Smert' belkam (death to squirrels)

[WebSlave]

Early April is the time of year that my *big* bamboo grove starts putting out shoots. And I always look forward to seeing the new shoots come up and grow to their full height in just a few weeks.

But this season was proving to be a problem..........

Continued....

 

[WebSlave]

A lot of the new bamboo shoots were starting to show damage from something chewing on them. In some cases the shoots were attacked just as they barely started showing above the ground. In other cases the shoots could be well started, yet something would chew into the side, base, or the top, which would kill the shoot.

I was not happy......

 

[WebSlave]

I was pretty sure squirrels were to blame here, but just to be certain, I set out a game camera to make certain...

Yeah, caught them red handed.

So I hauled out the hunting blind I bought years ago, and set it up in the bamboo grove.

 

[WebSlave]

**discretion advised** dead bodies displayed

So I've been spending several hours a day, at various times of the day, standing (or rather sitting) guard on the bamboo grove.

The tally as of this moment is eight (8) confirmed kills, and five (5) pretty darn sure I got 'em, but couldn't find the dead body to confirm.

The last two pics were of a squirrel that I caught right in the act of chewing up a new shoot right in front of me. I have to be honest, I REALLY enjoyed that kill..

 

[WebSlave]

So right when I think I'm getting a handle on things, a new problem showed up...

I think I know what happened to those three (3) shoots....

To explain... I'm not completely heartless. I actually purchased two different spray products to try to dissuade the squirrels from chewing on the bamboo. One was advertised as a bonafide squirrel repellent 100 percent guaranteed to repel squirrels...

https://spray-n-growgardening.com/a...ent-32-oz.html?SID=e6q54cg5no36rfj1oobkcvc253

That ABSOLUTELY did not work!

So I tried another product that was supposed to repel ALL animals..

https://spray-n-growgardening.com/a...dy-to-use.html?SID=e6q54cg5no36rfj1oobkcvc253

That seemed to be a bit more effective, but within a few days of application, it seemed to rapidly lose it's effectiveness. And later on I actually read some reviews where someone claimed that raccoons seemed to LOVE the stuff. So my guess is those above three shoots that were knocked over were done do by a raccoon. I actually found quite a few shoots where it was obvious that something had been digging around the base of the shoots, which I have never seen before. So my guess is that the "repellents" actually attracted this attention from one or more raccoons, and possibly a possum. So I really can't blame the raccoon for this. And I sure can't bring myself to shoot a raccoon.

So anyway, I didn't see any more squirrels this morning, but yesterday afternoon I did shoot a squirrel that had jumped from a pine tree to the top of a shoot that is around 10 ft. tall, and started to chew on the tip of the shoot. Luckily I was right there, when he jumped on the shoot, so he went to the promised land before inflicting any damage. I also saw another squirrel close by a little bit later, but that one ducked behind a pine tree and I never saw him again. So there is at least one more squirrel I need to remove.

I don't know what got into the squirrels this year. I have had minor problems with them in the past, but generally it was just one squirrel. If I could shoot that one, then the problem was over with for the season. This year, they have just gone berserk and have done extensive damage to the new shoots coming up.

Quite honestly, every year I start feeling bad about shooting the squirrels. I don't allow them to come near the house as they are quite destructive. They are "tree rats" in every sense of the word. And if they had never bothered the bamboo, I would be a WHOLE lot more tolerant of them even then. But all it takes is a season like this one to see the wholesale destruction they are inflicting on my bamboo, and it's "game on, suckers!" I lose absolutely all sense of regret killing them. And I can say with no hesitation whatsoever, when I get to actually shoot one caught with his pay in the cookie jar chewing on one of my bamboo shoots, killing the little SOB is quite satisfying.

 

[Herpin Man]

You DO eat what you kill- right?

 

[WebSlave]

You DO eat what you kill- right?

No way! You are what you eat. And I'll be DAMNED if I want to become a squirrel myself.............

 

[Robert Walker]

Apparently you don't even need a gun to kill them. You've got a great arm if you can throw a baseball from the camo tent and hit a squirrel.

 

[WebSlave]

Actually that is an eggshell. We throw all our kitchen compost around the plants. When the local seafood house gets live blue crabs, it is a bonanza down there when I dump the shells left over.

I kind of wish the squirrels would just lay there and rot, forming more compost to feed the bamboo. It would be fitting, I think, that the critters eating the bamboo give back in return. But alas, we have a pretty effective cleanup crew on the night shift that removes the carcasses. I guess that and the composting might explain the raccoons and possums patrolling the bamboo grove at night.

Speaking of that shot, it was a pretty tough one that I am proud of. I barely caught some motion while I was in the blind, and at first wasn't sure what it was. We have quite a few doves around here, and they can look a LOT like a squirrel at first glance. But after watching for a few moments, I saw the paws picking up material from the bamboo shoot, and KNEW it was a squirrel. First shot killed him instantly, but I fired a second, just to be certain I hadn't completely missed him and he would rather eat than run.

That Remington 597 in 17HMR is a VERY accurate rifle if I am up to the task of keeping it steady. That 17HMR cartridge is light and fast, plus it breaks up easily on even a minor impact if I miss and the projectile goes off into the woods. Almost like using a frangible round.

And before anyone asks, I live on 50 acres of HEAVILY wooded terrain.

 

[Lucille]

You might possibly reconsider your stance on having a critter. I know you and Connie want to be free to travel, but there are boarding facilities at reasonable cost for dogs. I don't know how much financial damage the squirrels are doing, but it would be not too much trouble to tally up the costs of feeding, vet care and boarding fees for a dog and compare it to lost revenue from chewed up bamnoo culms.
A good dog especially one of the shepherd types can be trained to distinguish between a squirrel and other animals that you do not mind having around. Farmers have done that for ages, having dogs that will leave the chickens and horses alone, but attack the bobcats and other predators of farm livestock.
Many animal shelters have very reasonable costs and will even take a dog back if it does not work out for you.

 

[EdwardK]

What was the mast crop in your area like last year? Its possible that you had a higher survival rate over the winter due to lots of food int he fall but now that supply has decreased the squirrels are looking for other food sources.

I'm surprised that they are going after the bamboo as the cyanogenic glycosides are generally a pretty good deterrent.

Ed

 

[Vithaxton]

Lol this has been a very entertaining post! I think what you need are some cats to solve your problem! My dad has a farm and we have 6 cats there! 2 are indoors the rest are outside! They're awesome squirrel catchers! I saw one jump six feet in the air and grab one off a tree limb one time! They're incredible! They also hunt gofers! But since they've killed all the gofers and squirrels they've mainly switched to a dove diet! Anyways a cat could probably work or a dog! But it seems like your killing squirrels just fine on your own lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WebSlave]

Thanks for the suggestions, but no, after having LOTS of animals for LOTS of years, I am over that. You have no idea what a relief it is to not have a lot of animals depending on you day in and day out.

Connie sometimes talks about wanting to get a dog, and I just tell her to go ahead. But she is the one going to be picking ticks off of it, giving it heartworm medication, and watching it getting eaten alive when mosquito and yellow fly seasons go into full swing. I really think this would be a brutal place to put a dog into. I know there are people around us with dogs, but quite honestly, they don't seem to live very long.

As for cats, well, they would be problematic. We have bird feeders out, and sometimes quite a crowd of birds roosting and nesting around here. My guess is that the cats would go after the low hanging fruit rather than the more difficult to catch squirrels. We once had three stray cats come around that someone had apparently dumped. After a day or two, Connie felt sorry for them and had just made up something for them to eat and was carrying it out to the porch for them when one of them snagged up one of "her" green anoles right in front of her and killed it. Big mistake on their part. I got commanded to break out the 12 gauge bird bombs and make it known that the cats were no longer welcome around here.

Heck, maybe I need to stop relocating the gray rat snakes we find around here. But there too, again, they seem to hang around the bird feeders, so Connie isn't going to have any of that.

But one good thing. Being retired, I DO have the time to just sit out in the hunting blind and practice on my patience. It's really not all that hard to sit absolutely still for an hour or more if you don't have a whole lot of stuff that you feel you need to be doing other than waiting for squirrels to show up. Now I know exactly what that phrase "the patience of a hunter" really means.

 

[EdwardK]

Connie sometimes talks about wanting to get a dog, and I just tell her to go ahead. But she is the one going to be picking ticks off of it, giving it heartworm medication, and watching it getting eaten alive when mosquito and yellow fly seasons go into full swing. I really think this would be a brutal place to put a dog into. I know there are people around us with dogs, but quite honestly, they don't seem to live very long.

There have been some good advances in controlling fleas, ticks and mosquitoes for dogs as an example Advantix topical treats fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.
There are even flavored soft chews you can give the dog that will kill the ticks and fleas when they get on the dog, so you really don't have to pick the ticks off the dogs anymore (I live in a wooded area of Southern Jersey and the tick population is really high here, I get more ticks than the dog does).
Also our vet recommends the Seresto collars which are good for 8 months and aren't greasy as an option to the topical applications.

So if your wife wants to pick out a dog, the whole care thing has become a lot easier.

Here we have a lot of problems with the squirrels raiding our feeders so they have a learning curve of whether they can make it out of the yard before the dog gets them and I've been known to move the feeders a little further from the fences to make it more sporting for the dog. After a few close calls the squirrels usually stop messing with our feeders (and he usually gets one or two a summer).

Ed

 

[Lucille]

The advances in medication have been good Ed, but now that he is talking about it I recall the mosquito stories from Rich. Naturally the dog would have to be outside to get at the squirrels, and I think that might be pretty miserable for a while during the mosquito season.

 

[WebSlave]

Oh yeah, absolutely it would have to be an outside dog. The absolute rule here is "NO ANIMALS INSIDE THE HOUSE".

I think the yellow fly season (which seems to be gearing up right now) would be even worse than the occasional population blooms of mosquitoes. You can ignore a mosquito bite. But a yellow fly bite? Not a chance. Those suckers HURT. Of course, there is always a chance that a dog will walk onto a fire ant nest as well, so there is that other challenge we have around here. We try to eradicate ant nests as much as is practical, but a dog would wonder around much more than are usual pathways we take. I often wonder how the box turtle population has been impacted by fire ants. The box turtle's defense mechanism is to just stop and close up the shell when threatened. That shell isn't going to be fire ant proof. We normally see box turtles when we get our temporary pond filled with heavy rains, but didn't see any so far this year.

But anyway, I wouldn't try to stop Connie from getting a dog, but she needs to be fully aware of what she would be getting in to. We often joke about when she does something that later proves to have been not a real good decision. She always says to me "Why didn't you STOP me?"

We joke that on our tombstones, I will have "Here's another fine mess you have gotten us in to", and her's will have the above mentioned quote engraved. Of course, we are joking, as I have gotten us into enough messes myself one time or another. Case and point was when Connie took over the mouse breeding facility when we had the animals. I'm sure she thought MANY times, "How did he get me into this mess?" So I guess we could interchange the tombstones.

We have been getting rain all day today, so I haven't put in any time in the blind yet. Which was nice, because I got to sleep in this morning. I'm really not a morning person, so this was a nice break in the regimen. It is still raining now, but if it stops before late evening, I will have to go down there on patrol. I've noticed that the squirrels tend to come out pretty heavily right after a rain.

 

[EdwardK]

The thing about the mosquito part of the dog treatment is that it also repels them before they bite, I've been out with my dog and he isn't getting bothered by them but I was getting chewed up by Asian tiger mosquitoes.

The deer fly around here are pretty bad at times but there are some simple controls to reduce their populations (like attaching one of these traps to a mower or vehicle and driving around http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/pestalert/deerfly.htm) as for yellow flies you can locally reduce their populations by suspending a ball about the size of a soccer ball on some fishing like about 4-5 feet off the ground painting it black and applying tanglefoot spray to it. That can really reduce the population in a small yard, larger yards would require more traps.

Its been documented more than once that fire ants do predate on adult box turtles as well as hatchlings and while the eggs are actually hatching. They are known to be a problem not only for the box turtles but for gopher tortoises and sea turtle nests and that non-fatal attacks on turtles can significantly reduce the long-term survival of the individual.

Ed

 

[WebSlave]

The thing about the mosquito part of the dog treatment is that it also repels them before they bite, I've been out with my dog and he isn't getting bothered by them but I was getting chewed up by Asian tiger mosquitoes.

The deer fly around here are pretty bad at times but there are some simple controls to reduce their populations (like attaching one of these traps to a mower or vehicle and driving around http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/pestalert/deerfly.htm) as for yellow flies you can locally reduce their populations by suspending a ball about the size of a soccer ball on some fishing like about 4-5 feet off the ground painting it black and applying tanglefoot spray to it. That can really reduce the population in a small yard, larger yards would require more traps.

Its been documented more than once that fire ants do predate on adult box turtles as well as hatchlings and while the eggs are actually hatching. They are known to be a problem not only for the box turtles but for gopher tortoises and sea turtle nests and that non-fatal attacks on turtles can significantly reduce the long-term survival of the individual.

Ed

So the mosquito repellent treatment doesn't work for humans too?

The drawback with the "sticky ball trap" idea is that we are afraid that it would also catch a bunch of the green anoles we have around here. Especially if they see wiggling flies on the ball. Otherwise we would have put sticky traps out for flies a long time ago. We used to use sticky traps like that in the mouse building to catch up the tons of gnats that used to plague that building. And even then, sometimes an anole would get inside that building and wind up on a trap.

Actually the mosquito magnets work pretty well at catching yellow flies, and I have one running right now. Got a bunch of them that have failed here and there, so maybe I need to ship them off to get them repaired. Anyway, I found that putting some sort of whirly-gig that moves in the wind next to a mosquito magnet really works well for drawing the yellow flies to it. They seem to be very tuned in to any sort of movement. I also read somewhere that the yellow flies are attracted to the color blue, so of course I am using blue whirly-gigs. I really need to get another mosquito magnet working. When I walked down to the blind early evening today after the rain stopped, I had several flies dive bombing me like crazy. I was able to kill four of them, but I expect things to get a LOT worse before they get better.

And I believe the squirrels might have been out in the rain today. I saw a new shoot with fresh chews on it.

 

[WebSlave]

Hit a dry patch where I couldn't have hit a barn even if I was standing inside of it. But I did pop one this morning, so maybe I'm back on the beam. Score stands at 9 confirmed kills, and 5 probables. But yellow fly season is gearing up right now, so just walking to and from the blind is getting to be quite a challenge. When you have a half dozen of those suckers buzzing around your head and you know they are going to HURT if they take a bite, well, sort of takes all the fun out of a walk in the woods.

Still got a few new shoots coming up, but with the rains being sparse this time of year, I'm seeing some shoots just dying back because of lack of water. And I think either I have thinned the squirrel herd back substantially, or there are just greener pastures available for the remaining population of tree rats. But they sure as heck did a LOT of damage this year. I hope I remember this for next year and set up the blind early enough to start weeding them out BEFORE the bamboo shoots start coming up.