have getting rid of mice, getting rid of rats, and getting rid of gophers. I’d of added rabbits if they weren’t a lagomorph instead of a rodent. Isn’t that close enough? Apparently not. In the near future you should see articles dedicated to getting rid of squirrels, getting rid of chipmunks, and getting rid of groundhogs. This should round out the topic of rodents pretty well. In general, rodent control strategies are fairly similar, with variance depending upon the size of the population and the size of the rodent. Watch this space for more articles about how to get rid of rodents.

Don’t worry, I realize how to get rid of rats is woefully underdeveloped; we plan on addressing that in the near future.

That’s the mascot for our dearly beloved University of Minnesota; however, I’m not a big fan of gophers either, and apparently a lot of people out there want to know how to get rid of gophers. Well, this article is yet another piece of ammunition in the war against rodents.

Gophers, not moles, are often the culprits when roots and bulbs in gardens go missing. Moles simply lack the jaw strength to chew on root vegetables. Gophers on the other hand have very strong jaws. They even have a way of closing their lips behind their teeth to keep the dirt out, because they use their teeth to dig. So, have had carrots missing lately but no sightings of rabbits? Have you noticed mounds of dirt popping up here and there? You may need to read this article to learn about getting rid of gophers.

When I was a kid, I saw house centipedes on a regular basis, in my dad’s ivy-covered house in southern Minnesota. Then I lived for five years in the less hospitable northern part of the state, and pretty much forgot they existed. I was recently reaquainted with them in my Minneapolis apartment, when I pulled the shower curtain closed around me one morning and found one perched on the curtain, just inches from my hip. After doing a Scooby-Doo run out of the tub, I started some research on getting rid of centipedes. Turns out, it can be a tricky business to get rid of centipedes. They’re rarely eradicated by chemicals alone, so if you want to get rid of them, you might need to begin the process of making your home inhospitable for centipedes. All the steps in that process are detailed in my article on how to get rid of centipedes. Enjoy.

We’ve moved on from birds and feathered creatures to rodents and small mammals, starting with rabbits. Strategies for keeping rabbits out of a yard are still a hotly debated topic, as I noticed while doing research on the subject. It seems to me that people want to get rid of rabbits quickly and efficiently, but they refuse to do anything that might be considered “inhumane.” Now, I’m not one of those lunatics who’s going to try to convince you that trapping is humane because it spares the rabbit of having to live a miserable existence. That line of reasoning might work with those miserable looking goth kids, but rabbits are not inherently miserable creatures–even if they’re hungry.

I suggest using live traps for most isolated rabbit problems. But if you’re having recurrent issues with rabbits then you might want to consider contacting a conservation officer or your local law enforcement center to find out what the deal is with guns in your neighborhood and if there are any laws protecting them there varmints.

Things around here are starting to slow down with the warmer weather. It’s just too damn hard to think when the sun is shining and there’s a cool breeze running through your house. This sort of climate just puts me right to sleep. But before I fell asleep, I decided to write an article about getting rid of geese.

To many people’s surprise (mostly those who haven’t wandered too close to a mother goose with her goslings), geese can become a problem, for park officials, golf course maintainence crews, people with lakeshore property or ponds, and even farmers. I had the chance to talk briefly to a man, Tom Starling, from the esteemed Bird-X company, and you’ll find some of his suggestions and advice in the How to Get Rid of Geese article as well. This about wraps up the getting rid of birds series, so enjoy.

It’s been a while, I know. As it turns out, I’ve been commissioned to write something for somebody, and that has been taking up a good deal of my time. Once the project goes public, I’ll let you all in on what I’ve been working on. But right now, we’re dealing with getting rid of woodpeckers. The second installment in our getting rid of birds series.

For the most part, woodpeckers are a relatively harmless lot–when compared to birds like the pigeon, or the starling or the canadian goose (which we’ll get to with the next installment). Unlike these other birds, woodpeckers retain the status of “protected” or in some cases “endangered” species. So, killing woodpeckers, or harming them in any way, is out of the question. Which is why the article on how to get rid of woodpeckers focuses a great deal on non-lethal and non-physical deterrents, resorting only to netting when it is absolutely necessary to keep woodpeckers away from a certain part of your home. We hope you enjoy this article. It was a challenge to compose.

How to Get Rid of Pigeons is our latest installment in the “get rid of birds” series of pest control articles we’ve been working on as of late. There isn’t a lot you can do in terms of direct physical pigeon control aside from shooting them. But, to discourage pigeons from taking up residence on your property, there are plenty of habitat modification techniques and indirect pigeon control techniques. Check out the article if you’re looking for some ideas about getting rid of pigeons.

Poor speckles never saw it coming. Seriously, if you’re thinking about getting rid of birds with avicide, you’re probably hankering for a fight with your local conservation group. When birds eat poison they don’t immediately drop dead, they fly away first, and you wouldn’t believe how many naturalists are out there milling about in the forests. If they find one dead bird, they’ll look for more, and when they do, they’ll come looking for you. I’ve seen it happen before; it’s like a modern day witch hunt. I tell you, the pigeons aren’t worth it, and you’ll probably end up killing birds other than pigeons–pretty birds, like the Oriole or the Pileated Woodpecker.

If you want some non-toxic solutions to get rid of birds, then we have what you’re looking for. We’ll be covering the control of pigeons, woodpeckers, geese, and maybe starlings in more depth with future articles. I think Eric might be chewing at the bit to get rid of some European Starlings.