Bulb Thieves

As long as we don't see this......

One of MMs squirrels taking it easy.....

too funny!

perhaps a better view of MMs crazy squirrel.....

Squirrel is a four letter word around here (SQRL). I get more pecans, found while putting in new plantings, than I ever get from my trees. The ones the squirrels don’t plant are chewed up while green and spread all over my driveway and cars. I put wire around and around my pecan trees and hooked it to a fence charger. They crossed it, jerking and screaming all the way, but never stopping. One year my DH shot 25 in our driveway and it made no difference. Last year he trapped and relocated 23 and it made no difference. We gave up on peaches, apples, and plums. They have left the citrus alone for now. Squirrels have gnawed and enlarged the holes in all my birdhouses. The last straw was yesterday when one carried off DH’s amaryllis while we were inside for lunch. DH is threatening the nuclear option.

Our other four letter word is POSM, which can totally strip our grapevines overnight.

Har HeathrJoy! If only my squirrels ever decided to be that mundane and relaxed, I wouldn't have half the problems I do! :)
Ever since the took all of the stuffing out of my outdoor furniture cushions and built nests with it, I figured the would stay up in the trees and no longer be as big of a problem, I mean they have very expensive fiberfill up there. But alas....no....

LOL MM

If anything caused that much havoc in my backyard I think I'd be on the warpath!!

I swear by bloodmeal as a deterrent, and peanuts as a distraction (bribery?).
A few years ago, I lost most of a bed of crocuses....when I replaced them, I sprinkled blood meal thinly over the top (they supposedly take the smell as an indication that the area is unsafe), and piled up peanuts in a couple spots elsewhere in the yard. voila! This time, not a single crocus was touched. Since then, that's what I do with all my bulbs--I've got tulips coming up for their 8th year this Spring. Yay!

I think you guys need a dog! Since I got my boxer (wonderful, friendly, gentle dogs) there hadn't been a squirrel or groundhog in our area. She would spend all day chasing them if they dared to show their face again.

My first boxer, when I was a kid, used to trot along after the local farmer's tractor when he cut his alfalfa fields. After the tractor went by, a groundhog would stick its head up out of its burrow to see what had happened, and Zoë would be right there, grab it by the neck, give it a good shake, which broke the neck and killed it, and toss it over her shoulder and on to the next.

A week later, in the heavy June heat, she would return to the field of rotting dead bodies and roll in them. She would show up at the back door, looking at my mother through kitchen window with eyes that said "I think I just did something you're not going to like." Those days were almost as bad as skunk encounters...

Andy

I used to have nothing but problems with squirrels and chipmunks. I now plant my bulbs then spread chicken wire over the top and then a layer of mulch and the bulbs literally grow up through a hole I cut in the chicken wire. Actually makes it nice to remove and add fresh mulch too. One problem, I can't have an entire yard of underground chicken wire but this is a great help in beds where I have bulbs. The fall was by far the worst time of year when the oaks and hickories drop their fruit. The squirrels are always in a frenzy to bury the nuts and acorns and this goes on until the ground freezes. They totally uproot plants and leave them to bake in the sun. I had gotten in the habit of coming home at lunch for those 6 weeks or so when it was bonkers around here so I could re-plant plants only to come home from work to re-plant more plants... until- I decided to leave some dead trees standing. I've got 2 large elms that died off from DED here (I tried to treat them but couldn't save them), 1 huge Norway Maple that I nuked, and a few multistem Buckthorns that were around 25' tall that I killed that I left standing. Yup, I didn't cut them down and remove them. From these dead trees, raptors survey my landscape. I've got quite a few different hawks and what I believe to be one Great Horned Owl that now use these dead trees as watch towers. I've never seen the owl actually get anything but I know it gets chipmunks because I find chipmunk hair and bones in their droppings but the hawks swoop down, nab a squirrel, fly up a couple hundred yards, drop the squirrels to kill them, then fly back down to the ground to collect their meal. I would have never believed it in a million years but thanks to dead trees, my squirrel population is now under control. I know a lot of people are in subdivisions and aren't in a position where they can leave dead trees be, but if you are on a larger lot and have enough space to leave a dead tree be... this might be one more tool to add to the squirrel warchest. Thought I might mention that the owl started using the defoliated trees right away so he must be living some where close. The hawks didn't begin using the trees until the year after they were dead so they must have had established hunting grounds and expanded to include my property. I am eternally grateful.

Equilibrium,
I used to have a barn owl nest in the fronds of the neighbors old palm tree ( it was at least 50 feet tall) Squirrels were never a problem then, and I'd donate the billions of owl pellets to the school to disect. For some reason they decided to cut down the tree, and boom, instant squirrel overload. Hawks are around, but with such large tree canopies from the old oaks around my yard, they have a hard time swooping in. I'd LOVE to get my owl back, it was so beautiful to watch leave the tree in the evenings.

Did you actually see your owl get squirrels? I repeatedly tried to watch out my windows at dusk to see if he ever went for them but I never once saw him get a squirrel or anything else for that matter. It gets dark too fast and I lose my window of opportunity to see what the owl is doing. He generally only begins to appear right after sunset and then I only have visibility for about 10 minutes which is one of the reasons I don't know exactly what kind of an owl he is but his silhouette suggests Great Horned Owl. I know he is eating well because of what I found in the larger owl pellets but mostly frogs and mice and such as well as the occassional chipmunk. We used to have Screech Owls around here but they are dead. Their pellets were considerably smaller although they also ate frogs and mice and such. No chance of one of them being able to lift off a squirrel unless it was a juvenile but I can tell you the big owl I have in the tallest dead elm tree certainly could pluck one off it it wanted to. Really sorry your neighbor cut down that dead tree but I distinctly recall a time were I would have deemed a dead tree unsightly so I can certainly appreciate their motives. I have to admit that if a dead tree was in range of falling down on a home or garage that I would have to remove it too but as long as they aren't gonna hit anything on their way down, they are definitely welcome here. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm liking dead trees more and more as each year goes by.

Actually, the tree wasn't dead, it just had dead fronds rimming the trim, below the new growth. It was way too tall to trim. I'm not sure why they ever got rid of it, it was truly a Florida great grandfather in the palm tree world.
I loved the owl, in the evening, after the sun was setting, but just before solid night had set in, she would swoop down across the back yard, only inches from your head, and you never even heard her coming. Absolute silent flight.
The squirrels we have here and not attractive, nor large. They are gray, tiny, skinny and scrawny, and nasty, like small rats with semi-bushytails. (And hostile,lol)
When I go up north and see my sisters overly large red squirrels with shiny coats, I can see why some people like them. But these nasty things...ewwww.........

I'm ready for him this year. We finally have a pair of night vision goggles! After the weather warms up and I can go out at dusk and sit and wait, I am going to (crossing fingers) find out what kind of an owl we have once and for all. Our owl comes out at the exact time you described. Levels of illumination are so low that I can't ever seem to get more than his outline. For over two years now, I have been only able to catch a glimpse before the sun sets and it has been very frustrating.

We've got the gray squirrels here too but ours are plump and animated. We have a few red squirrels but the grays took over a long time ago. A few years ago we had our first black squirrel. He was missing part of his tail and probably ended up in the belly of a coyote or hawk. Just recently, we were visited by our second black squirrel. Interesting how genetics played that card twice for us. My husband is particularly fond of Blackie II and sets out special treats for him. That squirrel is ostracised by the other squirrels for some reason.

Hey! I WANT some owl pellets if anyone has any to spare. GREAT science projects for kids (and adults, LOL).

Hey Darius, they look like cat hairballs for lack of a better description. I can't believe all these years and you have been owl pelletless! Well, imagine that! This is gonna be your lucky year, he he he. Remind me in June after the weather warms up and the spring rains have subsided and I'll get my fanny out there and go poke around for you. I never ran into as many as MerryMary except when we had Screech Owls nesting in the big white oak but I run into at least a few from whatever the big guy is and they are quite interesting. Use your eyebrow tweezers to ever so gently pull them apart on white paper and it is rather awesome. Our boys once were able to out together an entire vole skeleton. They were missing a few bones but those were probably crushed by overzealous kids.

If the US Postal Service only knew....

Thanks, EQ... I have taken one apart years ago, fascinated with what shows up with just a jeweler's loupe!

Hey beaker, it's totally legal but... the US Postal service has been stepping up inspection of packages these days and I can't begin to imagine what the look would be on the face of somebody opening up a neatly tissue wrapped owl pellet with a little note to Darius from Lauren telling her to enjoy her special little body parts capsule. He he he.

If you put the pellet in a large jar of water with a lid, 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, and swirl gently, it releases all parts so that you can pick through them. We'd have the kids reassemble them on a peice of black felt, so they could get the entire skeleton rearranged without the little bones sliding around.

Oh man, I didn't know that! We picked through ours dry!