Sleestacks: I need some advice

[darkstar]

[deucemagnet]

1. OK, first of all, conventional traps, glue traps, and D-Con aren't going to help you.

Examine your basement for any large caves or tunnels that might lead to the Lost City, and block them off. Sleestaks tend to lay eggs in a communal hatchery. Finding the hatchery and eliminating the eggs should only be done by a professional exterminator, but that will usually take care of the problem. While sleestaks are slow, and generally only threaten you with lame crossbows that deposit bolts harmlessly at your feet, they will try to sacrifice you to their god if they succeed in capturing you. They may also try to capture your pets to feed their young in the hatchery, so try to keep small animals away from areas of sleestak infestation.

Good luck, and remember, the best way to deal with a sleestak infestation is PREVENTION!

[Blue-Jay]

2. Once you've caught a sleestack:

If you are considering carrying them off somewhere and letting them go, one experienced professional says, "I've seen sleestacks return from a 25 mile trip. I think that's unusual, but it's a sign of what they can do sometimes. Usually, a sleestack released away from his own territory won't be able to establish a new territory, is usually forced out by the other sleestacks, a usually slow death of starvation. If the sleestacks you are trapping are coming from inside a house, when you release them, they ordinarily head for someone else's house, rather than the woods."

If you still plan to relocate them, put some newspaper over a plastic garbage bag in the trunk or wherever you put the trap. They're frightened and tend to . . . uh . . . soil your car.