Hello,

I live on an estate on which the owner's gardener has taken to hanging dead squirrels and magpies in trees and next to the scarecrow in the veg patch. My assumption is that this is to deter other squirrels and magpies, but does that actually work? I can deal with a certain level of morbidity, but I would hate for the children who come visit to be upset at the dead animals if it's a pointless endeavor. And if anything, I would have thought that the carcasses would attract more vermin..

Can anybody share some perspective on this issue?

Many thanks!

::Update::

Erm, upon investigating the claims of the kids that came running inside crying about a dead magpie hanging in the veg patch, I discovered it to be made of plastic. This particular deterrent seems to have little effect on the two pheasants I startled

The question about a gallows of dead squirrels on a tree branch stands though..

Mitulove wrote:
Hello,

I live on an estate on which the owner's gardener has taken to hanging
dead squirrels and magpies in trees and next to the scarecrow in the
veg patch. My assumption is that this is to deter other squirrels and
magpies, but does that actually work? I can deal with a certain level
of morbidity, but I would hate for the children who come visit to be
upset at the dead animals if it's a pointless endeavor. And if
anything, I would have thought that the carcasses would attract more
vermin..

Can anybody share some perspective on this issue?

Many thanks!

The gamekeeper's gibbet is an old old custom. I think it was simply to
show the employer that the keeper was earning his pay and his cottage by
killing anything non-game that moved. I've no direct knowledge of the
practice, but hardly any animals seem to recognize corpses of their own
species, so I can't think it would do much in the way of deterrence. So,
unless there's a problem with chimpanzees or elephants...but, speaking
in a personal capacity, I'd rather not be in the same parish as an
elephant with a grievance, so it wouldn't work even with them.

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Mitulove wrote:
Hello,

I live on an estate on which the owner's gardener has taken to hanging
dead squirrels and magpies in trees and next to the scarecrow in the
veg patch. My assumption is that this is to deter other squirrels and
magpies, but does that actually work? I can deal with a certain level
of morbidity, but I would hate for the children who come visit to be
upset at the dead animals if it's a pointless endeavor. And if
anything, I would have thought that the carcasses would attract more
vermin..

Can anybody share some perspective on this issue?

Many thanks!

The gamekeeper's gibbet is an old old custom. I think it was simply to
show the employer that the keeper was earning his pay and his cottage by
killing anything non-game that moved. I've no direct knowledge of the
practice, but hardly any animals seem to recognize corpses of their own
species, so I can't think it would do much in the way of deterrence. So,
unless there's a problem with chimpanzees or elephants...but, speaking in
a personal capacity, I'd rather not be in the same parish as an elephant
with a grievance, so it wouldn't work even with them.

--
Mike.

The 'gamekeeper's gibbet' is something I have only seen once in my life and
never expect to see again. The 'game' in my case was moles. Obviously a
string of dead moles on a barbed wire fence is not likely to be a deterrent
to other moles!
R.

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 15:52:29 +0000, Mitulove
wrote:


Hello,

I live on an estate on which the owner's gardener has taken to hanging
dead squirrels and magpies in trees and next to the scarecrow in the veg
patch. My assumption is that this is to deter other squirrels and
magpies, but does that actually work? I can deal with a certain level
of morbidity, but I would hate for the children who come visit to be
upset at the dead animals if it's a pointless endeavor. And if
anything, I would have thought that the carcasses would attract more
vermin..

Can anybody share some perspective on this issue?

Many thanks!

I'd have thought the magpies would have considered it breakfast.
--
http://www.bra-and-pants.com
http://www.holidayunder100.co.uk

On Jul 2, 2:32*pm, Janet Baraclough
wrote:
The message
from "Ragnar" contains these words:

The 'gamekeeper's gibbet' is something I have only seen once in my life and
never expect to see again. The 'game' in my case was moles. Obviously a
string of dead moles on a barbed wire fence is not likely to be a deterrent
to other moles!

* * Our molecatcher did that up until 10 years ago. He regarded it as
professional *advertising, and *proof he
*wasn't *touting *the same dead moles round successive clients.

* * Janet.

The sort of repulsive custom known and expected of a certain type of
gamekeeper by a certain kind of landowner. Absolutely out of order and
pointless for a 'gardener'
Magpies do no harm whatsoever in a garden (might just strip the odd
pod of peas as a jay will)
Killing squirrels is pointless anyway, there's plenty more where they
came from so just protect your soft fruit by caging the bed, that
means wire netting for squirrels - they'll destroy anything else if
there's cherries or strawberries the other side.

Rod

In article , Ragnar
writes
The 'gamekeeper's gibbet' is something I have only seen once in my life and
never expect to see again. The 'game' in my case was moles. Obviously a
string of dead moles on a barbed wire fence is not likely to be a deterrent
to other moles!
R.


Not unless they were the Russian kind as currently in the papers!
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article
, Rod
writes
Magpies do no harm whatsoever in a garden


Oh yes they do they steal little bird's eggs . Lots of magpies here but
fewer and fewer little birds, .....
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article
, Rod
writes
Magpies do no harm whatsoever in a garden


Oh yes they do they steal little bird's eggs . Lots of magpies here but
fewer and fewer little birds, .....
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

They will carefully watch blackbirds nesting then go for the chicks when
thye've sussed out where the nest is.

Bill