On Nov 9, 7:47 am, echinosum
wrote:
UkJay;758711 Wrote: I love grey squirrels, even if they do drive me mad

My parents are driven mad by them eating all the fruit they grow. They
used to be able to grow msny apples, plums, strawberries, etc, etc, in
their large garden but with the increase in squirrel numbers it is just
a waste of time. They strip every fruit and every berry. Even attempts
to net fruit trees, or build chickenwire cages around the berry bushes
have been a waste of time, they are always clever enough to get in.

We have no compunction about keeping rats and pigeons off our property,
by destructive means where appropriate, why not grey squirrels? Granity
says squirrel is tasty, I don't know, but woodpigeon is certainly very
tasty.

Round where I live, introduced squirrels are less of a problem, but
introduced rabbits and introduced fat dormice (Glis glis) are both
problems. Rabbits eat my veg and certain flowers unless I protect them.
Even been known to take bamboo shoots. We have no compunction about
shooting rabbits to eat them, or as pests. Apparently in Spain, where
they are native, they now have a shortage of rabbits because of
deliberately introduced diseases, and this is the main cause of the
reduction of the Iberian lynx, now the rarest wild cat, because the
Iberian lynx is a rabbit specialist. Perhaps we should introduce the
iberian lynx to Britain. We used to have lynx, and many people think
the Iberian lynx is just a sub-species. A rabbit eating specialist lynx
shouldn't be too much of a problem here. The eagle owl appears to have
reintroduced itself here, whether by escape or flying here isn't clear,
and is not proving a problem precisely becaues it is a rabbit
specialist. Unfortunately not too many rocky cliffs for them to nest on
in Buckinghamshire.

The situation concerning fat dormice is curious. They are a problem in
the house rather than the garden. Because they are classified by the EU
as endangered (which they are in their native habitat), you can't just
trap them (even though they aren't native or endangered here). And if
you use live traps, because they are non-native you can't just release
them back into the wild. Bizarrely, this latter restriction doesn't
attach to rabbits, even though they are just as non-native. So you have
to get the council around to catch them who then take them away. I used
to think the council must have a large shed full of dormice waiting for
them to die of old age, but I now konw that they "humanely destroy"
them. Quite why they are allowed to "humanely destroy" when I'm not
allowed to destructively trap them for myself is utterly bizarre.
Actually because they are rather cute, I'd rather like to see one, but
I never have, even though they are supposed to be locally very common.
Also odd that they don't seem to spread very much.

There really is no answer to this one. I love seeing the introduced
parakeets we now have in much of the south-east, although they haven't
got to our area yet. Maybe we'll be seeing them as a nuisance in a few
more decades.

--
echinosum

For household undesirables such as rats or cockroaches one might use a
broad-band spray, or simply hook a hose to a car exhaust and flood the
(well sealed) residence with Carbon Monoxide for 20 minutes or so. If
there were any dormice... well, sorry, but they weren't supposed to be
there.

For gray squirrels (which make an excellent stew I'm told), house-
cats, unless they are overfed, will exercise their hunting skills on
gray squirrels. However if you have a large infestation it is
necessary to interrupt their ease-of-breeding: Fill/cover tree knot
holes with cement, rip down any bird boxes which squirrels have
invaded, and hire a few 12-year-olds to climb and "trim trees"
wherever squirrels have built a nest out on a branch. This is the best
time of year: as trees lose their foliage, the nests stick out like
sore thumbs: Largish "Clumps" of dead leaves about 2/3ds way out on
slender branches. Just trim those branches. (And demolish the nests
before they can be used to raise new squirrels.) When their numbers
drop below a certain minimum they will become too paranoid to spend
time on the ground. And your veggies will be safe.