#!@#*&% Squirrels

[cnycharles]

when I was a kid one of the neighbors took me squirrel hunting. it wasn't really 'hunting' as they just sat up there thinking you couldn't see them, but he made them into stew. if they eat your plants, eat them!

cage the pot, not the whole plant!

last year when I had peppers, tomatoes and herbs in 10 gallon pots outdoors, I was concerned about cats and tree rats getting into the pots, so I just used fencing mesh over the tops of the pots and let the plants grow up through the mesh. cheap and effective. though I like the laugh-factor of adding hot pepper to the soil! maybe it will keep slugs away as well?

 

[SlipperFan]

I think you guys all need foxes and coyotes!

 

[PaphMadMan]

I think you guys all need foxes and coyotes!

There are foxes, coyotes (and hawks) in the neighborhood, but not on my balconey.

 

[cnycharles]

well, we had a fox family out behind the loading docks and coyotes out a bit in the fields down the roads, but they aren't brave enough to go around people's houses yet. we have had hawks dive bomb the masses of pigeons that love to hang around the boiler building/smokestack, but numbers never deplete. there are always more squirrels...

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

The squirrels have been horrendous this year! Every rhododendron that had a few buds on it, well, the buds were eaten! So much for their being poisonous...my Viburnum carlesii? Covered with buds in the fall. Bloom time? every bud eaten. My vegetable garden? all dug up. My paphs? knocked over regularly now that they are outdoors. Hot pepper spray only works for a short time. Cayenne pepper gets moldy. Hawks? I have them...don't make a dent. My son wants to use his bb gun, and says I should use a rat snap trap..but I'm afraid of killing birds with it...and besides, getting squirrels out of my yard is like trying to empty a lake with a teaspoon...they are everywhere! Take care, Eric

 

[NYEric]

squirrel fur hats!

 

[tocarmar]

The squirrels have been horrendous this year! Every rhododendron that had a few buds on it, well, the buds were eaten! So much for their being poisonous...my Viburnum carlesii? Covered with buds in the fall. Bloom time? every bud eaten. My vegetable garden? all dug up. My paphs? knocked over regularly now that they are outdoors. Hot pepper spray only works for a short time. Cayenne pepper gets moldy. Hawks? I have them...don't make a dent. My son wants to use his bb gun, and says I should use a rat snap trap..but I'm afraid of killing birds with it...and besides, getting squirrels out of my yard is like trying to empty a lake with a teaspoon...they are everywhere! Take care, Eric

Eric M,
I know they are!! I Unfortunatly have to take drastic measures & use a 1/2 mix of rat poison-1/2 bird seed. I live in the woods!! Up to about 2 years ago I didn't have a neighbor for 1/2 mile. I don't leave it out all the time, just once or twice a year during summer when plants are outside, ( only when they become bothersome to the plants).

Tom

 

[Clark]

Thirty years ago, before Peter Singer invented a market to justify his
tuition bill, my grandfather told me about farmers and woodchucks.
Back in the day, it was hazardous to have woodchuck holes in the field,
for fear of the front tractor wheel rolling into a hole. The farmer would
not only cull the varmint (with a small,cheap rifle), but would display the carcass on a fence post. This was supposed to act as a scarecrow to
future groundhogs entering that field. My grandfather assured me he did not
practice this act. Back to the grey tree rat-
Possible reproduction at 5 1/2 months of age.
Five to eight offspring per litter.
Two litters a year.
Life span 3 1/2 - 12 yrs.
I say TREAT THEM LIKE APHIDS!!!

 

[goldenrose]

.. Use poison and get rid of the damn &*^%$ things...

I Unfortunatly have to take drastic measures & use a 1/2 mix of rat poison-1/2 bird seed.... I don't leave it out all the time, just once or twice a year during summer when plants are outside, ( only when they become bothersome to the plants).Tom

What happens to the animals that prey on the dying or dead poisoned squirrel? Aren't you poisoning them too?
We are all in agreement, we don't like them & not every method works for everyone, wish I had the answer.

 

[NYEric]

I can't believe it. The Austrian lady who tends the native garden downstairs is feeding them, I had to shoo them away as they were stalking me looking for handouts. [and they're probably the same bastards that are eating my native orchids! ]

 

[nikv]

So NYEric, you're not planning on setting any traps for the Austrian lady, are you? oke:

 

[NYEric]

Naw, she's the only one who knows what's planted where. I have to get you guys a photo; she's like 80 Y.O. and half my size! LOL!

 

[cnycharles]

The farmer would
not only cull the varmint (with a small,cheap rifle), but would display the carcass on a fence post. This was supposed to act as a scarecrow to
future groundhogs entering that field.

even before the tractor, farmers could quite often lose a horse because it stepped into a hole and broke it's leg. often still, farmers will let you target practice your rifle on vagrant woodchucks

at my father's house, my stepmother a long while back was complaining that the squirrels were trashing the bird feeder and scaring all the birds away. she went somewhere one day, and a squirrel happened by the feeder. I retrieved my father's/my ithaca 16 gauge and dispatched it. later my stepmother saw the squirrel hanging by it's tail from the back of the tree nearest the bird feeder (I had tried to hide it back there where the squirrels could see it but she couldn't, but the wind was making it sway back and forth.... ) there weren't any squirrels for a while until it was seen and removed; squirrels eventually came back, but I never heard any more complaints about them hitting the bird feeder

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I can't use poison....aside from my fears of poisoning everything else but the squirrels, I don't want dead squirrels in my yard either....I get verrrrrrry squeamish. I found a dead one last week, and made my son throw it out (down the sewer) because I was too grossed out....as my son was carrying it away on the shovel, he laughed about how it would be a perfect moment for the MTV people to arrive...they got there seconds later....Take care, Eric

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

This kind of thread always gets started on plant forum eventually. Putting all moral and ecological issues aside, one should be aware of legal problems you can get into. Let me illustrate by my own experience.

I lived on a wooded lot in north Florida before coming to Japan. The original ecosystem was long leaf pine/turkey oak sandhill, but due to the elimination of natural fire the property became overrun with oaks, mostly laurel, water, and some live oaks. Oaks make acorns and squirrels just love 'em. I was growing a wide variety of exotic and native plants on the property and the squirrels just went after everything. I declared war and ended up shooting them and trapping them. It was in the end a useless battle since just for fun I counted their nests on that 8 acres and I stopped counting after 40...

A year passed and my war continued. A friend of mine who worked for the Florida DNR, but was not an officer, found out about my doings. He told me directly, "Tom, please don't tell me any more or I will have to report you. Grey squirrels are a game species in Florida and therefore they have a season and a quota. Also, any wild trapped animal must be let go once trapped IN THE PLACE IT WAS CAUGHT without a permit from the DNR. What you are doing is illegal and punishable by fine and possible imprisonment. That's all I have to say."

To wit, be aware of you state and local laws and for Pete's sake, don't mention it on a internet forum. My 4 cents.

 

[Renegayde]

LOL I was thinking the same thing myself...here in IL of course there is a squirrel season ect ect so shooting is not legal at any other time.....trapping....well I once had some possums that got in my trash cans and could not get out....kewl figured this would be a good thing and I could get animal control or some one to come get them and let them go some place else....I was informed that it was illegal to TRAP animals ect ect.....LOL so I went out and tipped the trash cans over and let them go.....the only way you could get around this whole squirrel issue is if they were a problem pest and then there might be a loop hole I would assume that would allow you to trap or otherwise get rid of them.....just my 2 cents worth

Todd

 

[likespaphs]

i think here in r.i., trapped squirrels must be euthanized. same with lots of other varmits. i think it's to try to not spread rabies.

 

[SlipperFan]

Tom's advice is right "on target."