My great grandmother lived in a sod house once upon a time. In the family album is a photo of her standing next to the tiny dwelling with a baby in her arms. Studying it, as I often did, I couldn’t help but wonder how she kept her house pest free. When I lived in a mobile home in Nevada desert country, there was always some kind of critter trying to get in and I did not have the disadvantage of a dirt floor and roof.
A little background: sod houses, or soddies, were built on the Great Plains during the latter part of the
19th century using blocks of sod as building materials. Some were dug into banks. The use of sod blocks for walls was a practical solution for the lack of timber on the plains. The roofs were made from a framework of branches or wood if available, covered with hay or straw, then topped with more sod. The floor was usually packed dirt. As you can imagine, the buildings were well insulated, but could be damaged by prolonged rain.
So how did the sod house dwellers keep out insects, rodents, snakes and the like? The short answer is they didn’t. Not entirely anyway. It wasn’t unusual to find the occasional snake taking refuge from the elements or mice eating through the walls. I won’t even get into the insects and spiders. That said, here are some of the steps they took to cut down on the unwelcome visitors.
Keeping a cat kept down the rodent populations. Of course, the cat was also prey to larger creatures such as coyotes, so keeping a cat could be tricky.
Walls were plastered, white washed or covered with newspaper to both lighten the room and to keep varmints from infiltrating the space. If something did burrow through, it was easier to see the tunnel or home.
A fabric cover, of made of feed sacks, was spread under the ceiling to keep insects and spiders from falling on the occupants of the sod home.
The dirt floor was swept often, thus removing creeping insects and disturbing the nesting spots of those that stayed in the corners.
Plants and herbs were used to repel pests.
Food was kept in containers if possible to keep out weevils and other hungry invaders. If the container was fairly air tight, such as a covered tin or jar, the odor of the food would not bring in rodents.
Despite these precautions, it wasn’t unheard of for a sod home to become so infested with insects, particularly bedbugs and fleas, that the occupants had to abandon their home and build another. There was no calling in the Orkin Man.
We have it so easy now when it comes to pest control. I’m proud to say that I lived off the grid for 22 years in the desert and never had a mouse in the house. That said, I once had more than 20 starlings fly down my chimney and enter the house via the flue. You just never know. Have you ever had a pest adventure?
Jeannie Watt raises cattle in Montana and loves all things western. When she's not writing, Jeannie enjoys sewing, making mosaic mirrors, riding her horses and buying hay. Lots and lots of hay.
My grandparents had a partial earthen dugout basement, but there were cinderblock walls on three sides. It had a dirt floor, and snakes were usually the things that got in. Grandma killed a copperhead with her churn handle.
Last Christmas, a bird kept trying to hide in my wreath on the front door. I warned my husband to knock and shake the door gently before fully opening it to turn off the Christmas lights on the porch. Several times, he had to chase the bird out. I never did–my trick worked for me.
Those are great stories, Denise. I’m so impressed that your grandma tackled a copperhead!
I grew up in a rural area and had plenty of pest adventures, including snakes, mice, and even bats.
I bet you have, Janice. love bats, but want them to stay in the part of the attic I don’t see.
I just had this same concern regarding this type of house. Glad to know I am not the only one with this same question. Thanks for the info…
You are welcome, Susan.
I’ve had a couple of snakes to get in the house over the years. One came in somehow right after a big storm we had. Luckily my husband and I was able to run the critters back outside both times by opening a door leading to the outside and making noise or whatever we could do to make the snake head out the door.
You guys successfully herded snakes! Way to go!
Fascinating article.
Thank you!
I once had a huge swamp rat come into my laundry room.
Oh. My. Goodness! That’s an adventure!
Yes! Just a few years ago a bunch of yellow jackets came into our home through a gap in the siding and built quite a large colony in between the wall’s timbers. Due to a small opening into our home, they infested my computer room closet and I began finding dead ones lying around the room each day. They also became lively a few times flying around my head. I was fortunate to never get bit. We called an exterminator, and he took care of them for us by drilling a hole or two into the sheet rock inside the closed and pumping some chemical dust into the colony to kill them. They were not the kind of flying insect it was unlawful to exterminate, thankfully.
Wow! That’s a good ending to a scary story!
I grew up with bats in the attic and the basement. We would get about 6 in a year in the house. Consequently I am terrified of bats even now, years later. I’ll leave the house and let the bats have the house. The night the first one got in, I was 10 (we had moved a few months earlier into the house), we had just gotten home from watching The Birds at a drive-in theatre, and the bat was flying around in the house. My mother was scared so I of course I was scared. I’ve been scared ever since.
I totally understand, Kari Jean. I was afraid of anything that flew after watching The Birds!
My mother lived in dugouts growing up and told me stories about it. Grandmother lined the ceiling with newspaper, and they put magazine pages on the walls, mainly pretty pictures. They couldn’t afford to buy anything much, including magazines, so they had to get them from neighbors or from trash cans. This was in Kansas or Oklahoma. There were large centipedes there, and if it rained, these pests often came out of the sod ceiling and onto the papers lining the ceiling. The sound of all those tiny feet walking around on the papers drove my grandfather crazy. Snakes crept in and liked to curl up behind or in the woodpile beside the stove. They hung flypaper strips from the ceiling, which Grandpa would walk into and get upset over it. Spiders they just had to get used to. I used these stores in my book To Have and To Hold in which the heroine lived in a dugout. I think residents of dugouts would have experienced many of the same pest problems as people in a sod house, don’t you?
Fascinating, Charlene. I’m so glad you shared this. Our ancestors were so much tougher than us in so many ways.
Yes,lots of mice and some snakes.
Snakes *shudder*
I sometimes have lizards come in. Of course, I do find a roach now and then (thankfully I haven’t seen a flying one in along time!), and a few spiders. I will tolerate spiders unless they get in my bathtub or shower, or where I can see them all the time. If they stay behind a door, I’ll sometimes leave them alone, as they can be beneficial. The worst thing I’ve had was two black snakes on the enclosed back porch.
I’m tolerant of spiders, but draw the line at snakes in the house. Yowza, having two! If you put toilet tissue up over the side of the tub to the floor, sometimes the spiders will use the tissue to evacuate the tub.
Living like this would creep me out!! I wouldn’t even be able to fall asleep at night for fear something would fall on my face or crawl on me under the blanket. Yuck!
Fascinating that you’ve lived off-grid for so long. I don’t think I knew that, Jeannie. You have more stamina than I do, for sure. (I love watching reality TV shows of people who live off-grid, though.)
We get mice and spiders at our cabin at the lake, but mostly in the fall when nights get cold. That’s about all I could handle!
Fun blog!
Thank you, Pam! I once encountered a spider in my bed and it was really creepy. I always check the insides of the boots I leave on the porch before putting them on. As to being off the grid, I LOVE having regular electricity. For one thing, I can finally use a crockpot!
A couple of times we had the little tiny ants come in our house, they stayed in their little trail, I cannot stand those little creatures in my house, I cleaned and cleaned put whatever I could on their little trails , somehow finally we got rid of them, they just drive me crazy, just cause I know they dont belong indoors. I hope not to see any more and which I havent for a long time, so Knock on wood. Thank you for this info, it is so very interesting and I learned alot. Have a great day and a great rest of the week.
I really dislike those little ants! We called them sugar ants. My kids had an ant farm with larger ants and the little ants invaded through the air holes and massacred the big ants. It was awful! I’ve since found out that borax and/or cinnamon repels ants.
We had a mama opossum drop off her brood under our mobile home! There were 4 of them. My son found the first one when it started pulling his blanket off! We had to hunt for tge others and found them nested 8n blankets in the other boy’s room. They were old enough to be on their own so we took them out the next morning. You can pick them up by the tail without hurting them. No biting either.
Great story, Carrie! I’m so glad they were old enough to be on their own. I have a soft spot for opossums despite their scary teeth.
We went to the sod home of Laura Ingalls Wilder and I would not have wanted to live there. lol The only pest adventure I have had was when a flying squirrel got loose in our house. My husband had caught it and put it in a cage. Only problem was, the cage was covered with mesh screen, not wire. I tried to tell him it was gnawing through the screen, I could hear it. About that time, thump. We got up and looked. It was on top of the book shelves and whoosh, it flew across the room. I screamed and ran back in the bedroom. My husband opened the door and let it outside. lol Enough adventure for me.
What a great story, Sarah! I’m glad the squirrel went out the door instead of hiding!
One day, I thought I had seen a black tail disappear around a box in our bedroom. I moved the box and nothing was there. Called my husband in to help me look for the snake. We moved the dresser but didn’t see it. We pulled out the drawers, but still had no luck. I finally saw the tail again near another dresser and was able to catch it. It was a black rat snake that was a bit over 4 feet long. Took it back outside and let it go near the wood pile. Not sure ho it got in, but we live in an 1898 farm house and there are many gaps. They are welcome guests. I just don’t want to step on them.
We did have an interesting termite infestation. Our parlor is kind of full of boxes, mostly books. There is a built-in oak bookcase near the door. I had a stack of about 5 books on the floor near the door and bookcase. One day I picked it up and it literally weighed next to nothing, plus they were stuck together. Looking at the bottom, I noticed the base had a big hole in it and the stack was hollow. The termites had eaten it out. There was a bit of damage to the floor, but no hole through it. I found a trail of wings that led to the heat register in the floor. Evidently the duct to that register had fallen off and was lying on the ground and a termite swarm found it. They crawled through it, across the floor (dropping their wings as they went) and found the stack of books. The old wood in the house is very hard, with framing and floors a thick oak. Unfortunately the books were the easiest meal. We called and the exterminator took care of the problem, though there weren’t many left.