Squirrels !!!!!!!

[b54red]

Originally Posted by tjg911

i agree and feel your frustration. when i planted my garlic last year they showed up and i had to cover it with chicken wire and shot them to stop them from burying acorns in the leaf mulch.

have you used a gas powered (not pump air but the co2 cartridges) pellet gun? i have a pump up rifle and the max pumps is 10. i have hit them but they have tough skins and it just scares them tho it would cause them to leave for the day but if you are not home all day this is not going to work. i did manage to kill one but it must have been a lucky shot in the head. i suspect a co2 pellet gun has more power. a pellet gun is quiet. is a bow and arrow an option?

squirrels experience population booms, i know rabbits are on a 7 year cycle, maybe this year is a boom year?

and as people have said, please don't bring these pests somewhere else, if you don't want them in your yard what makes you think someone else does?

My choices in weaponry are limited by the closeness of neighbors houses, even using a bb gun, I have to be very careful where I shoot. I certainly don't want to break a window or worse.
I am using my son's old pump up pellet rifle with bbs for ammo. It sure doesn't kill them every time I hit them; I think you have to make a head shot to drop one immediately. I got another today and hit 2 more. That makes 5 in 3 days and I can't tell that they are becoming less bold. That carrot patch I replanted 2 days ago looked like a mining project in miniature today. Will be replanting it again until I can get a decent stand unmolested by squirrels. I guess I'll just have to keep plunking away at them until they eventually get the message or the old bb gun gives up the ghost.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by b54red

I guess I'll just have to keep plunking away at them until they eventually get the message or the old bb gun gives up the ghost.

I too have problems with 'Tree Rats'. Now I keep rotating my methods.
I live trap using peanut butter, removing them to an area where nobody lives.
I also use a pump up BB gun, but as others report you need a head shot to kill one.
Finally, I move stuff around the garden, never keeping the trap in one place too long.
A length of ckicken wire laid over the seeds keeps the devils off till the seeds emerge, once that happens they don't seem interested. Also it keeps the night time cats off, stops them digging latrines everywhere. Perhaps that might be a problem?

[Mjdtexan]

Dog. My dog spends his entire day hunting for squirrels. I am serious. He lives for the opportunity to chase a squirrel. I have pecans and acorns every where. I see squirrels on the ground just long enough to grab a pecan or acorn and then its back up the tree. No digging for our squirrels.

This is my squirrel getter

[Blueaussi]

My dog wants a squirrel. She Wants! Squirrel! Only, she only wants to chase the ones in the front yard. Or in the oak tree in the side yard. I keep telling her that there are squirrels in the backyard, too, but she's not buying it.

Silly dog.

[b54red]

Well, they counterattacked yesterday morning. I had two beautiful toms on one of my Marianna's Peace one nearly a pound and the other about 12 oz. Went in the garden to pick them yesterday afternoon only to find about 1/4 of each tomato eaten by squirrels. I saved some seed but those were the nicest toms hanging on the vines I have left.
I will also have to replant carrots for third time due to their digging.
I've lowered their population by 7 or 8 so far and it seems I have a long way to go. They now disappear every time I step outside with the bb gun, yet they are prancing all around the yard when I'm out without it. I think they are on to me.

[Mjdtexan]

How come you just dont shoot them?

[geeboss]

Fox Terrier comes to mind and so does the Whamo Sling Shot silent and deadly with a 1/4 ounce sinker.

George

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Mjdtexan

How come you just dont shoot them?

I am shooting them but am limited to a bb gun in my suburban neighborhood. I got 3 more this afternoon.