Egg thief number two

I was going to take a pic, but then I decided to just deal with it right away and worry about a pic on the next one maybe.  Apparently, we have a whole family of possums eating our chicken eggs.  It was noticeable because I had decided it was time to fill up the incubator and start hatching ... and finding broken egg shells in multiple tractors really had us tweaked.

I'm pretty sure I've seen Big Mama possum over the summer in the back pasture - big ugly thing.  Hubby saw her the night before last, when he went out behind the workshop to see if that annoying armadillo was digging back there again.  Wednesday morning, the first juvenile was in the smaller trap (borrowed from Lynn) but nothing in the bigger trap (bought Tuesday at TSC, 30 days to return with receipt taped to the packing).  Yesterday there was still nothing in the big trap, and hubby hadn't reset the smaller one Wednesday night.  This morning, another juvenile in the small trap ... and eggs missing from the tractor with Azar and the Sisters where I think I saw three yesterday and hubby remembers two.  I'm wondering if the juveniles are too small to trip the big trap.

Hubby had been moving the fence around, trying to close up where ever they are getting in, and I think he's got it so Big Mama can't get inside the electric perimeter, but obviously the younger ones still are.  I plan to move the big trap to behind the workshop and see what we get.  Meanwhile, the small trap will be set up in the same spot again tonight.

We are not doing catch-and-release, because they would just come right back.  The juveniles are too small to even bother with skinning and feeding to the pigs, so we are just drowning them in the big brooder tub (actually a 110 gallon stock tank) then tossing the carcass out back into the state-owned woods.

Meanwhile, the mosquitoes are HORRIBLE this year.  These aren't just the small, sneaky normal mosquitoes - these suckers are big enough to see and feel the bite.  Speculation is they blew in with the hurricane.  I wish they'd go back to whichever pit of hell they came from and leave us alone.  They are bothering a whole lot more than just hubby and me - the mosquitoes are all over the goats, rabbits, and pigs ... probably the chickens too but they don't let me get up close to see.