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Something Ate My Hubbard Squash in the Cellar

Oh, the horror! Panic and terror caught hold of me this morning when I went down into the cellar.  I was innocently planning to make whole wheat pancakes for breakfast.  The recipe called for applesauce, and so I went down into the cellar to get a jar of our wonderful homemade applesauce.  As soon as I turned on the cellar light, I knew something was amiss.  There at the bottom of the stairs I could see a litter of something all over the floor where usually it's swept clean. 

A terrible creature ate a hole one of the Blue Ballet Hubbard Squash.  But the horror didn't end there.  Whatever the creature was, it left a trail of Hubbard innards.  The seeds and other entrails had been drug along the top shelf where the sad, hole-drilled Hubbard sat, down two more shelves and onto the floor.  More seeds littered the top of many of my pretty jars of home canned goods.


What could have gotten to it?  The creature bore a large hole into the side of the squash. I was mortified, even stupefied.  Was it Mountain Beaver?  Or maybe some sort of Hubbard Goblin come to haunt us for Halloween?


Then I saw a mouse dropping on the floor.  Eeeewwww!!! 


This will not be tolerated. The horrid, nasty bugger bit into the top of the second Hubbard squash, too.


And there are teeth marks in the lone Butternut Squash that I grew.  My one and only Butternut, ravaged by the Mountain Beaver Goblin Mouse.  I'm so sad.


I spent the morning wearing rubber gloves while I cleaned the cellar, sweeping and then wiping everything down with a vinegar essential oil solution. My poor victimized squash fatalities have been taken out to the compost pile where they were put to rest. Then I bought several mouse traps.  No, they are not humane traps...my apologies to any bleeding hearts, but mice carry disease and they multiply rapidly.  I bought glue traps.  The instructions for the traps ensure that the horrible mouse creature will be frozen in its tracks within two days.

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