mark wrote:
"Derek Turner" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 06 May 2009 23:27:24 +0000, Bill Smith wrote:



Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent

12-bore cartridges are less than £150 a thousand.

I suspect this method doesn't meet the original brief of not harming
the squirrels.

mark

Ahh. you do have a point there

On May 7, 9:40*am, "Ophelia" wrote:
Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not
harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) *Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. *You need *a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

Judith

Judith in France wrote:
On May 7, 9:40 am, "Ophelia" wrote:
Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will
not harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. You need a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

I have indeed eaten squirrel. David shoots and if what he kills is at all
edible, I cook it . Well, it tastes like...er... squirrel Milder than
rabbit if you have eaten that.

I have a few recipes for squirrel if you are interested, but as I have said
elsewhere, I usually go down the garlic, onion, red wine type road. I a the
similar one for rabbit too.

If they start to breed you should have some more soon. That way you could casserole some and leave the others to rob your bird feeders. Maybe the original ones, if you can identify them, can be left and you will have met the part where you do not want them harmed. Mind you, I still like the idea of a little bit of lead in one ear and a charcoal barbeque.

"Judith in France" wrote in message
...
On May 7, 9:40 am, "Ophelia" wrote:
Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not
harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. You need a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

Do they have grey squirrels in your part of France, or has your neighbour
perhaps been eating red squirrels? Red squirrels used to be eaten in the UK,
before they became rare and protected, and loads of grey squirrels are eaten
in their native USA, as well as quite a few now in the UK.

In message ,
Bill Smith writes
Our garden backs onto a strip of municipal woodland. We have a metal
support for hanging cage-type bird feeders, and attract a good number
and variety of small birds.

We also attract many pigeons, which can't properly cope with the cage
around the feeders, but also three or four grey squirrels which pay a
visit several times a day.

They don't tend to go for the bird seed feeder, but go instead for the
peanut feeder, having learnt to clamber inside the cage part and feed
upside-down on the peanuts in an inner, small-meshed cage. A pack of
peanuts costs me 99p, and one, thanks almost entirely to the squirrels,
lasts a day at the most.

My peanut feeder is suspended at the bottom of the Vee formed by a piece
of tough fishing line, which is suspended from the house eaves at one
end , and is passed over a tree branch at the other end.
The tails of line at either end can be used to raise or lower the feeder
for refilling.

The feeder is about 12ft off the ground, and no squirrel can negotiate
the fishing line, they can't get a grip. :-)
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

"BAC" wrote in message
...

"Judith in France" wrote in message
...
On May 7, 9:40 am, "Ophelia" wrote:
Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not
harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. You need a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

Do they have grey squirrels in your part of France, or has your neighbour
perhaps been eating red squirrels? Red squirrels used to be eaten in the
UK, before they became rare and protected, and loads of grey squirrels are
eaten in their native USA, as well as quite a few now in the UK.

We should have greys on the menu in the UK. They are classed as vermin
(rightly so), have played havoc with our native reds and will take bird eggs
from the nest. They are tree rats with good PR. We should also be eating
more venizon as the deer population in the UK is going through the roof - in
my bit of the UK they are often visible in the day just wandering through
fields & gardens.. eating crops, damaging rare ancient woodland habitats..
As much as I don't like guns, if I could shoot accurately I'd have no
hesitation about shooting for food.

Bigal



Go to'Edible gardening'. There is a thread which will give you several recipes for squirrels.
Bigal

wafflycat wrote:
We should have greys on the menu in the UK. They are classed as vermin
(rightly so), have played havoc with our native reds and will take
bird eggs from the nest. They are tree rats with good PR. We should
also be eating more venizon as the deer population in the UK is going
through the roof - in my bit of the UK they are often visible in the
day just wandering through fields & gardens.. eating crops, damaging
rare ancient woodland habitats.. As much as I don't like guns, if I
could shoot accurately I'd have no hesitation about shooting for food.

Oh absolutely! I don't shoot live things - not sure about a clean kill...
But my David does and we eat the stuff he brings home. One good thing is
that he always cleans the kill in the field. I am presented with a rather
bloody body in a plastic bag He likes to leave the rest in the field for
other animals to eat. (of course, that doesn't include deer.)

"Bill Smith" wrote in message
...
Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to prefer
peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

try rolling the peanuts in veg oil then cayenne pepper or chilli powder.
Birds do not notice it but squirrels do.

Sacha wrote:
On 2009-05-07 08:38:38 +0100, RJBL said:

Bill Smith wrote:
Our garden backs onto a strip of municipal woodland. We have a metal
support for hanging cage-type bird feeders, and attract a good number
and variety of small birds.

We also attract many pigeons, which can't properly cope with the cage
around the feeders, but also three or four grey squirrels which pay a
visit several times a day.

They don't tend to go for the bird seed feeder, but go instead for
the peanut feeder, having learnt to clamber inside the cage part and
feed upside-down on the peanuts in an inner, small-meshed cage. A
pack of peanuts costs me 99p, and one, thanks almost entirely to the
squirrels, lasts a day at the most.

Spraying the metal pole with WD-40 stops the squirrels as they
slither around and can't climb it, but this lasts only a couple of
days, and costs more than the peanuts if I kept refreshing the WD-40.
I suspect that someting other than WD-40, such as soap or an oil,
would no last much longer before the little critters are able to shin
up the pole again. (The pole etc is not near a tree of fence, but the
squirrels cross the lawn to it and race up it - amusing the first few
times, but now infuriating!

Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.
Try your local garden centre for a 'Squirel baffle' to fit on your
bird feeder - its sort of like a clear plastic hemisphere which fits
onto the upright - Gardman make them(?) About twenty quid. They work.

Hope this helps

rjbl

Just the sort of thing I was trying to describe. And this is a clever
seed feeder:
http://www.gardman.co.uk/asp/birds/f...ist-feeder.asp

I didn't find squirrel baffles there but I did find them he
http://www.jacobijayne.co.uk/squirre...uirrel-guards/

Thanks for the pointer, Highly useful.

Actually I am not now convinced that it is truly cost effective actually
to do anything about protecting the bird feeders from squirrels.
Watching our 4 regulars I observe that :-

They feed at very regular times of day; early morning and early evening;

Between then the take out about 10% of the contents of the peanut feeder
per diem

In the long term - several years - they don't appear to damage the
feeder by hanging upside down from it and nibbling at the contents.

Not sure that the level of loss really justifies the cost of protection
and the loss of pleasure evoked by their antics.

Mind you, squirrels is very partial to home-grown strawberries (like
some black labrador dogs I've known). Protection of your strawberry crop
is well worth the cost.

For those firearms-freaks out there, who seem only to be interested in
the concept of 'garden as gallery-range', squirrels are best caught and
killed by hand, gutted, crisply and aromatically fried, skewered and
eaten like hot lollipops. When the blood lust takes you, get on the
flight to Pudong Intl and marvel to the sight of seven million
Shanghainese nibblin' squirrel on a Bank Holiday

rjbl

On May 7, 4:46*pm, "Ophelia" wrote:
Judith in France wrote:
On May 7, 9:40 am, "Ophelia" wrote:
Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will
not harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. You need a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. *My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. *Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

I have indeed eaten squirrel. *David shoots and if what he kills is at all
edible, I cook it . *Well, it tastes like...er... squirrel *Milder than
rabbit if you have eaten that.

I have a few recipes for squirrel if you are interested, but as I have said
elsewhere, I usually go down the garlic, onion, red wine type road. *I a the
similar one for rabbit too.

Thanks, I don't like rabbit, probably because my father used to shoot
and fish and we ate a lot of rabbit and salmon when we were kids, now
my sisters and I only eat rabbit if we were served it at a friend's;
out of politeness. I, too, go down the garlic, onion and red wine
road for most types of red meat. Today, I have beef with a marrow
bone and I will do that as a stew with the above garlic etc; posh
people call it pot au feu but it's just a stew :-)

Judith

On May 7, 6:35*pm, "BAC" wrote:
"Judith in France" wrote in ...
On May 7, 9:40 am, "Ophelia" wrote:

Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not
harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. You need a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. *My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. *Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

Do they have grey squirrels in your part of France, or has your neighbour
perhaps been eating red squirrels? Red squirrels used to be eaten in the UK,
before they became rare and protected, and loads of grey squirrels are eaten
in their native USA, as well as quite a few now in the UK.

I have seen red squirrels but rarely, plenty of grey. I often listen
to the stories of my very elderly farmer neighbour; they would eat
anything, just to survive, nothing was wasted. She recalls that
during the last War, they would have starved in the Auvergne without
the help of the British who dropped food, by air, into remote areas.
It would appear that any and all food was commandeered by the
Germans. Today she won't even speak to anyone living in Vichy which
is not too far North from here. Sorry, I digressed, one thing lead to
another; as it does!

Judith

Judith

On May 7, 8:33*pm, "Ophelia" wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
We should have greys on the menu in the UK. They are classed as vermin
(rightly so), have played havoc with our native reds and will take
bird eggs from the nest. They are tree rats with good PR. We should
also be eating more venizon as the deer population in the UK is going
through the roof - in my bit of the UK they are often visible in the
day just wandering through fields & gardens.. eating crops, damaging
rare ancient woodland habitats.. As much as I don't like guns, if I
could shoot accurately I'd have no hesitation about shooting for food.

Oh absolutely! *I don't shoot live things - not sure about a clean kill....
But my David does and we eat the stuff he brings home. *One good thing is
that he always cleans the kill in the field. *I am presented with a rather
bloody body in a plastic bag *He likes to leave the rest in the field for
other animals to eat. (of course, that doesn't include deer.)

My late Father always said only kill what you will eat, not for sport.

Judith

On 2009-05-08 10:09:26 +0100, Judith in France
said:

On May 7, 6:35*pm, "BAC" wrote:
"Judith in France" wrote in messagenews:7b4
...
On May 7, 9:40 am, "Ophelia" wrote:

Sheila wrote:
"Bill Smith" wrote in message
news:suilven- Can anyone suggest a low-cost deterrent which will not
harm the
squirrels but would allow the other birds (Most of which seem to
prefer peanuts to wild bird seed) to feed on the peanuts?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Bill.

Hold me back! (speaking from Formby, one home of the beautiful
endangered red squirrel....) Fetch ma gun!!

Heh, nothing wrong with squirrel casserole. You need a few though

I had heard, on this ng many years ago about eating squirrel but I was
never sure if it was a joke or not. *My neighbour tells me she has
eaten squirrel. *Seriously, have you eaten squirrel and what does it
taste like if you have?

Do they have grey squirrels in your part of France, or has your neighbour
perhaps been eating red squirrels? Red squirrels used to be eaten in the
UK,
before they became rare and protected, and loads of grey squirrels are ea
ten
in their native USA, as well as quite a few now in the UK.

I have seen red squirrels but rarely, plenty of grey. I often listen
to the stories of my very elderly farmer neighbour; they would eat
anything, just to survive, nothing was wasted. She recalls that
during the last War, they would have starved in the Auvergne without
the help of the British who dropped food, by air, into remote areas.
It would appear that any and all food was commandeered by the
Germans. Today she won't even speak to anyone living in Vichy which
is not too far North from here. Sorry, I digressed, one thing lead to
another; as it does!

Judith

Judith

And today is Liberation Day in France, isn't it? Tomorrow in the CIs.
Are they celebrating all over or do different areas have different
dates for that?
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon