Entertaining for sure!

Pretty entertaining and interesting.

I thought the slo-mo video capture of how the squirrels controlled their “un-controlled” flight with landing-zone target fixation and using their front legs to control their rotation speed was amazing.

Okay, but my experience has shown that they have a real problem out maneuvering a 1,200 fps .177 sized pellet.

Jim

Very entertaining. Thx for posting it.

My roommate, particularly during the covid-19 induced lockdown, spends a lot of time watching the birds in the back yard. She has three different feeders hung up out there. The squirrels don't bother the feeders, which actually surprised me because the feeders aren't especially hard to get to and incorporate no anti-squirrel devices. But they do help themselves freely to the seed that the birds drop or kick onto the ground. She's a little paranoid about the squirrels. "They carry rabies" she says. "What if the dogs catch one of them, would the dogs get rabies from a dead squirrel?" Given that (a) very few squirrels actually have rabies, and (b) the dogs are fully vaccinated against it anyway, I'm not particularly concerned about it. I suggested that she just stop feeding the squirrels and they would go away. "I'M NOT FEEDING THE SQUIRRELS, I'M FEEDING THE BIRDS!" Yeah, OK.

But she won't listen to logic, so I have to do something. But what? I don't want to to use any sort of poison in the back yard on account of the dogs (same reason I can't poison the goddamned blackberries). I don't have a pellet gun, but I do have a .22. No, the neighbors and the sheriff would both take a dim view of that. Sometime in the fall I expect the ATF approval to come through on a rimfire can I have in jail now, but (a) that's several months away and (b) "You can't KILL them! That would be cruel! Just make them go away!"

So I showed her a video I found on Youtube about some guy who used a kitchen collander, some surgical tubing and a homemade release mechanism to build a squirrel catapult. Just bait the collander with some birdseed, peanut butter, whatever, and when the squirrel comes to help itself, FLING!

"NO! You can't LAUNCH them, that would be cruel! Just make them go away!"

And it wouldn't send them far enough away to do any good anyway. So, begrudgingly, I headed off to Ace Hardware to get a Havahart trap.

"What will you do with the squirrel after you trap it?"

My first impulse is, drop it into a burlap sack and apply a hammer to it, then into the weekly garbage pickup.

"NO! You can't KILL it, that would be cruel! Just make them go away!"

Geezus. OK fine, I'll drive it a few miles down the road and release it into a semi-wild area with lots of trees for it to make a new home in. Well, her sister, who knows EVERYTHING because hey, she reads it on the internet, told her that a squirrel will find its way back home. Like a homing squirrel, I guess. I told her I have my doubts about that, but just to be sure I'll grab a can of spray paint and give the trapped squirrel a bright orange butt before I release it. So if it does come back and we trap it again, we'll know her sister was right.

Over the past 10 days or so we've caught and relocated four squirrels and one rat. I take them to a turnoff about three miles from home. I think it's the back entrance to a rock quarry. There are several really big rocks placed across it to prevent entry, but they're far enough back from the road to have a safe place to pull over. Take the trap from the back of the truck, open it on the other side of the rocks, and the squirrel takes off like a bat out of hell for the nearest tree.

Late last week we hadn't seen any squirrels for about three days. Then one appeared in the yard over the weekend. No, he doesn't have an orange butt. So far he's avoided the trap, but it's probably just a matter of time.

I built a squirrel feeder a while back.
We stock it with their favorites > peanuts and with birdseed for the birds.
After the peanuts are gone (which doesn't take long) then the birds come in to finish off the bird seed.
The squirrels don't care much for the bird seed and the birds (except for the Blue Jays) don't care much for the peanuts.
They LOVE those peanuts and generally are 'waiting' for their breakfast in the morning.

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Over the past 10 days or so we've caught and relocated four squirrels and one rat. I take them to a turnoff about three miles from home. I think it's the back entrance to a rock quarry. There are several really big rocks placed across it to prevent entry, but they're far enough back from the road to have a safe place to pull over. Take the trap from the back of the truck, open it on the other side of the rocks, and the squirrel takes off like a bat out of hell for the nearest tree.

Late last week we hadn't seen any squirrels for about three days. Then one appeared in the yard over the weekend. No, he doesn't have an orange butt. So far he's avoided the trap, but it's probably just a matter of time.[/QUOTE]


Check your state laws. In Ohio it’s is illegal to live trap and release an animal on state/government land. On private land you need permission.

I had a coon problem and was releasing them and found out later it was illegal. You could release on your own property or with permission. Otherwise the animal had to be “euthanized.

This years crop of newborn squirrels is out and at the bird feeders. Wife counted 5 little ones at the feeder a couple days ago. We feed only sunflower seeds for the birds and she thinks the squirrels eat more than the birds.

I use only all metal bird feeders because the squirrels will destroy anything else despite not being blocked from the feed.

A while back I had a bird feeder on a metal pole. I kept the pole coated with STP and red pepper. Seemed to work well.

Mine dont bother with my feeder. They clean up everything that falls out of it, so its a system that works well. After the thaw, my Chipmunks have come back and I now have them hopelessly addicted to peanuts. As earlier posted, my Blue Jays love peanuts too.

Biscuits and squirrel gravy.

When as a kid whenever the biscuits w/ squirrel gravy was on the dinner table we knew to leave the "heads" for dad. I you forgot you were quickly advised to not touch. .. After he retired he would sit on the front porch and a couple of the squirrels would sit on his knee for pecans or peanuts................drill sgt.

Great video, he has had some really good videos, mixing in explanations of the science involved.

HK Ag

quote:

Late last week we hadn't seen any squirrels for about three days.

New squirrels will move into the abandoned territory. In the past year I have killed over 30 with a .22 PCP airgun. They keep on coming and I keep shooting.