<p>anyone else dealing with the most vicious squirrels this year? Over the past two weeks, they have completely de-berried a huge holly tree, which unfortunately stands right by my driveway. So much for my Christmas mantelpiece this year. The sounds of the husks falling on my car sounded like pounding rain, and there were days I had to sweep the driveway twice. Once all the berries were gone, they moved to my newly reseeded grass. Yesterday I bought two pumpkins and set them by my front door. I noticed this morning the pumpkin decimation had begun, and by lunchtime, they had worked their way through a three-inch hole and were emptying the seeds. What gives?</p>
<p>7 fat years followed by 7 lean years.
Starting the 7 lean years.</p>
<p>I’m just so happy I won’t have to deal with squirrels (or birds) in my chimney any longer. Last year, a squirrel was in our chimney and we had to pay a wildlife guy $200 to humanely trap it and take it away from our house. I got a quote to have a chimney cap placed, but was told we have a “special” chimney and it would cost $400. My nephew who works in construction told me that was ridiculous and he would fix it for me the next time he was in town (he lives in Indiana). Between squirrel one and the fix came squirrels two and three. When the second one came down the chimney, my friend’s teenage son scaled the roof and tied off a rope down the chimney that allowed the squirrel to escape. When squirrel three came down the chimney, I called my nephew and begged him to come. He promised to come that weekend. Unfortunately, that particular squirrel either wasn’t smart enough or strong enough to climb the rope we threw down, so he came out cold and stiff. My nephew put on a chimney cap and I am happy to report I’m bird-free and squirrel-free.</p>
<p>DD just said today that the squirrels on her porch scare her they are so bold. They use bungee cords to keep the bushy-tailed rats out of the trash cans. Now there is a nest between the window and the screen. Shouldn’t the landlord be responsive to a request to clean out the nest and repair the screens damaged by squirrels?</p>
<p>Yes, 2cakes, I would think the landlord would be anxious to get rid of the problem. From what I am told, if a squirrel makes it way into the house, lots of damage can be done, especially to wood. I feel almost silly saying some little squirrel frightens me, but I stood on the couch with a broom in my hands when the wildlife guy took out the first squirrel.</p>
<p>Funny you should mention it! A Conversation with hubby this past week-end was about the 3 squirrels in our backyard that were digging up a bunch of holes. We’re from the Long Island area, so we’re not affected by draught in the SE.</p>
<p>When S was home for break he said there were weird scratching noises coming from inside his second floor room’s wall early each morning. It turned out to be a nest of squirrels - we had to get an animal control place to come out and set traps, then repair the damage that they had done by burrowing under a vent. Also seems as if I nearly miss running one of them over in the car on a daily basis, lately. It does seem worse than usual around here. The only good news is that our normally well trained dog, who used to bark his head off every time a squirrel would get too close to the house, seems to have become a little more accustomed to them. He still barks at the deer, though!</p>
<p>Last week a squirrel chewed a huge hole in the lid of one of our trash cans, which we keep in the garage. I walked in to find a pile of blue plastic shards. We’ve lived here for over 20 years and nothing like that has ever happened before.</p>
<p>Two words…Super Soaker. I used to squirt the squirrels from quite a distance and they eventually moved on to greener and drier pastures. This does not work so well for squirrels that are already in the walls though…</p>
<p>(A super soaker is a super effective squirt gun.you fill it with water and squirt…I think you can even burn some caleries this way too.)</p>
<p>Birds and squirrels in the chimney is not an issue. Light a fire. To hell with this humane trapping. If you can see them, then the super soaker or BB Gun is definitely the preferred method.</p>
<p>Of course if you can’t get to them inside a wall or such, then a professional is definitely required. But if I can see or access the little SOB, then he’s mine.</p>
<p>Squirrels and roof rats are costing me $3,000-$4,000 alone to repair the roof and woodwork they have chewed through. This doesn’t include the cost of the animal control company from previous years that set traps in my attic to catch the squirrels.</p>
<p>EWW–what’s a roof rat?! We had a red squirrell a few years ago that chewed through every first floor screen to get in and snack. Once it ate an apple pie! I duct-taped up the screens and waited until spring to get them fixed. The critter must have died over the winter because it never came back.</p>
<p>Oh boy. After hurricane, I got those squirrels in my house. You couldn’t walk to the kitchen in the dark. Everything in pantry not in a plastic container had to go. They ate labels off soup. Now tree squirrels are rats to me.</p>
<p>I didn’t pay thousands, more like $200. My new pest control guy came daily to set traps. Then termite company came, and then new roof. </p>
<p>I understand these rats wanting to escape bad weather, but they are not my choice of housemates.</p>
<p>When we first bought our house, the yard was overrun with squirrels. But I guess we were lucky because they never found their way into the house. The only thing I had to do was squirrel-proof the bird feeders with cages. Over the years, there has been a marked increase in predators moving into the ‘hood (fox and coyote) accompanied by a marked decrease in the squirrel population (not that I’m complaining, mind you). Now however, I have to contend with chipmunks. They’re everywhere! They burrow under the foundation, they drained the squirrel-proof feeders (I’ve since taken them all down), and their incessant chirping will drive you crazy!</p>
<p>Luckily, the varmints were only in my attic, but they still have made a good bit of damage. </p>
<p>Roof Rats: <a href=“http://phoenix.about.com/cs/desert/a/roofrat01.htm[/url]”>http://phoenix.about.com/cs/desert/a/roofrat01.htm</a></p>
<p>Squirrels have been eating my tomotos since July. They stopped when the acorns came along in August, then started eating them again when the acorns vanished. Dagnabbit.</p>
<p>We’ve captured over 50 squirrels since we moved in here 18 years ago. We didn’t start doing that until they seemed to overrun our yard and made multiple holes into our attic. We also had one who died in our living room wall. Try having a Thanksgiving feast with that odor nearby!</p>
<p>Anyway, the Have-a-Heart traps work great. While I feel a little guilty about capturing them this time of year, it doesn’t last long. We take them to a National Park area not far from here and pray they don’t find their way back.</p>
<p>My husband has captured so many of these guys, a friend at work bought him a t-shirt with a picture of a squirrel imprisoned on the front. He wears it with some glee when he’s about to set the trap again :)</p>
<p>
Roof rats aka tree rats are the second predominant type of rat in the USA along with the Norway rat (the one you probably normally think of).</p>
<p>I always have some tree rats around that like to eat the avocadoes from my trees. I think they probably ate at least a hundred last year so I finally bought an electronic rat trap. It looks like a small mailbox and is battery operated. I put some peanut butter in it and bungeed it to one of my trees where I knew they liked to hang out and dine. I managed to catch several of them and solved the problem for last year. The trap is easy to use - the rat walks in, touched a couple of metal paltes, then zapp! - they’re electrocuted instantly - much better than a spring trap that might just catch a leg. Disposing of them is as easy as just dumping them out of the trap into a hole in the ground or a plastic bag. It really worked well. I don’t know if it’d work okay on squirrels.</p>
<p>I almost hate to do it because tree rats are kind of cute - more like a squirrel than what most of us think of as a rat. They can jump from limb to limb and I can hear them sqeeking at night in the trees if I’m close to them. They like to eat about a quarter of the avocado and then the fruit falls to the ground destroyed. They cost me money in lost fruit. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.victorpest.com/electronic_pest_control.htm[/url]”>http://www.victorpest.com/electronic_pest_control.htm</a></p>
<p>ivoryk,</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is true in your neck of the woods, but we have seen a lot of newspaper articles in the midwest about the disastrous acorn crop this year. We had a very bad freeze in April and a long hot drought during the summer. Most fruit crops were destroyed and many trees died. Even the oaks that survived are producing no acorns. Hence, we have all been warned that squirrels will be breaking in, and deer and bears will be close to our houses.</p>
<p>I have a lot of deer all the time, but bears will be something new. I saw one up close in Wyoming this summer and almost feinted, so I’m not looking forward to that!</p>
<p>I have been through the squirrels in the attic problem. Just a few facts:
You don’t need to spend a great deal to have squirrels trapped and handled in a “humane” fashion. At least in this area, there is a requirement for the exterminators to exterminate the squirrels. If you do you own trapping, don’t take them a few miles away and release them. They will return. I understand the safe distance is something like 20+ miles. Finally, once squirrels have found a nice home in you attic, everyone will return and must be exterminated. </p>
<p>Last Spring I reduced the population in my yard and surrounding area by 16 squirrels. This Fall I have a problem again. The squirrels have been fattening on acorns. In a few weeks all the acorns will be removed from all the yards and the squirrels will become desperate and start to starve and freeze.</p>