On 5/10/2013 11:51 PM, Todd wrote:
On 05/10/2013 09:50 PM, Todd wrote:
I think I see what I see until I hit send. Then I see them all.
Stinkin' typos. Mumble, mumble.

And I still can spell "squirrel" without a spell checker.

sorry, but I stared at that sentence 'til I nearly fell asleep I was so
impressed by it!

--
Natural Girl

wrote:
I had a family of squirrels ate their way into the porch roof of the
house next door. When the house was rehabbed the porch was torn off
for a couple months the squirrels lost their home so they came to our
house and ate their way into the soffet and eaves. We tried nearly
everything, rebuilding, even metal wrapping where they were getting
in. Nothing worked. I had to get rid of every single one of them
before there were none left with the "memory" of eating into and
living in the house.

I trap them in a havahart baited with peanut butter. When they are
trapped I submerge the cage in a full 40 gallon fish tank. It is fast
and doesnt stink up the trap for the next squirrel. The same works
for squirrels eating fruit. If you get the ones have figured it out
it takes time for another to figure out the fruit is good.

Ingrid

I once caught a mole digging through my garden. I could see it digging so I
got a shovel and dug it up and caught it in a jar. Creepy looking critters,
too. I didn't want to set it free so it could harass some other person and
dig up their yard, so I kind of did what you did with the squirrel, only in
the jar. When it had expired I just poured out the water, put the lid back
on, and put it in the trash can... It's been years since that happened,
though. Haven't caught another one going through my garden since.

--
Natural Girl

On 5/14/13 6:10 AM, wrote:
I had a family of squirrels ate their way into the porch roof of the house next door.
When the house was rehabbed the porch was torn off for a couple months the squirrels
lost their home so they came to our house and ate their way into the soffet and
eaves. We tried nearly everything, rebuilding, even metal wrapping where they were
getting in. Nothing worked. I had to get rid of every single one of them before there
were none left with the "memory" of eating into and living in the house.

I trap them in a havahart baited with peanut butter. When they are trapped I
submerge the cage in a full 40 gallon fish tank. It is fast and doesnt stink up the
trap for the next squirrel. The same works for squirrels eating fruit. If you get the
ones have figured it out it takes time for another to figure out the fruit is good.

I too use a Havahart trap for squirrels. When I catch a squirrel, I
place the trap on several layers of newspaper in my car. Then I drive
about 5 miles across a nearby freeway (10 lanes) to a national park and
turn it loose. There are pleanty of hungry owls, hawks, and coyotes in
the park. (The newspaper is in case the squirrel finds the trip so
exciting that it has an "accident" in my car.)

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

In article ,
Billy wrote:

In article ,
"Natural Girl" wrote:

Frank wrote:
On 5/9/2013 7:56 AM, Pat Kiewicz wrote:
Gus said:


What non-lethal methods work best to keep city squirrels away from
tomatoes?
It is a serious problem here. I wouldn't mind sharing some
tomatoes, but the squirrels here are very rude and do not share. And
actually taunt. Taking a bite out of a perfectly good tomato
and then leaving it. Building a wire cage probably is the best method,
but I hear they
can even get through those. And I'm not all that handy at building
things. Last year, putting soaking a rag with vinegar about every 3 or
so
days seemed to work for a while. Though at the end of the summer,
even that was not deterring them that well.

Late to the party, but...

1) Provide a source of drinking water for the squirrels, birds,
etc. They may be going after the tomatoes mainly for the water
content. 2) My daughter ran an experiment as an assignment for one of
her
zoology classes. She offered various 'flavors' of peanuts to hungry
winter squirrels, including smoked, two levels of hot pepper
seasoned and wasabi flavored peanuts.

Their obvious preference was for plain or salted peanuts. They
would eat the hot pepper and smoked peanuts. They mainly ignored the
wasabi
flavored. Which suggests that wasabi (similarly, horse radish or
mustard oil) could be worth looking into as a squirrel deterent.

3) When all else fails, a cage of 1" hex wire netting ("chicken
wire") will exclude squirrels. You need to bend the wire out at the
bottom (to prevent them going under) and either let the top flop
outward or put a cap on the cage (to prevent them going over). I've
used
panels of 48" chicken
wire stapled to 1" x 2" strapping. The panels can be moved around
as needed. Tie them using temporary stakes. You can make circles,
triangles,
etc. They should be rolled up and stashed out of the weather when
not needed . 4) A sturdy 4' fence which is lined with chicken wire (bent
out or
buried several inches deep at the bottom) and topped with a shock
wire or two will keep out a whole lot of potential pests.


Someone sent me this this morning:

http://tinyurl.com/cgprqsp

ok .. I have to say that discussion is histerical!!!!!!!!

And she can't spell either.

Orthography aside, I find it odd that I feed our local squirrels, and
have never had a tomato stolen by them. I feed the birds, and they don't
dig up my seedlings, and the raccoons, who graze the compost pile, only
do minimal damage. Today I enjoyed the insects dancing inthe sunlight,
the pas de deux by a pair of monarch butterflies, the birds at the
feeder, and the grey squirrel who looked for errant seed under the
feeder. I enjoy my gardening breaks.

--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

On 5/14/2013 11:34 AM, Natural Girl wrote:
wrote:
I had a family of squirrels ate their way into the porch roof of the
house next door. When the house was rehabbed the porch was torn off
for a couple months the squirrels lost their home so they came to our
house and ate their way into the soffet and eaves. We tried nearly
everything, rebuilding, even metal wrapping where they were getting
in. Nothing worked. I had to get rid of every single one of them
before there were none left with the "memory" of eating into and
living in the house.

I trap them in a havahart baited with peanut butter. When they are
trapped I submerge the cage in a full 40 gallon fish tank. It is fast
and doesnt stink up the trap for the next squirrel. The same works
for squirrels eating fruit. If you get the ones have figured it out
it takes time for another to figure out the fruit is good.

Ingrid

I once caught a mole digging through my garden. I could see it digging so I
got a shovel and dug it up and caught it in a jar. Creepy looking critters,
too. I didn't want to set it free so it could harass some other person and
dig up their yard, so I kind of did what you did with the squirrel, only in
the jar. When it had expired I just poured out the water, put the lid back
on, and put it in the trash can... It's been years since that happened,
though. Haven't caught another one going through my garden since.


When I was a kid, I had this friend, Billy, who was deathly afraid of
snakes.

I caught a small garter snake, put it in an empty bag of M&M's and
offered the candy to Billy.

On 5/14/2013 7:15 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
On 5/14/13 6:10 AM, wrote:
I had a family of squirrels ate their way into the porch roof of the house next door.
When the house was rehabbed the porch was torn off for a couple months the squirrels
lost their home so they came to our house and ate their way into the soffet and
eaves. We tried nearly everything, rebuilding, even metal wrapping where they were
getting in. Nothing worked. I had to get rid of every single one of them before there
were none left with the "memory" of eating into and living in the house.

I trap them in a havahart baited with peanut butter. When they are trapped I
submerge the cage in a full 40 gallon fish tank. It is fast and doesnt stink up the
trap for the next squirrel. The same works for squirrels eating fruit. If you get the
ones have figured it out it takes time for another to figure out the fruit is good.

I too use a Havahart trap for squirrels. When I catch a squirrel, I
place the trap on several layers of newspaper in my car. Then I drive
about 5 miles across a nearby freeway (10 lanes) to a national park and
turn it loose. There are pleanty of hungry owls, hawks, and coyotes in
the park. (The newspaper is in case the squirrel finds the trip so
exciting that it has an "accident" in my car.)


Some places, catch and release is not allowed.
Here in Delaware, you can catch and drown them but not release them.
I've done it anyway, once right in front of a county cop at police
substation in local park. He said nothing. In fact, when he looked
over at me, I told him I had come to release a prisoner and let the
squirrel out right in front of him. Would have been better to be
surreptitious.

Frank wrote:
On 5/14/2013 11:34 AM, Natural Girl wrote:
wrote:
I had a family of squirrels ate their way into the porch roof of the
house next door. When the house was rehabbed the porch was torn off
for a couple months the squirrels lost their home so they came to
our house and ate their way into the soffet and eaves. We tried
nearly everything, rebuilding, even metal wrapping where they were
getting in. Nothing worked. I had to get rid of every single one of
them before there were none left with the "memory" of eating into
and living in the house.

I trap them in a havahart baited with peanut butter. When they are
trapped I submerge the cage in a full 40 gallon fish tank. It is
fast and doesnt stink up the trap for the next squirrel. The same
works for squirrels eating fruit. If you get the ones have figured
it out it takes time for another to figure out the fruit is good.

Ingrid

I once caught a mole digging through my garden. I could see it
digging so I got a shovel and dug it up and caught it in a jar.
Creepy looking critters, too. I didn't want to set it free so it
could harass some other person and dig up their yard, so I kind of
did what you did with the squirrel, only in the jar. When it had
expired I just poured out the water, put the lid back on, and put it
in the trash can... It's been years since that happened, though. Haven't
caught another one going through my garden since.

When I was a kid, I had this friend, Billy, who was deathly afraid of
snakes.

I caught a small garter snake, put it in an empty bag of M&M's and
offered the candy to Billy.

ACKKKKK!!!!!!! LOL The stuff boys do to each other!!

An aside ... some time ago a friend of mine went to open a sealed package
of microwave oatmeal for her breakfast. A petrified dead mouse was in the
package instead of oatmeal. The oatmeal company said they'd give her a new
box of oatmeal for her problem. She doesn't buy packaged oatmeal anymore!

A funny ... my friends husband was out in the yard raking leaves to prepare
the garden for it's final spring clean up from winter when she said he
started shouting and doing a bit of a dance. She came running over and he
was shouting something about a snake! She wasn't too scared of snakes and
more curious, so she was looking to see what sort of a snake it was and took
the rake to sift about through the leaves. It turnes out that it was a
fairly large night crawler that was wiggling around because it had been
disturbed! Her husband wasn't amused despite she nearly fell down laughing
at him! smile


--
Natural Girl

On 5/15/2013 11:37 AM, Natural Girl wrote:
Frank wrote:
On 5/14/2013 11:34 AM, Natural Girl wrote:
wrote:
I had a family of squirrels ate their way into the porch roof of the
house next door. When the house was rehabbed the porch was torn off
for a couple months the squirrels lost their home so they came to
our house and ate their way into the soffet and eaves. We tried
nearly everything, rebuilding, even metal wrapping where they were
getting in. Nothing worked. I had to get rid of every single one of
them before there were none left with the "memory" of eating into
and living in the house.

I trap them in a havahart baited with peanut butter. When they are
trapped I submerge the cage in a full 40 gallon fish tank. It is
fast and doesnt stink up the trap for the next squirrel. The same
works for squirrels eating fruit. If you get the ones have figured
it out it takes time for another to figure out the fruit is good.

Ingrid

I once caught a mole digging through my garden. I could see it
digging so I got a shovel and dug it up and caught it in a jar.
Creepy looking critters, too. I didn't want to set it free so it
could harass some other person and dig up their yard, so I kind of
did what you did with the squirrel, only in the jar. When it had
expired I just poured out the water, put the lid back on, and put it
in the trash can... It's been years since that happened, though. Haven't
caught another one going through my garden since.

When I was a kid, I had this friend, Billy, who was deathly afraid of
snakes.

I caught a small garter snake, put it in an empty bag of M&M's and
offered the candy to Billy.

ACKKKKK!!!!!!! LOL The stuff boys do to each other!!

An aside ... some time ago a friend of mine went to open a sealed package
of microwave oatmeal for her breakfast. A petrified dead mouse was in the
package instead of oatmeal. The oatmeal company said they'd give her a new
box of oatmeal for her problem. She doesn't buy packaged oatmeal anymore!

A funny ... my friends husband was out in the yard raking leaves to prepare
the garden for it's final spring clean up from winter when she said he
started shouting and doing a bit of a dance. She came running over and he
was shouting something about a snake! She wasn't too scared of snakes and
more curious, so she was looking to see what sort of a snake it was and took
the rake to sift about through the leaves. It turnes out that it was a
fairly large night crawler that was wiggling around because it had been
disturbed! Her husband wasn't amused despite she nearly fell down laughing
at him! smile



Good idea to look at what you eat. I once munched a stink bug.
I quit growing leaf lettuce after a creepy crawler came out if it when
on my plate. Same for broccoli with big green worms that are hard to see.

Snakes don't bother me but my wife is deathly afraid of them. I remove
them from property if I catch them. Think I mentioned I've caught a few
large black snakes in deer netting.

Me. I don't like spiders but they do not bother my wife.
Strange, isn't it?

"Frank" wrote in message
...

Some places, catch and release is not allowed.
Here in Delaware, you can catch and drown them but not release them.
I've done it anyway, once right in front of a county cop at police
substation in local park. He said nothing. In fact, when he looked over
at me, I told him I had come to release a prisoner and let the squirrel
out right in front of him. Would have been better to be surreptitious.


You can catch and release but it has to be pretty far away or they come
back. And if it far away, well then they are in unfamiliar territory and in
an area likely already occupied. So it may be less cruel to euthanize...
But if the damn things could just live in harmony with my me and leave most
my tomatoes alone, then I would not have ill feelings for them. They are
not good neighbors!

"Frank" wrote in message
...

Good idea to look at what you eat. I once munched a stink bug.
I quit growing leaf lettuce after a creepy crawler came out if it when on
my plate. Same for broccoli with big green worms that are hard to see.

When I was young, a friend bit into an apple. And after chewing a bit
noticed a worm in the apple... half a worm.

"Natural Girl" wrote in message
...

An aside ... some time ago a friend of mine went to open a sealed package
of microwave oatmeal for her breakfast. A petrified dead mouse was in the
package instead of oatmeal. The oatmeal company said they'd give her a
new box of oatmeal for her problem. She doesn't buy packaged oatmeal
anymore!

My mom used to get Mrs Grasse soup when I was young. One day I open the box
(it was dehydrated noodles with a flavor packet). I poured out the box into
a bowl and there was an empty locust shell... I never ate that brand
again.

On 5/15/2013 8:21 PM, Gus wrote:
"Natural Girl" wrote in message
...

An aside ... some time ago a friend of mine went to open a sealed
package of microwave oatmeal for her breakfast. A petrified dead
mouse was in the package instead of oatmeal. The oatmeal company said
they'd give her a new box of oatmeal for her problem. She doesn't buy
packaged oatmeal anymore!

My mom used to get Mrs Grasse soup when I was young. One day I open the
box (it was dehydrated noodles with a flavor packet). I poured out the
box into a bowl and there was an empty locust shell... I never ate
that brand again.



yuk .. I don't blamer her.

--
Natural Girl

"Natural Girl" wrote in message
...

yuk .. I don't blamer her.

--
Natural Girl

I once got food poisoning from a Wendy's salad bar (back when they had salad
bars in the 80s). I was on a trip with my parents to my brother's
graduation at Penn State and famished. The salad dressing tasted a little
funny but I was so hungry I ate it and didn't think of it. That night and
the next afternoon I threw up more times than I could count. After I passed
out from being dehydrated and throwing up so much, they took the situation
more serious and took me to a health clinic. (Where I went to sleep on
Saturday afternoon and when I woke up it was Sunday night.)... I didn't eat
blue cheese dressing for over 10 years. But one day, I did. I still am a
bit leery of it but like it on salad now and then.

On 5/15/2013 9:17 PM, Gus wrote:
"Frank" wrote in message
...

Some places, catch and release is not allowed.
Here in Delaware, you can catch and drown them but not release them.
I've done it anyway, once right in front of a county cop at police
substation in local park. He said nothing. In fact, when he looked
over at me, I told him I had come to release a prisoner and let the
squirrel out right in front of him. Would have been better to be
surreptitious.


You can catch and release but it has to be pretty far away or they come
back. And if it far away, well then they are in unfamiliar territory
and in an area likely already occupied. So it may be less cruel to
euthanize... But if the damn things could just live in harmony with my
me and leave most my tomatoes alone, then I would not have ill feelings
for them. They are not good neighbors!

I'm stymied by squirrels as there does not appear to be a natural
balance with them as they can escape predators by climbing trees.
When something like the rabbit population increases, the foxes move in
and wipe them out and when the rabbits are gone the foxes leave and
cycle repeats.

Squirrels and deer are constant invaders with out predators where I
live. I like to tell my wife that I have the cure but she won't have it.

In article ,
"Gus" wrote:


You can catch and release but it has to be pretty far away or they come
back. And if it far away, well then they are in unfamiliar territory and in
an area likely already occupied. So it may be less cruel to euthanize...
But if the damn things could just live in harmony with my me and leave most
my tomatoes alone, then I would not have ill feelings for them. They are
not good neighbors!

I have many squirrels, and the worst that they have done is tip over
seedlings that have been set out to catch some sun. Maybe I'm just crazy
lucky. I'm curious though. Are there any oak trees around you, or other
trees that would provide nourishment for the squirrels?

--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg