Something about our neighborhood makes it a squirrell Mecca. I suppose the numerous mature trees, a few of which are walnut and the fact there are several bird feeders available to raid help. I also don't see many cats or dogs running free ever.
In all honestly they are kind of cute, big brown eyes, bushy tails, their little paws holding food to their mouth. Don't let their cute looks fool you, they are a menace first class and I've declared war!
In the last year or two I've started setting up bird feeders. I enjoy watching the variety of little birds come and go and that is when I started hating the squirrels. The blasted animals would shimmy up the pole, sit on the feeder and gorge like a fat man pulling up his chair to a buffet. Couple this with the fact that the neighbor on either side of our house has had some house damage and they dang things eat my tulips so I declared war!
My first act of squirrel terrorism was to simply scare them off the feeders, I'd open the window and sometimes yell. They got used to that pretty soon. I then started letting the dog after them, that works but I'm not always at the window and my feeders were being decimated. It didn't take me long to figure I needed a permanent solution. I purchased a live trap. Game on! The first week I caught 5 squirrels. Husband got in the act and started sneaking around with a pellet gun as well sending several to meet their maker. Between the two of us relocating and killing we thinned the population down to a level not reminiscent of New York rat population. Even with all this we still have raiding squirrels near daily.
Frankly I get tired of fooling with the trap sometimes. One morning the trap had a capture, Hubby didn't realize it until the dog had rolled the trap several times and basically terrorized the creature to no end. It happened on a day I just didn't feel like taking a drive, so in an experiment I spray painted big red blob on the squirrel and set it free. I figured if it had a brain, the trauma of capture and nearly being eaten would keep it away. Nope two days later there was Red Rear on my feeder. I opened the window and yelled and he sat there. I sent the dog after him. Twenty minutes later he was back. Hubby practiced his marksmanship on this none too bright member of the animal kingdom.
I do use deterent methods as well. I have the poles of my feeders heavily greased with Vaseline. It helps. Just this morning I watched a bugger jump, grap the pole a couple of feet up and slide down it like a fireman. He wisely ran off after that. I happened to read in a magazine just yesterday to mix cayenne in with the seed. Supposedly birds don't care so I tried that. I was kind of hoping to see a squirrell get a mouthful of that. Wonder if I mix cayenne with the Vaseline? That could be fun.
WINNIE'S LITTER Just a little blog of the ins and outs and ups and downs in the life of a mom.
2 comments:
I have this theory---the more you fight the squirrels, the more you lose. You have to embrace the squirrels, I think. Put out nuts for them. And put out less feed. They knock some of it out...but that means that the doves can eat better off the ground. Once the food is gone out of the feeder, they move on...but the birds will continue to feed on the seed that has been spread around.
I dunno. I don't hate the squirrels and I think fighting them is a losing battle.
Now raccoons....that is a different story. They are a menace in my yard because of the pond. I hate raccoons.
It's all perspective, right?
Right. We have raccoons too, though I haven't really had a problem with them. Saw one about three nights ago while I was putting the kid's bikes away just at dark. So far they haven't gotten in my trash but I've seen their little prints around.
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