The Chipmunk/Squirrel problem

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by JoAnne

......Oh, and the traps caught some rats as well and,

how did you distinguish the squirrels from the rats? oh that's right the furry tail.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by tjg911

how did you distinguish the squirrels from the rats? oh that's right the furry tail.

Truer words were never spoken.

Tam, I went for 25 years without a problem and I have a good friend who is surrounded by squirrels and they don't bother his garden. I have no idea what caused the onslaught that has now persisted without letup for 3 years.

I have 6 dogs and they usually sleep through the squirrels' foraging and never seem to notice them but if a possum or raccoon dares to enter the yard it ends up dead.

[tam91]

Raccoon? I'm surprised the dogs don't end up dead. Well, I guess they outnumber it enough.

My dogs love to suck on possums - they don't usually kill them, but rather just carry them around. Then the dogs come inside with possum-breath - yuck! Husband is then sent off to dispose of dead (or alive) possum. The most fun part was the first time that he discovered that possums can come back to life - as he was carrying it. lololol Oh yes, and he learned that the have lots of teeth, and that they hiss.

I live in terror of the dogs actually catching one of the raccoons though - almost happened this fall.

[David Marek]

Originally Posted by piegirl

my friends and I refer to this as "baptising"

I'll remember that one.
A neighbor used the H.A.H. and baptism method for chipmunks and threw them off the patio in a usual location. They always mysteriously disappeared, until he noticed the fox waiting for lunch. Why come eat my (reportedly bad tasting) voles when there are free tasty chipmunks?
Lazy fox.
I am still not sure what to do about discouraging the ground squirrels at the community plots. Maybe a double short fence and the solar noise- making device.

[tjg911]

i've been feeding owls or hawks this winter by putting out on top of the snow the mice i trap in the woodshed. some disappear during the night and some during the day that's why i suspect both birds. i hear owls all the time at night. i hear and see hawks all the time in the day. i've seen fox in the yard but they are pretty shy and don't appear very often so i suspect the birds.

the 1 squirrel i shot with my pellet rifle i put out on the garden fence and it was gone the next morning. this was a few years back in mid october.

[piegirl]

Tam - for many years I had no problems at all with squirrels then about 6 years ago, something changed, and I had no tomatoes or egg plant or melons, top of the shovel handles all chewed up. Even the presence of Kitty Girl and Kitty Boy didn't stop them, only seemed to increase the challenge! My neighbor did a whole lot of feeding them, 'they're so cute". I did warn her that if they ever attacked the tomatoes they were toast. She's still ticked! Two Christmas, two HAH traps and a third from the guy across the alley. This last summer they started on my tithonia torch - eating the flowers as well as the seed heads, breaking the branches, etc. So now we may need to add a 4th HAH. Piegirl

[b54red]

[QUOTE=tam91;198526]Raccoon? I'm surprised the dogs don't end up dead. Well, I guess they outnumber it enough.

Two of my dogs are rather large. One tops a hundred and the other is a 55 lb pit bull. It would take some kind of raccoon to bother either of these two. They chewed up my 8 ft landscape timbers thinking they were chew toys.

[surf4grrl]

We're plagued by all kinds of critters - big and small.

Way back - when I had a small garden - the squirrels/cats were a nuisance.

Anway, any animal uses its sense of smell. I used to get "very hot chili" (that's what the package said) powder from an Indian food store, mix it with DE and sprinkle it around the perimeter. After a rain I would re-apply.

They do not like to smell it - after a good month of doing that - I never had anyone wander around again for the season.

Now that my operation is much bigger and on acreage I use Plantskydd - it works wonders even on deer.

[dice]

After a rain I would re-apply.

That could be every day for 6 weeks in spring or fall
here. Too often in between spring and fall, too, some
summers. Anything that needs to be re-applied after
a rain is not really useful here (I am personally not
willing to subscribe to such products, anyway).

[DKelly]

get a jack russel mine is quite adept at dispaching mongoose.
-d

[dice]

Originally Posted by DKelly

get a jack russel mine is quite adept at dispaching mongoose.

Do the mongooses (mongeese?) do damage themselves around
the garden or farm? (Just wondering; I was thinking a mongoose
might be a good squirrel catcher.)

[rsg2001]

I find the squirrels don't usually bother my tomato plants, except when I first plant them - they like to dig. I use these plastic spikes around them that I buy from Gardeners Supply that are meant to deter cats in the garden. On occasions in past years when I saw squirrel bites on the maters, I cut pieces of cayenne peppers and spread them around the tomato plants - worked better than the powder.

[DKelly]

my little jack russel does not cause any damage. He also can speak three languages. mongoose are day rats. my jack russel has thought of a solution for you....exploding acorns.

[b54red]

Just planted out my spring broccoli, etc. and have already had a few demolished by the furry tailed rats. I keep plinking away at them with the bb gun. Looks like I may have them thinned down somewhat but there are still too many eating at my free salad bar.

[dice]

I read that mongoose eat earthworms, so one might have
problems with them digging in the garden. They will also
dig up and eat insects in the ground, too, so they might
help controlling beetle larvae, etc (upside/downside).

In Hawaii, they raid the nests of ground-dwelling birds and
have contributed to the extinction of some species, so they
are particularly unwelcome there. They eat chickens and
eggs, too.

Falconry sounds like a safer environmental choice for squirrel
control.