Some neighbors have been paying a pest control service to 'discourage' mosquitos from residing in their yard. Those folks obviously spend more time in their yard than I spend in mine. My forays tend to be limited to cutting the grass and a daily trip to the mailbox.
An unfortunate side effect of these "neighborly" activities is a marked increase of mosquito visitors to our yard. I recently learned that mosquitos favor dark colors... like the black cover I keep on my lawn mower! I've also heard that mosquitos, like moths, are attracted to light. Apparently that myth somehow discounts the Sun as being some kind of light, but I digress.
In a defensive move against the tiny, blood sucking pests, I purchased a
"Stinger" bug zapper. It was both
black and had a
light! Two birds (or more mosquitos?) with one 'stone'!
Lacking an outlet high on the back porch wall, I simply plugged in the device to a low AC outlet near my lawnmower. In an economical thinking moment, I inserted a 24 hour timer between the Stinger and the outlet. Unfortunately, this forced the device to be touching the porch floor. Since I am still capable of getting up from a kneeling position, assuming there are enough people or stable furniture around so that was not a problem.
Last week, I noticed that the Stinger was missing!
My first thought was that my 24 year old grand-daughter might have "borrowed" the timer for her Halloween/Fall display on the front porch and neglected to plug the Stinger back in.
But upon closer evaluation, I found that the timer was actually still plugged into the outlet. It was the
Stinger that was missing! My next "suspect" was my wife, of course!
"Uh, no, why would I even touch that dead bug incrusted thing?!" 
Since the backyard is fenced and includes a 'beware of dog' warning for those animals that can read, my next suspect was either a small child with a reading-challenged adult or a raccoon. Never underestimate the cleverness and perseverance of our little bandit friends! Not only did they unplug the Stinger, they opened a small, latched (difficult-for-humans-to-open) door at the bottom
and removed the bulb to get at the trapped contents!
I finally found the three separate items (the Stinger's body, trap door and bulb) strewn about the back yard. I then discovered why the raccoons were so interested in the Stinger's contents; inside were four miniature, slightly dried up frog bodies! It made no difference to the raccoon(s). They were obviously not vegetarians and saw (or smelled) the meat, even if it wasn't offered at Arby's!
