Controlling Crafty Critters

The above is the title of the book we picked up at the library yesterday. Really it is. Here are some of the suggestions:
1. Live trap - create your own by doing the following:
Put a bent coat hanger through a soda can that you have smeared with peanut butter- crunchy style. Hang over a bucket. Build a ramp so that the 'star' can climb up to reach the can. When he does he will fall into the bucket. But they neglected to tell me what to do then!
2. Lethal methods -
hanging mouse trap - sure
sticky board - right
poisons- of course they are quick to tell you that the 'star' will crawl off and die and stink. I can attest to that from prior experience.
My all time favorite is to go out at night with a flashlight and a .22. Find the thing and kill it!
Having read and discounted all the above, Gabriel created his own trap. Quite a creative thing if you ask me. His bait was kettlecorn from the Farmer's market, a Ritz cracker with peanut butter and some bird seed thrown in for good measure. He covered this with a box propped open slightly with a stick.
When we can home from church last night the trap was sprung. Now we realized we have two problems. One, we had no way to know what was underneath it. Two, what to do when we lifted the lid and found something. Gabriel was undaunted and marched right out with his trusty fire poker and lifted the box. Only ants- how disappointing.
I am to the point of considering a peaceful co- existence. There are two problems with that trend of thinking:
1. Jon hates 'star' and refused to rest easy until it is GONE.
2. The book says they can have litters 6-12 times a year. UGH
All this has made me think about the Israelites when they returned from Egypt to conquer the land again. God said that they must totally eliminate all the enemies. No peace treaties, no intermarriage, etc. Why? They would end up losing focus on the Lord and turn to the idols of the Canaanites, eventually worshipping and offering their children in sacrifice.
Today we do not battle the Canaanites but we do battle selfishness and self -centeredness rather than God-centeredness. We must defeat that enemy of self rule at any cost. We will end up living for ourselves alone and life will be about Me, Me, Me. We hate that in others and God hates it us.
So I guess I can't co-exist with the 'star' anymore that I can with self rule.
Maybe I will try poison pellets again???