I have a pesky squirrel that figured out how to get into my protected
garden. The garden has a chicken wire fence with two electric wires
(one 6" and the other 15" from the ground). He jumps over the wires
and digs up the young cucumber sprouts, then manages to leave the
garden without getting shocked. I have a .22 air rifle (legal here
in the city limits although it might be hard to get an accurate shot
at a distance), but last night I set a Hav-A-Hart trap baited with
peanut butter graham cracker. The squirrel is not touching the
beets, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peppers or zucchini. He makes
daily 8 AM rounds. Any other ideas?

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
I have a pesky squirrel that figured out how to get into my protected
garden. The garden has a chicken wire fence with two electric wires
(one 6" and the other 15" from the ground). He jumps over the wires
and digs up the young cucumber sprouts, then manages to leave the
garden without getting shocked. I have a .22 air rifle (legal here
in the city limits although it might be hard to get an accurate shot
at a distance), but last night I set a Hav-A-Hart trap baited with
peanut butter graham cracker. The squirrel is not touching the
beets, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peppers or zucchini. He makes
daily 8 AM rounds. Any other ideas?

Plant some extra plants for the squirrel to eat, put seed and nuts out for
him to eat.

Kindness works better than trying to kill.

'enry VIII

On Sat, 29 May 2004 20:22:11 GMT, "'enry VIII"
wrote:

===
==="Phisherman" wrote in message
===news:kjugb0p3k3resqt9i2hd5u8h9js053kive@4ax. com...
===I have a pesky squirrel that figured out how to get into my protected
=== garden. The garden has a chicken wire fence with two electric wires
=== (one 6" and the other 15" from the ground). He jumps over the wires
=== and digs up the young cucumber sprouts, then manages to leave the
=== garden without getting shocked. I have a .22 air rifle (legal here
=== in the city limits although it might be hard to get an accurate shot
=== at a distance), but last night I set a Hav-A-Hart trap baited with
=== peanut butter graham cracker. The squirrel is not touching the
=== beets, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peppers or zucchini. He makes
=== daily 8 AM rounds. Any other ideas?
===
===Plant some extra plants for the squirrel to eat, put seed and nuts out for
===him to eat.
===
===Kindness works better than trying to kill.
===
==='enry VIII
===

And maybe a sign to show him where his planted items start / finish .
Thats bull hockey, a squirrel or any other wild animal don;t know
whats planted for him or you and for the most poart they do maore
damage just tasteing and digging than they are worth. I have a permit
to knock off sqiurrels out of season as this area is unindated with
them, and this week alone I have killed more than 2 dozen. They have
clipped off all new young plants, dug up seeds, raid my chicken nests
and in general destroy everything they come into contact with one way
or another. One or two may be nice, but more than that and its
problems for lots of folks.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
I have a pesky squirrel that figured out how to get into my protected
garden. The garden has a chicken wire fence with two electric wires
(one 6" and the other 15" from the ground). He jumps over the wires
and digs up the young cucumber sprouts, then manages to leave the
garden without getting shocked. I have a .22 air rifle (legal here
in the city limits although it might be hard to get an accurate shot
at a distance), but last night I set a Hav-A-Hart trap baited with
peanut butter graham cracker. The squirrel is not touching the
beets, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peppers or zucchini. He makes
daily 8 AM rounds. Any other ideas?

Start you cucumbers in 4" plastic pots and allow them to grow in the pots
until they are too large to interest the squirrel. Once the seedlings reach
3", they can be knocked out of the pots and planted in the ground with no
slowdown in growth. I do this every spring on a hot, sunny, cement patio
area. The seeds sprout and grow more rapidly then they do when planted in
the ground.

John

On Sat, 29 May 2004 12:05:51 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

I have a pesky squirrel that figured out how to get into my protected
garden. The garden has a chicken wire fence with two electric wires
(one 6" and the other 15" from the ground). He jumps over the wires
and digs up the young cucumber sprouts, then manages to leave the
garden without getting shocked. I have a .22 air rifle (legal here
in the city limits although it might be hard to get an accurate shot
at a distance), but last night I set a Hav-A-Hart trap baited with
peanut butter graham cracker. The squirrel is not touching the
beets, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, peppers or zucchini. He makes
daily 8 AM rounds. Any other ideas?

so put in more wires, put a milk crate or make a box from 1" or less
opening chicken wire .. 3 sided of course and put that down over the
plants anchor it with heavy wires bent into a long U shape .. like
long staples, on each side at least, if it's longer then use 4 or 6
however many it takes to do the job.. leave it over them until they're
big enough to fill it up.. or leave it in place if they can grow
through it ok, although I would think they holes too small for
something to not get tangled in it.. but if you want to take it off
each day later in the day, weight it down with bricks or rocks to keep
it from picking it up, if it digs under, then find some scrap metal
and push it down in the ground around the edges, you just have to be
more persistent and smarter than the squirrel, if you try something
and it's not enough, do more! make it so the squirrel can't jump
through wires, put up more wires, connect them vertically .. without
letting them touch the ground.. just weave in some more wire up and
down between the wires.. I'd put in another below and between the
wires, and maybe over it.. but yup, they're evil pests.. hate 'em.

Even something like a laundry basket would deter the beast a little,
maybe enough to go elsewhere, but if it is plastic, he might chew
through it to get to them. Is there a shortage of plants there still
this spring, or does it just love cucumbers? If there is a shortage
of forage plants for the beast, yeah you could just distract it by
providing a few seeds and some water elsewhere. If there are lots of
things to eat, then cover and protect, if you know it's schedule,
watch it to see what it's doing and correct accordingly.

Janice

"'enry VIII" wrote in message

Plant some extra plants for the squirrel to eat, put seed and nuts out for
him to eat.

Kindness works better than trying to kill.

'enry VIII

And I guarantee he'll bring all his relatives and friends to the next party.
We're overrun with them.

Dora

In article , "limey" wrote:

"'enry VIII" wrote in message

Plant some extra plants for the squirrel to eat, put seed and nuts out for
him to eat.

Kindness works better than trying to kill.

'enry VIII

And I guarantee he'll bring all his relatives and friends to the next party.
We're overrun with them.

Dora

Squirrels are highly territorial. They patrol territories in mated pairs,
& will kill even their own offspring if at adolescence their young do not
leave to establish their own territory elsewhere. Multiples of squirrel
couples & single adolescents will occasionally share an overlapping area
of extreme resources (a section of beech forest, a part of an orchard, a
university campus with hundreds of students providing lunchtime hand-outs)
but the average squirrel population in any normal five-acre area of
woodland or neighborhood will in general never exceed two for any length
of time. It's rare that any of them are so destructive they cannot be
enjoyed. The exceptions may require permanent removal, though as soon as
the territory is vacated, an adolescent in search of his or her own
territory will move in, & eventually have a mate with whom to patrol &
harrass interloping squirrels.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

"paghat" wrote in message
"limey" wrote:

"'enry VIII" wrote in message

Plant some extra plants for the squirrel to eat, put seed and nuts out
for
him to eat.

Kindness works better than trying to kill.

'enry VIII

And I guarantee he'll bring all his relatives and friends to the next
party.
We're overrun with them.

Dora

Squirrels are highly territorial. They patrol territories in mated pairs,
& will kill even their own offspring if at adolescence their young do not
leave to establish their own territory elsewhere. Multiples of squirrel
couples & single adolescents will occasionally share an overlapping area
of extreme resources (a section of beech forest, a part of an orchard, a
university campus with hundreds of students providing lunchtime hand-outs)
but the average squirrel population in any normal five-acre area of
woodland or neighborhood will in general never exceed two for any length
of time. It's rare that any of them are so destructive they cannot be
enjoyed. The exceptions may require permanent removal, though as soon as
the territory is vacated, an adolescent in search of his or her own
territory will move in, & eventually have a mate with whom to patrol &
harrass interloping squirrels.

-paghat the ratgirl

In theory, I'll concede the point. In practice, I know how it is here. We
have just over an acre of land, surrounded by quite a few oak trees. The
squirrel population is so prolific that (as I've mentioned before) a couple
of summers ago we moved 64 squirrels trapped in live boxes - and some
returned from several miles away. It's just as bad right now and they all
seem to live in harmony. They eat anything/everything they can get their
little paws on. Yes, I could enjoy and be kind to one squirrel, but not a
whole darned army
following a scorched-earth policy in my yard. May I send them to you for
safekeeping? BG

Dora

(paghat) wrote:


-snip-
Squirrels are highly territorial.

The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
support them.

A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html

When I bought this house the neighbors were an elderly couple who
bought huge bags of old bread to feed the squirrels. Their feeder
looked like something out of a Hitchcock movie -- 50-60 squirrels is
no exaggeration.

Fox & reds are less common here [NY], and they don't like to share
with the greys.

If I planted an entire orchard of nuts and did nothing to decrease the
squirrel population, I would get to see a lot of squirrels, but would
never have any nuts. As it is I enjoy some of my harvest, and
frequent dinners of 'Squirrel spaghetti' -- the sauce does wonders for
tenderizing their otherwise rather tough meat.

Jim

On Sun, 30 May 2004 19:48:23 GMT, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

(paghat) wrote:


-snip-
Squirrels are highly territorial.

The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
support them.

A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html


This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
trap and relocate them.

When I bought this house the neighbors were an elderly couple who
bought huge bags of old bread to feed the squirrels. Their feeder
looked like something out of a Hitchcock movie -- 50-60 squirrels is
no exaggeration.

Fox & reds are less common here [NY], and they don't like to share
with the greys.

If I planted an entire orchard of nuts and did nothing to decrease the
squirrel population, I would get to see a lot of squirrels, but would
never have any nuts. As it is I enjoy some of my harvest, and
frequent dinners of 'Squirrel spaghetti' -- the sauce does wonders for
tenderizing their otherwise rather tough meat.

Jim

Phisherman wrote:

On Sun, 30 May 2004 19:48:23 GMT, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

(paghat) wrote:


-snip-
Squirrels are highly territorial.

The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
support them.

A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html


This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
trap and relocate them.


In many [most?] states that is illegal. Check with your local
authority & you might get a permit to catch & kill them, but it isn't
likely they'll let you give your problem to someone else.

Jim

In article , wrote:

On Sun, 30 May 2004 19:48:23 GMT, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

(paghat) wrote:


-snip-
Squirrels are highly territorial.

The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
support them.

A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html


This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
trap and relocate them.

The articlt cited simultaneously states that each Grey squirrel's
territory is 5 hectares (within a 40 hectare forest of overlapping
territories), which is a great deal larger than my memory had recalled.
Five hectares is over ten thousand acres! Pretty damned big piece of
territory to be required by a non-territorial animal.

An "overpopulation" of grey squirrels would be nine per hectare, still not
a great many squirrels.

But of N.A. squirrel species, Greys are the most tolerant of each other --
in a resource-rich environment their territories will shrink dramatically.
In a more natural woodland environment however each squirrel would patrol
five thousand acres of which a core of a thousand acres is inviolate to
other squirrels; the rest of their acreage will overlap peaceably with
other territories, as could not happen with a red squirrel population or
with our local douglas squirrel which beat the living crap out of
interlopers.

Territoriality being defined in degree of aggression & willingness to maim
or kill rivals to defend a territory, Grey Squirrels are let off the hook.
They ARE territorial enough to displace all other species of squirrels
from the expanding range of the Greys, but they do this without physically
attacking other squirrels; other species, being more aggressive, literally
worry & fret thesmelves out of house & home by being constantly willing to
fight something bigger that will neither budge nor fight back. But even
without attacking other species or each other TOO often, greys still
require & protect a territory within the larger number of overlapping
territories, & this area will be a few city blocks if inner city or near
parks or orchards, but a whopping two to ten thousand acres in a natural
forest area.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

In article ,
wrote:

Phisherman wrote:

On Sun, 30 May 2004 19:48:23 GMT, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

(paghat) wrote:


-snip-
Squirrels are highly territorial.

The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
support them.

A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html


This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
trap and relocate them.


In many [most?] states that is illegal. Check with your local
authority & you might get a permit to catch & kill them, but it isn't
likely they'll let you give your problem to someone else.

Jim

Trap & release is often very cruel. With trap-&-release, it often happens
that the same pair of squirrels is trapped repeatedly, & the trapper
thinks they relocated a dozen squrirels when it was always the same two.
They can return to their territory from ten miles away with great ease (a
mouse from three miles, a rat from five miles). They have no choice if
released in taken territories, & if for some reason they cannot get back
to their territory, they don't adapt well, but usually go a little mad.

That madness is an important side-issue on trap & release. Squirrels that
cannot make it back to their territories may end up in second-growth
forest areas or recent housing developments lacking stable squirrel
populations, & these will be the half-crazy unhappy squirrels that strip
bark, dig bulbs, eat garden veggies as would rabbits (but for the water;
cukes & tomatos are not good food for them). A stable squirrel population
rarely causes this kind of damage. A study overseen by Jan C. Taylor, done
of migrant or released grey squirrels in Worpleson England, discovered
this unfortunate side-effect of human intervention with moved squirrels &
destabilized squirrel populations (these were North American greys
released in the UK, with many sorry effects).

-paghat the ratgirl loves squirrels

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

(paghat) wrote:
-snip-
A good description of these critters is at
http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html


This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
trap and relocate them.

The articlt cited simultaneously states that each Grey squirrel's
territory is 5 hectares (within a 40 hectare forest of overlapping
territories), which is a great deal larger than my memory had recalled.
Five hectares is over ten thousand acres! Pretty damned big piece of
territory to be required by a non-territorial animal.

I don't know whether your hectares or your acres are different-- but
in US measure 1 Hectare=2.47 acres.

According to that page the 40 hectare forest is where they are 'most
often found'. There isn't a 40 hectare forest within 10 miles of
me-- but I'll bet there are thousands of squirrels. In the US
they are becoming as common [and more troublesome] as pigeons and
rats.


An "overpopulation" of grey squirrels would be nine per hectare, still not
a great many squirrels.

-snip-

I don't see that on that page-- but that comes out to less than 3/acre
which I can definitely vouch for being in error. My neighbor & I
share an acre & we often have 3 active *families* living on our
properties. The three trees that they populate form a triangle
with no side longer than 50 feet. [and they are joined by others
whenever my neighbor or I set out feed for the birds]

But beyond that-

Reread the article-- It says;
"Grey squirrels are non-territorial. They have large overlapping home
ranges which average 5 hectares in size. . ."

A 'home range' is not a territory. [this might be our sometimes
uncommon language giving us trouble here]
Territory=cross the line & I attack.
Range='I'll cover 5 hectares to find food. That 5 hectares might
be overlapped by 50 other greys, and that's ok with me as long as we
all have plenty to eat'.

This points out both problems for the original poster.

1. The non-territorial nature of the greys makes his property fair
game for an unlimited number of grey squirrels.
2. Those grey squirrels can be some distance away and still fit his
property into their range.
[The max range mentioned is 20 hectares. 20 hectares is about 50
acres- so all the squirrels in 50 acres could come to his house for
lunch. ]

Squirrel stew & spaghetti sauce is quite tasty.

Jim

On Mon, 31 May 2004 01:38:52 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

===On Sun, 30 May 2004 19:48:23 GMT, Jim Elbrecht
===wrote:
===
(paghat) wrote:
===
===
===-snip-
===Squirrels are highly territorial.
===
===The most common squirrel in my part of the world [upstate NY] is the
===Eastern Grey. These buggers are gregarious if the food supply will
===support them.
===
===A good description of these critters is at
===http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sq_grey.html
===
===
===This article states that the grey squirrel is non-territorial. And
===I'm 99% sure I have a grey-squirrel issue. My current plan is to
===trap and relocate them.
===
===When I bought this house the neighbors were an elderly couple who
===bought huge bags of old bread to feed the squirrels. Their feeder
===looked like something out of a Hitchcock movie -- 50-60 squirrels is
===no exaggeration.
===
===Fox & reds are less common here [NY], and they don't like to share
===with the greys.
===
===If I planted an entire orchard of nuts and did nothing to decrease the
===squirrel population, I would get to see a lot of squirrels, but would
===never have any nuts. As it is I enjoy some of my harvest, and
===frequent dinners of 'Squirrel spaghetti' -- the sauce does wonders for
===tenderizing their otherwise rather tough meat.
===
===Jim


With as many grey squirrels as I have it woulld be hard for them to be
territorial, unless each claimed a tree as their sole territory. I
also have a mix of Fox squirrels with the greys as well, so they do
get along for the most part. I basically declared war on the greys,
and since the Fox is in much lower numbers as compared to the grey, I
do not eliminate them, as they do not seem to create as much damage as
the greys do.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.