On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 05:53:43 GMT, "Jay Casey"
wrote:

You described these squirrels perfectly as if you have seen them in our
yard.

Not so far but there are a number of families in my neighborhood. I
need to augment some rock piles to entice them in but as they are
already around so I am not too concerned at the moment.

We have a squirrel here that behaves mostly like a Prairie Dog but can
also function if need be as a tree squirrel. Burrows under rocks and
boulders and stores food in its burrow. Eats just about everything
possible, even meat accordingly to the book I have. So you might try
feeding them to draw them away from your flower beds. You might even
put up a small non-obtrusive fence just to direct them away from the
flower beds to a feeding location somewhere else.

They finish having young by August so you could "run them off"
sometime after that. According to my book they are not colonial so
you probably just have the single family. So I am unsure of the
effects of feeding them. Just as an experiment you might throw some
sunflower seeds and fruit sections around on the opposite side of
their burrow from your beds. Maybe they would occupy their time
locating those instead of digging around in the beds.

If I feed & water them, would they stay off her flowers,
or will they be unable to overcome their appetite for her beautiful flowers?

No clue, here, but you could play around with alternate food sources
and report back to us on any successes.

Rusty Mase
Paisano Industries LLP
www.paisano.com