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Joined: 01 July 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 11716
Topic: Gray Squirrels Posted: 24 August 2003 at 13:03
This year, I planted a 60 foot row of sunflowers along my driveway. The reason for this horticulturial streak is simple. I have a lot of doves that use my driveway for their personal gravel pit, and I wanted to feed them the sunflowers. I have had a real trial keeping the sunflowers unmolested by the neighborhood kids, who like to pick them. These aren't the little fag type sunflowers sold my Martha Stewart, these are genuine crew serve flowers. Well, I started noticing that some of the flowers were missing and naturally blamed the kids, who I took to running off. I found out last weekend that it's not the kids, rather it's a "gang" of those puny gray squirrels that are chewing the flowers off and dragging them to a shady place to dine. What they didn't know was, that their dining hall was well within range of my Fienwerkbrau 300 S air rifle. I shot 5 of them before I realized that their size wasn't big enough to feed a starving pygmy if you fed him a dozen of them. I have considered live trapping them and dropping them off far, far away from here, but I am overrun by them. Does anyone have a trick to run them off? The sunflowers are all killed now........Kingpin
There are times when a normal man must, spit in his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
Joined: 10 June 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2331
Posted: 24 August 2003 at 13:20
Out in the small community where I grew up, they have this nut that collected himself 5 or 6 squirrels from "somewhere" and planted them smack dab in the middle of town. That was three years ago. Little suckers are everywhere now. At first they were cute and lots of folks fed them. Now, with their #'s, noone wants to shoot them cause they're kind of attached but they do want to thin the #'s a bit. My dad and others on his block have settled on live traps and letting them go down by the river. It's worked pretty well. I guess if ya ain't gonna shoot 'em, live trapping might be the only other option. No other suggestions from here, anyway. Later. >> klallen
Joined: 01 July 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 11716
Posted: 24 August 2003 at 14:37
Thanks Klallen,I have planned to leave the little pests alone until next year when I plant a lot more sunflowers, then I will make an open declaration of war on them.........Kingpin
There are times when a normal man must, spit in his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
Joined: 13 June 2003
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2212
Posted: 24 August 2003 at 16:27
Fox urine may help a bit. Sometimes it will run rats and squirrels
away, sometimes it won't. You likely will need to trap, shoot, and use
the predator scents to keep their numbers at a managable level.
"...A moral compass needs a butt end.Whatever direction France is pointing-towards collaboration with Nazis, accomodation with communists,...we can go the other way with a quiet conscience"-O'Rourke
Joined: 19 June 2003
Location: Bahrain
Status: Offline
Points: 0
Posted: 25 August 2003 at 00:17
KP,
Try throwin some ears of dried corn out, they might take them over the sunflowers although I haven't seen a squirrel go after anything harder than a sun flower. They'll pick up an ear (if you cut them in half) and carry them to a tree to eat.
Either way, if they fatten up on the corn, they'll be better eatin!
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