Damned squirrel

[China_cat]

I've got one who seems to love green tomatoes...not fried, either. I just get the blossom end rot under control and now I've got a dumb tree rat munching on the green tomatoes, eating about 3/4 of one before moving on to another the next day. I'd pull hair if I had any left.

Any ideas? I've tried bags of dog hair, cat hair, nylon netting, tabasco sauce. Poison isn't an option. Shooting isn't either. A live trap would probably work but there's no place to release him that he wouldn't come back.

Cheeky little bugger, sits there and shoves bites into his face until I get within about 8 inches and then runs.

[ThomWV]

1. Does your car have a trunk?

I can assure you that "but there's no place to release him that he wouldn't come back" is not an accurate statement. If you take him (or her) a mile that will be the last you see of that one but you can play it safe and release it either on the edge of some woods or a city park that are over 3 miles away and be certain you'll never see the little demon again.

[China_cat]

4. No, our vehicle is a van.

And we have pretty strict ordinances about how you're allowed to handle wildlife (squirrels, raccoons, possums and foxes) that are becoming even more common in the city.

Besides which, I'm not legally allowed to be growing tomatoes here anyway. We can get away with herbs by making them a border and allowing some to go to flower but not allowed to be raising food crops.

Oh well, I guess I could always trap him and have squirrel stew.

[hippywife]

7. What kind of

subdivision do you live in that says you can't raise a little garden?

[ThomWV]

8. I'd move

No kidding. I would not live in a place like that, it would be like renting a room in an insane asylum.

[China_cat]

10. It wasn't this way when we bought the place.

Then, right before my husband ended up out of work for 2 years, we got annexed into the city. We had been county and things were very loose. The city is very anal. I once got a warning from code enforcement (who was driving by at the time) for my dog shitting in MY fenced and gate locked yard because I wasn't there to immediately pick it up. My next door neighbor ended up with a fine (a large one) for his grandson's car being parked in the driveway...which is inside their fenced yard...because it's an absolute eyesore and, without asking, they deemed it an abandoned vehicle.

We now have a yearly rain tax (supposedly a storm water runoff fee which would be ok, but there's not a storm drain within 3 miles of here), an advisory stating that the city considers dogs over 20 lbs. to be a clear and present danger...not a law yet, but it got our homeowner's insurance cancelled because we have Bouviers. I've never had one under 20 lbs. We've gone through building inspectors trying to shake us down for an addition to the house that was built 15 years before we bought it, and is listed on the original title search...were told that if we didn't pay some ungodly amount for building without a permit we'd be fined 3 times the value of the addition and made to tear it down. That one was about the easiest to refute since we have the house papers that includes a sketch of the outline of the house.

The one time they did try a mandatory inspection of the property...and listed in the notice that they would be coming INSIDE to inspect, well, they got enough resistance that they finally had to stick to inspecting the lots from outside. I wasn't the only one who told them, in no uncertain terms, that they weren't the police, I wasn't suspected of any crimes and if they wanted into my house, they'd better have a warrant and backup.

Yeah, I'd love to move. And you're right, MOST of the time it's like living in an asylum...one of the older, weirder ones. But 2 years out of work barely allowed us to keep the house and the car so he could look for work. Six years in and we are just now seeing an end to all the things that didn't get paid for 2 years. The savings went to living expenses. We came within a hair of losing everything. So now we're stuck. We had looked forward to him retiring next year. Not a chance of that happening now...or even within the next 10 years.

So I grow some veggies and take my chances. If I get caught, I will refuse to pay any fines and I will write a scathing article from jail about being busted for potential marinara sauce.

[wildeyed]

15. You are not allowed to grow veggies in the city of Charleston?

How bizarre. If I got fined every time one of my dogs took a dump in the backyard, I would be in jail by now. :crazy:

[China_cat]

17. North Charleston

and no, they consider it commercial use of residential property. I guess since you aren't putting the money into local grocery stores, you're making money off it and that makes it commercial. It's ridiculous, I don't understand the rationale and I have a feeling that with the way the prices of food are going that it will have to be dropped before long.

But this isn't the only thing we lost when we got annexed (and during the annex push, we and 3 of our neighbors went without garbage pickup for almost a month because we refused to sign the petition to be taken into the city...we were reminded that this would be our fate if the annexation didn't go through). There were a lot of older people in the area with small businesses to supplement their incomes. Nothing big and flashy but an older lady who had a small greenhouse and sold flowering plants, a man who did clock repair, 2 lawn mower repairs. They all got closed down and less than a year later these people were gone.

The worst of it is that this is NOT one of those upscale subdivisions with home owners' associations and all kinds of covenants. It's an area of small houses built after WWII for the veterans who were settling here to buy with their GI Bill.

Oh well, I guess I should be glad that I'm allowed to have a clothesline in the yard. Some subdivisions around here don't allow you to hang out your laundry.

[Kolesar]

2. Our electric fence keeps out everything from groundhogs to deer

It has four wires around the circumference.

[China_cat]

3. Not permitted to have them here

and wouldn't do any good anyway as the squirrels would just jump from the trees to the outbuildings and avoid anything like that. We aren't out in the country, we're in a small sub-division of the city.

[knitter4democracy]

5. Does a neighbor have a dog you can borrow?

Our dog's a mutt, but he must come from hunting stock since he does his darndest to keep the squirrels and rabbits away. Even one of my neighbors said their rabbit problem was better after we moved in with him.

Now if I could just get rid of the chirping chipmunks.

[China_cat]

6. Don't need to borrow any.

Got 3 of my own. Damned tree rat eludes them every time and since they are almost 300 lbs of dogs (110, 100 and 65), rampaging in the tomato plants does more damage than the squirrel.

Hell, I don't know what I'm going to do. Looks like I'm probably going to lose all my tomatoes this year (except the cherries, they're doing just fine) and just want to bitch about it.

[knitter4democracy]

11. Oh no! There has to be a way.

Hmm. What about a pie plate spinner on every plant? Some squirrels don't like those.

What about a cage like in the Square Foot Gardening book? You use wood and chicken wire to build a cage around the planter. What if you did that with your tomatoes?

[China_cat]

13. I think I'm going to set one plant aside and just let

the little bugger have at it. Maybe he'll leave the others alone. At least he hasn't brought the whole family.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Go to a fabric store

and buy several yards of nylon net and make big shower cap style covers for the plants. That's how I managed to get blueberries last year. Or just fold a length of it in half and stitch up the two sides.

Nylon net is pretty cheap. I believe it's sometimes called "tulle" and is the stuff used to make ballerina skirts.

You can pick up a roll of fishing line and thread it along the outer rim of the material, pull it in and tie it loosely around the plant stem near the bottom. Make the covers big enough so that there's room for the tomatoes to keep growing.

[knitter4democracy]

12. I need to make these for our blueberries.

They're going to be ready in a couple of weeks or so, and I'm worried about losing them to the kids and the birds.

[LiberalEsto]

18. They worked great

In previous years we only got maybe a handful of berries and wondered what was wrong with the bushes. Last year we got quarts of berries because of the netting. Regular bird netting doesn't work because the holes are just big enough for the birds to reach through and pull out the blueberries.

[China_cat]

14. I've done the nylon netting.

He chews through the net. Down close to the bottom so you have to look close to find them...all of them. He's got bolt holes on all sides.

[wildeyed]

16. Shake-Away Fox Urine Powder?

http://www.critter-repellent.com/squirrels/squirrels-in-my-garden-flowerbed.php

Also, I saw a post that suggested saving some of your own and sprinkling it around the plant. Hey couldn't hurt, might help......

Also, I have seen a sprinkler that has a motion sensor attachment. Set it up by the tomato plant and any time the squirrel stops by for a bite, he will get a big surprise!

You could build a cage out of chicken wire. It would be unwieldy, but the tree rat wouldn't be able to gnaw through it. However, it would draw unwanted attention to your little marinara experiment.

[hippywife]

19. I don't know if this would work or not

but have you tried the mesh that some folks put over their tomatoes to deter the birds? He'd probably chew through it, too, so I'm not sure what the answer would be except relocating the little booger like someone suggested.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

20. All I know to do is buy them off

I actually had one that was so determined to wreck my tomatoes that I finally started feeding him peanuts, sunflower seeds and corn to get him to leave them alone.

It worked, but the vermin is still hanging around (with 5 of his cousins now) several years later expecting to be fed. :shrug:

[MuseRider]

21. LOL. A shake down!

You need to buy some protection!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

23. They're nothing but an organized gang.

I've thought of them like that before. Like when they're in the tree shaking leaves on my head and barking because I haven't brought out their daily payment yet.

[MuseRider]

26. You are making me chuckle.

I have some geese like that.

[Gormy Cuss]

31. I agree with you completely.

Buying them off with food they like more than the garden produce is about the best way to deal with them.

Here too they show up in gangs and yell at me from the tree, the little thugs.

[badgerpup]

28. I saw a gang of ducks shake down an older couple at my local Costco...

No, really!

We've got a fairly large waterfowl population...and this particular gang was composed of mallards and mallard-white hybrids. They were mostly drakes, only three females in a group of about twenty.

They targeted this nice older couple who were loading their groceries into their car...marched right over and surrounded them.
Quack quack quack... :hide:

The humans thought it was cute...and they actually broke open the package of muffins they'd bought for their own consumption.
I heard the woman say to her husband as how she hoped the ducks liked maple. They did.
After a few muffins, the ducks allowed them to go on their way without injury.
I'd been shopping too...but they didn't accost me...and I didn't have muffins. Hmmmm.... :shrug:

It would have been interesting to be able to hang out in the parking lot and watch to see what kind of people this gang shook down, and whether they had muffins...and if muffins was the deciding factor.

It fascinates me, why critters do what they do...and 'instinct' isn't always the answer.
So many of them are a helluva lot smarter than we give them credit for, and they usually have a very good reason for their actions.

[bvar22]

32. Nice tomatoes ya got there,

....be a shame if something happened to em.
:rofl:

[flying_wahini]

22. I use netting too & they have finally given up..... I lay traps

of netting all around the area and they can't get to the plants
because they get tangled in the netting...the top planks on the
deck where they walk, for instance...

I use the fine green mesh that they pack hanging baskets in at
Lowes/ Home Depot.... they throw it away....drape this around the plants
and check everyday.

also the red "accordian" sleeves the liquor store puts around
your wine bottles work well too......if you have the right sized plant.

also a note....

put out plenty of water for them to drink. I think that is one reason
they eat plants.... this seems to have helped as well....

[China_cat]

25. Can't have standing water outside.

The mosquitoes here are horrible and even half an inch of standing water will have wigglers in it before long. The dogs have a lixit on a spigot for when they are out because you can't leave a bowl for them.

Hell, I've left half a glass of water on the sink at night and found mosquito larvae in it the next day.

[bvar22]

24. A circular chicken wire cage around the plant might work.

Easy too.

You can even cut little doors in the wire to reach your tomatoes as they ripen.

[LiberalEsto]

27. Brunswick Stew

From Recipezaar http://www.recipezaar.com/126148

ingredients

* 1 squirrel, cut up
* 1 rabbit, cut up
* 1 lb sirloin steak, cut into bite size pieces
* water, as required
* 2-3 large potato, cubed small
* 1 large onion, diced
* 1 (15 ounce) can whole corn
* 1 (15 ounce) can lima beans
* 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans
* 3 large stalk celery, sliced 1/4-inch
* 3 large carrot, sliced 1/4-inch
* 3 garlic clove, smashed
* cooking oil, as required
* salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste

[China_cat]

29. I grew up eating fried squirrel

and I like it. But we can't shoot them here so I guess I'll just wait for them to commit suicide.

[China_cat]

30. I found this while going through the revised city ordinances

One I had missed:


Sec. 4-13. Squirrels protected.
It shall be unlawful to kill, maim or injure any squirrel or to destroy, rob or molest the breeding place of any squirrels on public property. Squirrels may be controlled on private property by the owner of the property or his or her designee so long as the method does not violate other city ordinances, state or federal law.
(Ord. No. 2006-69, 10-12-06)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

33. Does that mean you can trap them and take them to public property?

Like a park someplace far away from your neighborhood? They could then live out their squirrel lives in protected peace. :shrug:

[China_cat]

34. Nope, it means you're NOT allowed to trap them.

Because that would be interfering with their nests...What you trap might be parents and there could be little ones in the nest. With our weather here the squirrels sometimes have 3 litters a year.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

35. I'm not sure

I think this means you can use methods of control on your private property that do not break other laws/ordinances i.e., discharging firearms within city limits, illegal toxins or deciding to blow them up with dynamite.

However, on public property it's illegal to kill, maim or injure any squirrel or to destroy, rob or molest the breeding place of the vermin.

I'd call to double check, but that's how I read it. Basically, they're giving private property owners the right to control squirrels - which makes sense as they do invade attics, cause property damage and cause electrical problems quite often - but they still want the squirrels to live unmolested at the parks and other public areas.

[China_cat]

36. I did call.

You can trap them only if you're sure there's no young in the nest. If you can't be sure, you can't trap. And if you can't find the nest, (or tell WHICH nest they come from) you can't be sure. Catch 22. With fur.

I think somebody on city council probably has an interest in a pest removal business. (For a fee, a hefty fee, you can have the nests checked and certified empty but then you have to use them to trap and remove) Wouldn't be the first time we've seen ordinances written to favor our council members who are local 'business leaders'.