No more rats! Whee hee!

[Violet22]

Thank for posting this! Something new to try on my ground squirrels!!

 

[onthespot]

I have a ground squirrel family that I would LOVE to eradicate. I have almost bought pellets for the air gun but didn't want anyone calling me in for shooting in city limits. THIS should do the job! Thanks!

 

[Violet22]

Did I miss where it says how big to make the balls? Marble size, golf ball size? I want to make sure I get this right........I guess it depends on what you are after? How much or how many balls does it take for them to eat for it to work?
I am so excited to try this! The ground squirrels have been awful this year.
Caroline

 

[jjthink]

Not to spoil the party, but to those of you with designs on squirrels and other beings that are not chicken preds (happen to like squirrels myself..), you may well end up killing or making very sick unintended victims, including your pets or someone elses. Consider repellents.
JJ
p.s. Someone mentioned their chickens missing feathers. The good news is that it is highly unlikely this has anything to do with rats....You may want to increase protein for these birds for now, so they can more easily replenish their feathers.

 

[onthespot]

You LIKE ground squirrels? They dig holes as big as your leg and several openings, ruin concrete footings with their burrowing and eat MOUNTAINS of chicken food, breed like rats and destroy any "stuff" you have handy that they think might make good nesting material, or might taste salty. They draw predators, sky and ground types, carry bubonic plague around here and are just a nuisance. I would be happy to relocate mine to YOUR place if I could so you could enjoy them up close and personal-like.

 

[lisahaschickens]

Ground squirrels don't live on the East Coast... this is why jjthink doesn't understand. Ground Squirrels are a special treat just for the west coast, california in particular (I am from the Bay Area and only recently moved).

jjthink -

ground squirrels are horrible, overpopulated rodents that live in holes in the ground and DEVASTATE gardens and orchards and have zillions of babies and carry many diseases. They are particularly known for carrying the black plague... yes, like the one from Europe in medieval times. They are nasty critters and can transmit diseases to other animals and people and are truly devastating to yards and gardens, etc. They are a huge pest. I battled with them constantly when I was there. And they're not cute - more like fat rats with slightly fuzzy tails. Nasty buggers.

Tree squirrels are fine, and I actually like rats when they aren't causing me problems... but ground squirrels? Blech.

 

[lisahaschickens]

oh yeah... and they also chew through the walls of houses and then nest in there... I forgot that charming detail. They wreck EVERYTHING... some got into a storage room and chewed up boxes and boxes of cookbooks. Horrible.

 

[FrenchHen]

This method reportedly has no secondary action, meaning that if the baits are carefully used and placed out of reach of non-target animals, there should be no danger to pets and or chickens. I use mine outside the run and under the coop.

 

[CocoNUT]

Ground Squirrels may be a little different from regular 'east coast' tree Squirrels however I hate regular Squirrels as they are also vectors of disease and steal food from birds, dig up gardens, raid your veggies...taking little 'tastes' from EVERY veggie in the garden and leaving the rest. The more 'civilized' ones in heavily populated areas like to get territorial with humans and actually attempt to 'threaten' humans in THEIR areas! I DETEST Squirrels of ANY kind! When i first moved to the mainland I thought they were sooo cute with their bushy little tails....NOW i realize they are what they are....RATS with FLUFFY tails!

Oh yeah...east coast Squirrels also chew through walls, electrical wiring, etc. They ARE members of the "rodent" family after all! Barking little furry rats.....YUCK!

digging up my garden, eating all my veggies....*grumble grumble*....once I see one in my yard...i will be busting out the CHUNKY peanut butter/plaster of paris POISON balls! (if the neighborhood cats don't get um first!!!)

 

[jjthink]

There are a number of squirrel repellents available (including fior ground squirrels) - googling brings up a number of choices, including coyote or fox urine and cayenne, white, black and chili pepper. If one or more work, any risk of pets or other unintended victims turning into rocks or getting poisoned is eliminated.

I have had gray squirrels cause all manner of work for me (chewed wires, taking up residence in my outbuilding along with the mess that created etc. ) but I'm not really upset with them. I have seen them do really heroic acts to save their babies from harm and I have seen them hug each other in friendship and I have laughed at their play. No hard feelings.

However, in empathy with those of you dealing with holes in the ground, I just found that something created an enormous hole near my house foundation - didn't see it sooner because it's camoflaged behind overgrown plants. I am assuming groundhogs but I have seen not a one on the property so I'm very mystified.
I read that groundhogs hate castor oil but that it won't harm them or others so I bought some today to try after I research a bit more about it....

JJ