Squirrels. Love ‘em or hate ‘em?

[Lazurus]

Our main problem apart from hoards of flying rat aka pigeons is that the crows have learned to fly and bump the bird feeders which dumps seed on the ground, I wouldn't mind the odd one or two but 15 to 20 at a time is not on. I admire their intelligence but the air rifle appears to be the only way they will learn to go elsewhere. Not looking to kill them but they know what a gun looks like and with enough exposure will hopefully stay away.

Funnily enough we have the same problem, only started this year.

 

[MARK.B.]

Corvids of any type are clever birds and will soon learn and remember where not to go for a snack, if you do decide to give one or two a case of lead poisoning then leave the deceased birds where they are for a couple of day's before disposing ,as they will learn from this and move on to safer feeding elsewhere.

 

[Tris]

We have started getting starlings this year, for the first time in 10 years here. As with most birds they seem to have a time of day that they arrive as they move around their 'patch' so if they get too much of a problem we may have to wait til after they've gone to fill up the feeders.

Does anyone know if jackdaws will kill young starlings? I found one eating a juvenile in our garden last week and assumed it had been killed by a sparrowhawk then jackdaw had moved in on the kill, but judging by the way the starlings scarper when a jackdaw approaches it makes me wonder.

Had squirrel stew a couple of times working with woodsmen many years ago, not bad but I don't think I could be bothered to skin and joint them myself. Tails are popular with fly fishermen that tie their own lures

 

[mikej460]

I doubt a jackdaw killed it, although they are nest robbers a fledgling may be too big. We've had a lot of starling families this year and last week a sparrowhawk appeared from nowhere and snatched a young one off the feeders.

 

[mikej460]

We where lucky enough to have our own numeration that would roost in our Bamboo grove overnight many an evening spent in chairs with a bottle of wine just watching them congregate, these also used to leave the grove on mass in the morning.

We've actively encouraged starlings over the last few years but my god they can put food away at some rate of knots. If we put one of the fat slabs out, especially the fruit ones, is disappears like a plague of locusts have descended. I do enjoy the noisy fledglings begging for food but our bird feed bill has certainly rocketed this year.

 

[Mark Karacsonyi]

Paint the wood with chilli extract and mix ground dried chillies with the bird seed. Bird's don't have the receptors to be affected by the capsaicin but squirrels do and they don't like it.

Although, there's always the danger that you may breed a strain of hard-core chilli-head squirrels.

Hope they are not going to hit the ‘black stuff’ and a curry after

 

[MARK.B.]

A jackdaw will happily scavenge feed on a another bird but as Mike said depending on its size a fledgling may bit a bit to big. Its cousin the Magpie on the other hand could do it quite easily in the right circumstances,both will take eggs and chicks with the Magpie often returning to the scene of the crime repeatedly to take all the chicks until the nest is empty.

 

[Tris]

That's why I can't stand magpies, we had a pair nest nearby a couple of years ago and they'd bounce along the hedge tops, stopping every so often, cocking their heads to listen for chicks in the hedge. When they found a blackbirds nest they systematically emptied it, in spite of the adult blackbirds flying into them to defend the nest. I can't say I was sorry when the local female sparrowhawk took the male the following year while the female was on the nest. Watched her pluck the carcass under the bushes at the end of the garden

 

[Valhalla]

Squirrels - love 'em, but I couldn't eat a whole one!!

 

[thetyreman]

Squirrels - love 'em, but I couldn't eat a whole one!!

that's what crossbows are for

 

[Nightwood]

Slugs don't like copper at all. Get a roll of copper tape (expensive!) or strip some wire and put that around the area you want to protect, job done.
You need to remove the slugs from inside the area, or they can't get out! HTH.

lookup Diatomaceous earth is quite cheap for a large bag it will solve your slug problem and won't hurt your plants or animals also beer traps are quite good unless you've drank all you beer

 

[Jester129]

And they prefer bitter to lager!

 

[Fergie 307]

Doesnt matter, they're still life, and in that we shouldnt be holding grudges.

I was cycling through the park a bit back and came across a squirrel clinging to a tree, about 6' off the ground, staring intently at a dog. The dogs owner was standing there, and the dog was fixated at the squirrel with the same intensity the squirrel was paying to the dog, so it didnt see me.
I approached very slowly until i was standing by the tree about 2' from the squirrel, who was too engrossed to notice me, and could have reached out and touched it. It was a fantastic sight, mother nature in its finery.It then got a sense I was there and scampered up the tree.
I remarked to the old guy with the dog how amazing it was to see a squirrel that close.
He like a total prick muttered something about killing it, and shame his dog hadn't caught it.
Although this was a lie and i like dogs, i told him forcefully that i didnt really like dogs and would he like it if i killed his dog.
He put the dog on its lead and quickly hurried away.

No need for that in my opinion. Animal is an animal. Right to life and all that.

don't disagree with you in principle. I think the point is that if we have artificially introduced a species which out competes it's local counterpart, then it seems reasonable to control numbers in certain areas in order to preserve our native species. Look at the enormous damage done by introduced species in places like Australia. Cats, rats and dogs have wiped out many indigenous species, and don't even mention Came Toads. If we mess with nature surely the least we can do is make some effort to rectifying damage we have caused.

 

[Stevekane]

I have to say I entirely agree with trying to control or eradicate an introduced species like the Grey Squirrel, but it should be done as humanly as possible and I personally couldn't take any pleasure in doing it.
Steve.

 

[ecokestove]

Grey squirrels have as much right to life as red, and if grey are taking over then thats just part of the natural order of the world.

So does the smallpox virus, but we are better off without it.

 

[Keith Cocker]

Not really.

Grey squirrels didn't get here naturally. They were brought here, by humans.

on an island as small and as densly populated as the UK there is no such thing as natural order. Every square inch of this island (and arguably the world) is impacted upon by human activity, if not, directly managed by human activity.

And in any case. Flip your argument around. Red squirrels have as much of a right to life as grey squirrels, the grey squirrel out competes them, and transmits squirrel pox. Without control of grey squirrels in the few remaining red squirrel strongholds, the red will go extinct in the UK.

That said. Many of the downsides of grey squirrels, thieving songbirds eggs, tree damage etc are attributable also to the red squirrel. In fact, not all that long ago in this country red squirrels were culled for those very reasons.

Rabbits were brought to Britain by the Romans. The roses in my Garden are from China, my wife came from Ireland my cat is Persian. Equal rights for Grey Squirrels I say.

 

[fenhayman]

don't disagree with you in principle. I think the point is that if we have artificially introduced a species which out competes it's local counterpart, then it seems reasonable to control numbers in certain areas in order to preserve our native species. Look at the enormous damage done by introduced species in places like Australia. Cats, rats and dogs have wiped out many indigenous species, and don't even mention Came Toads. If we mess with nature surely the least we can do is make some effort to rectifying damage we have caused.

Muntjac deer are in same category.

 

[whereistheceilidh]

Works even better if you connect the wire to the mains!

Cats are our problem.....
We live in an area with quite a few rare ground nesting birds.... corncrakes, snipe...
Someone moved in recently next door with 3 cats which we watch hunting through the surrounding fields....
.......this year no calling corncrakes or snipe....
Any suggestions...apart from moving...?

 

[TRITON]

Look at the enormous damage done by introduced species in places like Australia

Yes, the English have a lot to answer for

 

[Craig22]

Rabbits were brought to Britain by the Romans. The roses in my Garden are from China, my wife came from Ireland my cat is Persian. Equal rights for Grey Squirrels I say.

Flip that on its head. Suppose that a species was introduced that out competed us, to the extent that the human race was faced with extinction.