squarls (sorry about the spelling)

[jhill1440]

Squarls make good target practice. I have a large garden in the back that the y dig up to bury nuts in. Drove me NUTS!!! Got a good pellet rifle and taken to squarl huntin'. I believe they got the hint because they are still in my neighbors yard but rarely in mine. I don't use a .22lr or the like because I live within city limits. If I lived out of town a bit I would definitely have a varmint gun sitting by the back door ready to go.

Hope this helps

Joshua

 

[jjthink]

Geez Joshua, the propensity that I see at times on BYC to want to kill is eerie at best.
We're just talking squirrels here. They can be quite friendly and charming. I give mine snacks of peanuts and sunflower seeds and they gently take them from my hand. They don't bother with eggs. I have metal weights on my feed cans and they don't get in there.
They are amazing with their young - I have seen a momma squirrel nearly die to save her babies. And I have seen the mom's and babies have group hugs that are a joy to watch. And then watched the sibs grow up and continue to hang out together and hug and play. I can tell one from another by observing closely small distinctions in their fur pattern/coloring or faces.
I would never, could never hurt one. Nor would I want cats or dogs or anything else hurting them. Just as I don't want anything to be hurt. The world is not that neat, but I won't contribute to making it uglier.
To the original poster - your dilemma about the eggs is an understandable one. Are the little rascals actually going into the coop and taking the eggs? It's amazing really - eggs are cumbersome and slippery - can't even imagine how they are pulling this off - you have very talented squirrels!!I'm thinking that with spring upon us, the squirrels will have a litany of wonderful new things to eat in the great outdoors so my hope for you is that they will tire of carting eggs around! You might check into nontoxic squirrel repellents and use the repellents at any entrance to the area where the eggs are laid.
JJ

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Thank you, JJ....good to see someone else who doesn't kill anything that gets in their way.

Squirrells are adorable little animals. If you put out something easy for them to eat they will probably leave the eggs alone. I have two huge Hickory trees so I have an abundance of them and they don't cause any trouble at all. They are a joy to watch.

 

[rooster-red]

I'm amazed.
This is the 1st time I've ever heard of a Squirrel eating eggs, I've never even cosidered it to be something they would try to eat.

They are after all omnivores, so It does make sense that they would eat eggs given the chance, just not something I would have thought of.

Here we have an abundance of acorns and hickory nuts, so the Squirrels here don't even go after the chicken feed. (My roosters would make sure they had a bad day if they did)

Live and learn.

 

[Chickemee]

I'm so happy! Today was the first time I got an egg in so long. Also we got a squarl feeder so that maybe they'll leave my eggs alone and so far its working.

 

[sundance]

Squarls also carry rabies, But that why I havea crabby gray cat, he likes squarls more than i do.

 

[jjthink]

SQUIRRELS ARE VIRTUALLY NEVER FOUND TO CARRY RABIES.
JJ

Rabies and Squirrels
Squirrels are almost never found to have rabies. And squirrels have not been known to cause rabies in humans within the United States. Bites from a squirrel are not normally considered a risk for rabies. Most small rodents and lagomorphs rarely develop rabies; however, woodchucks accounted for 86 percent of rabies cases among rodents reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1985 through 1994.

 

[Meesh]

Skip my squarl vent if you want to. It's OK.

I didn't mind them much in the garden. Yeah, they eat things. Oh well. Then they moved into the house, specifically the garage and basement. That was a problem - and seriously messy - I procrastinated about what to do. THEN one crawled in my dogdoor and died under my couch. That dead squarl broke the camel's back. I thought a mouse died in the wall or attic, it took me a few days of tearing the house apart to think of looking under the couch. I really should have had that one checked for plague, but it was too squishy and smelly.

Suffice it to say, no more squarls near my house. They can live on our other 159 acres, but the one acre my house sits on is off limits to all rodent-kind.

I do trap 'em if I can (have caught exactly 1), but I think it's ALSO pretty horrible to uproot a wild animal from it's home and drop it off somewhere that it may or may not survive. It doesn't have a home, it doesn't have food stored, it doesn't necessarily know where the water source is, and it's social structure is gone. It seems to me that by doing that, all I've done is sentenced it to a slower death. I also think = what if it has babies and it's frantic to get back to them? I'd rather die than be separated from my babies and left to die in the woods somewhere while my babies starve. Is trap and release as humane as everyone makes it out to be? I really don't know that I feel any better about it.

That's my personal squarl vent. Finding a well-aged dead one under the sofa will do that to you.

Cheers,
Michelle