Omelet wrote on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:39:15 -0500:

?? Nancy Young wrote:
??
?? Curse those tree rats. We never had a problem with them
?? when we had cats around. My project for this week is to
?? pick up a live trap and to re-locate the local
?? population one at a time.
??
?? Honestly. All winter I was fighting them for the bird
?? feeders, they wouldn't leave them alone no matter what.
?? I'm getting a supersoaker for next year, I can give them
?? a blast of water right through the kitchen window. I
?? tried throwing ice cubes at them but my aim stinks, hard
?? to throw through a window.
??
?? The squirrel population has increased drastically. They
?? have been digging up my spring bulbs, and they run across
?? the road,tempting my dogs to chase them. Today I broke
?? down and bought a squirrel size live trap so I can catch
?? the little *******s and re-locate them. I could not find
?? the traps in the store and had to ask for help. A nice
?? sales clerk led the way to the shelf where they were
?? located. Perfect. I could not resist asking if they box
?? included the recipe book :-)

O Best and easy squirrel bait:

O Mix up some peanut butter with oatmeal to solidify it.

O Good luck!

That should work but even some roasted peanuts should work. It
doesn't matter if they spill since you probably won 't catch
more than one beast at a time. However, my experience and what
others have mentioned makes me doubtful if you can do much about
the population. We have a local fox that has been seen to catch
squirrels near a neighbor's bird feeder but is not all that good
at it! The fox does no harm but its singing is awful!

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

In article ,
Dave Smith wrote:

The squirrel population has increased drastically. They have been digging
up my spring bulbs, and they run across the road,tempting my dogs to chase
them....

CB longs are reasonably quiet. That's what we use when they get out of
hand here and start doing damage (which is quite often actually).
Squirrels travel amazingly long distances so Havaharts don't work very
well with them--- not to speak of the fuel expense. Or were you
planning on biking them?

On Apr 4, 2:07 am, Omelet wrote:
In article ,



"jmcquown" wrote:
James Silverton wrote:
Nancy wrote on Mon, 2 Apr 2007 16:50:02 -0400:

Nancy Young wrote:

It wasn't the garbage.

http://i7.tinypic.com/4bdzw9j.jpg

Some squirrel had broken into the box on the stoop and
was eating my cookies. Good thing he got away before I
caught him.

Curse those tree rats. We never had a problem with them
when we had cats around. My project for this week is to
pick up a live trap and to re-locate the local population
one at a time.

Honestly. All winter I was fighting them for the bird
feeders, they wouldn't leave them alone no matter what.
I'm getting a supersoaker for next year, I can give them a
blast of water right through the kitchen window. I tried
throwing ice cubes at them but my aim stinks, hard to throw
through a window.

I never did make any serious dent in my squirrel population.
When we first moved into the house we tried to grow peaches
without success because the rats ate them first. To add insult
to injury they would sit on the doorstep cracking the pits and
leaving the debris. One year I caught 20 of them with a
Have-a-Hart trap and released them five miles away but I still
got no peaches since the neighbors seemed to just move in. I
restrained myself from killing them and only one died when the
next door cat saw the trap with a squirrel in it and seemed to
have spent the afternoon provoking the rodent because it died
from apparent exhaustion.

I had a plastic "squirrel-proof" bird feeder but the beasts ate
it!

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

I have to store the bird seed *inside the house*. My apartment patio has a
built-in storage shed and for a while I thought I had rats... real ones, not
the tree kind. A friend gave me a heavy duty plastic tub to store the bird
seed in and - you got it. It was chewed right through. One day sitting
outside I watched as a squirrel literally flattened itself (I thought only
mice could do that? disjoint their bones that way?) and went under the
locked door. Now I keep the bird seed inside. It's not as convenient but
it saves on bird seed.

Curse the squirrels that were eating Nancy's cookies! (I just realized how
funny that sounded.)

Jill

You could use a _metal_ trash can to store feed in. That's what I use to
store my pet emu's grain.

Your raccoons are studying welding and metal working as I type.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

On Apr 5, 9:50 pm, Dave Smith wrote:
Omelet wrote:

The squirrel population has increased drastically. They have been digging
up my spring bulbs, and they run across the road,tempting my dogs to chase
them. Today I broke down and bought a squirrel size live trap so I can
catch the little *******s and re-locate them. I could not find the traps
in the store and had to ask for help. A nice sales clerk led the way to
the shelf where they were located. Perfect. I could not resist asking if
they box included the recipe book :-)

Best and easy squirrel bait:

Mix up some peanut butter with oatmeal to solidify it.

Sounds delicious :-) I make oatmeal almost every day for breakfast but we
never have peanut butter in the house.

Try a muffing. I had one stashed in my bicycle pannier for my
morning coffee break. I stopped on the way to work, came out of the
store about 5 minutes later to find a squirrel had gnawed through the
heavy canvas to get the muffin.

While noisy, a 12 gauge shotgun is a handy tool when dealing with
squirrels. The Honey and Cider Squirrel recipe from
http://www.bowhunting.net/susieq/squirrel.html looks interesting.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

On Apr 2, 6:27 pm, Dave Smith wrote:
jmcquown wrote:

OMG! Is that a squirrel??

nancy

Looks like a big FAT red squirrel to me! (the ones around here are grey)

It's odd, but they change colour from one place to another. Most of the
squirrels around her are grey. I got in trouble with my wife a few years
ago because something got chewed up by a reddish squirrel. I still don't
understand why it was my fault, but she rejected that the squirrel was red
and thought I had lied about that. It was more than a year before she saw
that little red ******* and I was forgiven.

Some one once called her a racist because she said all the squirrels in
Toronto are black. She grew up there and the squirrels are black there.
Around here they are almost all grey.

I say an interesting on the other day while bicycling along the Niagara
Parkway. Just before I got to Niagara on the Lake I saw one that was grey
with a white tail. I saw an albino squirrel in a park in Montreal. I took
a picture of it with my digital camera and for some reason the bottom half
of the picture was blacked out.

Further north the squirrels are mostly red squirrels. While the red and
grey variations are the same species. Greys and blacks are variations of
the same species.

We have a few around here that look like they're getting their hair
dyed. Black body, amber tail, and so on. There was one that was
almost, but not quite, albino. A mixture of grey and black is very
common.

OH! Come to think of it, I've been seeing them hanging out around the
Bio Sciences complex.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

John Kane wrote:


Sounds delicious :-) I make oatmeal almost every day for breakfast but we
never have peanut butter in the house.

Try a muffing. I had one stashed in my bicycle pannier for my
morning coffee break. I stopped on the way to work, came out of the
store about 5 minutes later to find a squirrel had gnawed through the
heavy canvas to get the muffin.

I have a stale Hot Cross bon that might interest them. On second thought,
I will freshen that up in the toaster and gnaw on it myself. I hmade some
extra oatmeal this morning and put the leftovers in a pyrex bowl with some
golden raisins and some chopped dried apricot stirred in. It shoould form
a little cake that will make good bait.

While noisy, a 12 gauge shotgun is a handy tool when dealing with

It might disturb the neighbours.

squirrels. The Honey and Cider Squirrel recipe from
http://www.bowhunting.net/susieq/squirrel.html looks interesting.


:-)

Michael \"Dog3\" Lonergan wrote:


Since my house has long been the feral cat mooching house, tree rats have
not been a real issue. I've noticed an increase in their numbers this
year. I think it's the decline in the number of cats hanging around. I
don't see as many lately. Poor Bart, the outside cat, just can't keep up
with all the tree rats and rabbits

We had one or more (outdoor) cats for years and rarely saw tree rats. We
lost a number of cats to the road and to coyotes. The speed limit has been
reduced but volume has increased, and there are a lot more coyotes now. If
one shows up and makes himself at home here we will put out some food for
it. Until then..... I am going to be trapping and relocating them.

I have a tasty looking batch of oatmeal with dried raisins and apricots in
it to replace the cereal they seem no to have gone for last night. I would
go out and bait it now but IT'S SNOWING !!!!!! :-(



Don't worry. I won't be feeding them. I don't even feed birds any more. I
used to put out a bird feeder to help out our feathered friends, and then I
discovered that they repay the kindness by crapping on the laundry while it
dries.

John Kane wrote:


We have a few around here that look like they're getting their hair
dyed. Black body, amber tail, and so on. There was one that was
almost, but not quite, albino. A mixture of grey and black is very
common.

OH! Come to think of it, I've been seeing them hanging out around the
Bio Sciences complex.

LOL
I saw an albino squirrel in a park in Montreal last year. I took a picture
with my digital camera. That cheap camera occasionally blanked out the
bottom half of a picture. Wouldn't you know the albino squirrel, which was
framed in the lower half of the picture wasn't there. :-(

James Silverton wrote:

Omelet wrote
Best and easy squirrel bait:

Mix up some peanut butter with oatmeal to solidify it.

Good luck!

That should work but even some roasted peanuts should work. It
doesn't matter if they spill since you probably won 't catch
more than one beast at a time. However, my experience and what
others have mentioned makes me doubtful if you can do much about
the population. We have a local fox that has been seen to catch
squirrels near a neighbor's bird feeder but is not all that good
at it! The fox does no harm but its singing is awful!

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

A few years ago, I checked with the County about shooting the darned
things. I was told we could shoot them but only during January. When
do you ever see a squirrel in January?

Strange happening, when you mention a fox. A couple of days ago I was
travelling home and pulled over to avoid what I thought first was a dog,
then changed my mind to a fox, then the thing didn't look like a fox,
either (wrong tail) or a raccoon (wrong color). DH feels it was a
coyote, since it was carrying its tail low and they've been seen in this
county Unbelievable.

Dora.

Michael "Dog3" Lonergan wrote:

I have noticed Chubbs
and Slick (2 tree rats I've become fond of and are here for a 3rd year)
eating the seed corn I have out for them Yes, I feed them.



My grandfather had several spikes impaled into several of his big trees,
he'd shove an ear of corn onto the spike for the squirrels to feed on. Very
amusing to watch from the kitchen windows...

--
Best
Greg

limey wrote on Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:19:11 GMT:

?? Omelet wrote
?? Best and easy squirrel bait:
??
?? Mix up some peanut butter with oatmeal to solidify it.
??
?? Good luck!
??
?? That should work but even some roasted peanuts should


l A few years ago, I checked with the County about shooting
l the darned things. I was told we could shoot them but only
l during January. When do you ever see a squirrel in January?

l Strange happening, when you mention a fox. A couple of days
l ago I was travelling home and pulled over to avoid what I
l thought first was a dog, then changed my mind to a fox, then
l the thing didn't look like a fox, either (wrong tail) or a
l raccoon (wrong color). DH feels it was a coyote, since it
l was carrying its tail low and they've been seen in this
l county Unbelievable.

I have heard coyotes singing in the West and, believe me, they
were much more harmonious than my fox! It is smaller than
coyotes I have seen and has a somewhat bushy tail that it
carries sort of straight out and is gray with reddish tints.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

In article om,
"John Kane" wrote:

I have to store the bird seed *inside the house*. My apartment patio has
a
built-in storage shed and for a while I thought I had rats... real ones,
not
the tree kind. A friend gave me a heavy duty plastic tub to store the
bird
seed in and - you got it. It was chewed right through. One day sitting
outside I watched as a squirrel literally flattened itself (I thought
only
mice could do that? disjoint their bones that way?) and went under the
locked door. Now I keep the bird seed inside. It's not as convenient
but
it saves on bird seed.

Curse the squirrels that were eating Nancy's cookies! (I just realized
how
funny that sounded.)

Jill

You could use a _metal_ trash can to store feed in. That's what I use to
store my pet emu's grain.

Your raccoons are studying welding and metal working as I type.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

lol Presents a picture!
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article ,
Dave Smith wrote:

Omelet wrote:


The squirrel population has increased drastically. They have been digging
up my spring bulbs, and they run across the road,tempting my dogs to chase
them. Today I broke down and bought a squirrel size live trap so I can
catch the little *******s and re-locate them. I could not find the traps
in the store and had to ask for help. A nice sales clerk led the way to
the shelf where they were located. Perfect. I could not resist asking if
they box included the recipe book :-)

Best and easy squirrel bait:

Mix up some peanut butter with oatmeal to solidify it.


Sounds delicious :-) I make oatmeal almost every day for breakfast but we
never have peanut butter in the house.

heh! :-)

I actually learned about using that as a rodent bait for box traps when
I was in high school biology class! It's never failed, is easy to handle
and does not attract many bugs. Not even ants.

And yes, sounds like a good cookie mix... G
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article ,
Emma Thackery wrote:

In article ,
Dave Smith wrote:

The squirrel population has increased drastically. They have been digging
up my spring bulbs, and they run across the road,tempting my dogs to chase
them....

CB longs are reasonably quiet. That's what we use when they get out of
hand here and start doing damage (which is quite often actually).
Squirrels travel amazingly long distances so Havaharts don't work very
well with them--- not to speak of the fuel expense. Or were you
planning on biking them?

Rimfire?

My neighbors would report me in an instant.

BB rifles do work tho' and are not classified as a "firearm" in our
city, so are ok to use. They make some pretty powerful ones now.

Wet the squirrel before you skin it. Keeps the fur from shedding on the
meat. Learnt that from a co-worker...

He was from Missouri.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article ,
Dave Smith wrote:

John Kane wrote:


Sounds delicious :-) I make oatmeal almost every day for breakfast but we
never have peanut butter in the house.

Try a muffing. I had one stashed in my bicycle pannier for my
morning coffee break. I stopped on the way to work, came out of the
store about 5 minutes later to find a squirrel had gnawed through the
heavy canvas to get the muffin.

I have a stale Hot Cross bon that might interest them. On second thought,
I will freshen that up in the toaster and gnaw on it myself. I hmade some
extra oatmeal this morning and put the leftovers in a pyrex bowl with some
golden raisins and some chopped dried apricot stirred in. It shoould form
a little cake that will make good bait.

While noisy, a 12 gauge shotgun is a handy tool when dealing with

It might disturb the neighbours.

squirrels. The Honey and Cider Squirrel recipe from
http://www.bowhunting.net/susieq/squirrel.html looks interesting.


:-)

Heh! I meant mist _dry_ oatmeal with the peanut butter to make a dryish
sticky cake that is easy to mold into the bait tray...
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson