07/02/2024 – I have a squirrel problem. More correctly, my bird feeder has a squirrel problem. It used to have a deer, raccoon, chipmunk, and squirrel problem, but mounting it on a slick, 1″ diameter metal pole, and elevating it to 15′ off the ground, eliminated all but the latter.
The deer went back to eating my hostas, which they seem to think of as a salad source. The Raccoons went back to eating the deer feed that the deer seem to ignore. The chipmunks constructed a subterranean city at the base of the pole, content eating whatever the birds let fall from the feeder.
The squirrels, however, settled for nothing less than pole climbing, birdhouse roof to feeder transition acrobatics, and parking their fat squirrel butts right in the feed. They scare off the birds, eat the bird seed and chuckle when driven off temporarily.
When squirrels attempted to invade the shop by breaching an interior fan vent and doing structural damage, I had no problem trapping and dispatching them, or popping them where they stood. Paying the bill for construction materials and spending hours on repair, left me without remorse. The resident fox family thrived on the gift of food they did not need to chase.
I am not sure if the circumstances, bird house protection versus shop structural damage, are of equal weight in determining a solution. Building a home and shop in a woodland setting, disrupted wildlife in its natural setting. However, squirrels do not pay my mortgage, taxes and cost of upkeep, and they do not have the aesthetic sound and presence of songbirds.
Changing times, shifting values…
Rodents carry disease. Subsequently, a good amount of my youthful marksmanship skills were developed by popping rats at a not too distance dump. However, I passed on a shot at a big black bear that routinely visited the same dump for easy food pickings. Bringing an end of the former never bothered me. Killing the latter would have been unsportsmanlike for many reasons.
I frequently hunted small game when I was younger, poorer and didn’t mind the work of making some tasty dishes from rabbit and squirrel. That effort mostly fell by the wayside when work and family schedules became much more demanding. I have no idea what the mindset is of young people today. I try to avoid them, if at all possible.
My children and grandchildren are not hunters. They all know gun safety and can shoot, with those of legal age embracing concealed carry. They make occasional trips to the range, but are near Buddhist when it comes to bunting. They live in suburbia where the only animals are the pets they befriend and their food source is the local restaurant or H.E.B..
Hunting is just not part of their social underpinnings. Academic endeavors and sports seem to fill their waken time. This makes sense as basketball, baseball and swimming can lead to college scholarships, but hunting and pest control will not.
For now, I have identified the marauding squirrel by his marking and will permanently remove him as a problem, utilizing a suppressed Savage bolt action 22LR. I probably won’t share that with my grand kids. What do you think?
Joe, the foxes will appreciate the meal. Bob!
They did not wait long
I forgot to mention that the squirrel in the photo does look a lot like James Cagney in “Public Enemy”. Bob!
Is that the one with Pat O’Brien as a priest and childhood friend, who wanted Cagney to break down when he got the chair?
Joe, I don’t live in the woods. We have a beautiful home ( will be even more so when the blasted kitchen remodel is complete !) about 130 yrds off of the bypass . Mnt . Nittany looms in the background a mile away. There is nary a walnut tree in our yard ,,save for those planted in a beds by the squirrels ! My grandson has a collection of small animal skulls , one of which came from under our new modern recycled material deck ,after it chewed into the electric wire for the step lights . Yes it chewed a bit too deep ! I now know how to remove & reinstall those little color coordinated screw plugs after removing several interlocking , might I add ,deck-boards and installing new lights !!
Yup, people will tell you how cute squirrels are, because they have not had to repair squirrel damage. They will gnaw on anything. I find this closer to squirrel nature
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/red-squirrel-infanticide-Yukon-cannibalism