I have a area near the walkway of my house that is landscaped ~ not terribly large but about 15x3 in one direction and 8x12 in another direction.
I just put in new mulch, plants, flowers, etc> looks great.

Every day I keep finding these holes in the mulch where Rocket J Squirrel is looking for whatever.

One day I come out of the house, he is in there.
The little bastard runs up a tree then stares at me "laughing".

If I put a "feeder" in a nearby tree would that be enough or would he just look at that as "desert" and keep laughing?

Yesterday I kept hearing an odd metallic noise. The city is fixing a pumphouse a few doors down so I thought it was coming from them. The noise kept up for about ten minutes so I walked outside to investigate.

A squirrel was parked in my roof gutter right at the downspout and digging away at something. He popped his head up and looked at me but kept on with it. I watched for a couple of minutes and began to think he had gotten stuck in the downspout somehow. He kept popping his head up but stayed in the exact same position. Several minutes later I was wondering if it was time to get a ladder and gloves when he finally got out of the gutter.

Then the little fartknocker leans out off the gutter like he was going to leap at me so we engaged in a 20 second staring contest. He decided against the full frontal attack and ran down the gutter to the other end of the house. And started digging in the gutter again. I don't know what he was after because I just cleaned the gutters 2 weeks ago but something had him interested.

Squirrels can be a pita. I had some in KC that would chuck walnuts at me when I mowed. Fuckers. I learned that it's not enough just to trap a squirrel and move it down the street. You need to take the little bastards like 10 miles away or they come back. Or I guess you can take them for a swim as my mother-in-law suggested...

Did you plant any bulbs? The furry little bastiges LOVE bulbs.

Also, I'm not sure if it's squirrels or skunks, but SOME-body will dig up anything that I plant if I put any bone meal in the hole.

And they are cheeky little corksoakers too. Dog ran one up the tree yesterday, it sat on a branch JUST out of her reach and cussed at her. Dog was pissed, I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Wish I'd have had my pellet gun handy, we'd have seen who had the last laugh.

quote:

I don't know what he was after because I just cleaned the gutters 2 weeks ago but something had him interested.

Yeah he was looking at you and thinking "hey pal where the fuck are my nuts, I put my Nuts in here, have you seen my Nuts, they was here and now, no nuts, what the fuck..."

Beeman FWB 124 and match wadcutters at <15 meters.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Did you plant any bulbs? The furry little bastiges LOVE bulbs.

No, but I wonder if it is the mulch itself.
It is a Cypress mulch or actually a Cypress Blend ~ could be something in it.
He hasn't touched any of the plants.


I don't want to hurt the little prick I just want to out maneuver him.

A squad of squirrels got into my attic once through an unsecure vent. I opened the attic hatch and tossed in my 21 pound tom cat.
Mass exodus. Problem solved. My guess is your squirrel buddy buried something in the area before you landscaped it.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

And they are cheeky little corksoakers too. Dog ran one up the tree yesterday, it sat on a branch JUST out of her reach and cussed at her. Dog was pissed, I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Wish I'd have had my pellet gun handy, we'd have seen who had the last laugh.

The jerk squirrels around here are constantly getting the dogs, especially the Basset, wound up and loud. Then I have to go out and throw a baseball at them (the squirrels, not the dogs).

quote:

Originally posted by brecaidra:


The jerk squirrels around here are constantly getting the dogs, especially the Basset, wound up and loud. Then I have to go out and throw a baseball at them (the squirrels, not the dogs).

You want comedy gold, you want to see me trying to throw a ball. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn in my prime, and now with my shoulders and elbows all worn out, I'm lucky to hit the ground.

We have a 3 yr old Australian cattledog in his prime. He can jump his body to the top of our 6 ft fence and is incredibly athletic. The squirrels own him. He’s broken though over a half dozen fence pickets chasing them. They will sit just out of reach and talk shit to him. I pity the squirrel he catches someday.

The bastard squirrels we have sit 50' up in the pine trees and throw pine cones down at my dog. He runs around barking and daring them to come down. I help him out by shooting the fuckers out of the tree. Ruger 10/22 with Volquartsen parts is very accurate and I don't have any neighbors.

The Great Squirrel War rages on. Countless killed on both sides. The tree squirrels first allied with the ground squirrels then the gophers joined the fight. The latest casualty of war...a rat. Don't have a clue where he came from, I live in the middle of the woods. I'm talking a run of the mill city/Norway looking rat. I suspect my human neighbor (Jack Ass) has allied with the enemy and brought rats with him.

Have to go don my Ghillie suit, one of them is challenging my authority.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Beeman FWB 124 and match wadcutters at <15 meters.

We use a 20ga. Might be overkill if you have aspirations to eat said tree rat.

.22 short works wonders. I used to knock them out of my walnut trees in KC with a Benjamin .177 pump rifle, too, until KCPD got involved.

We had a summer where they loved getting into the attic late at night to do whatever two squirrels do in the dark. Being woken up by your riled dog at 1AM when you are getting up at 3AM 6 days a week will destroy any compassion for them. When I got home I noticed them frolicking on the nearest fir tree. Shot one of them right in front of the other, no more problem.

there's no compromising with the little terrorists. And relocating them is illegal in many places, besides which you're dumping your problem into someone else's yard.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
...Dog ran one up the tree yesterday, it sat on a branch JUST out of her reach and cussed at her. Dog was pissed, I was crying I was laughing so hard...

One of my aunts had a German Shepherd that would get into the same situation, squirrel just out of reach. The dog died early one winter, my aunt got a rescue shortly after that, this dog being a few inches taller than the one the squirrel was not afraid of. Wasn't afraid of the new dog, either. Didn't live long enough to fear it.

Could holes be caused by a skunk rooting for grubs?

the squirrels and racoons do this on our back deck. They remove potted plants from the pot sometimes...

Our squirrels will also drop shit on you when they are in the trees. They'll drop acorns or pinecones on you...