I saw a red squirrel in my garden, rushed out (well...to my laptop) and bought some red squirrel food and a box to put it in. Never saw him again. Ungrateful!
After my aunt told me of the devastation caused by a squirrel being shut in her house for 10 days whilst she was on holiday, I would think we are lucky not to have them here. Yes, my husband calls them vermin too Hostafan.
I live surrounded by oak trees. 150 year old holm oaks so we have a lot of grey squirrels. it is not unusual to see six or seven at once eating the monkey nuts I put out for them. yes they can be a nuisance digging in pots and steeling the bird food but they have as much right to be here as I do so I live with them quite happily. Wires I protect with trucking and my cats keep them away from the house itself. my neighbor at the back of me doesn’t seem to like them as he has topped all his fences with anti squirrel plastic spike strips and it amuses me to watch them running along the fence jumping over the spikes.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
I've culled over one hundred in my own garden over the years. Normally at the rate of 15 per year. Four already this year. We have reds within a mile of the house now. This website shows the spread of the greys in Scotland.
Two on the birdfeeders this morning with all the tits and finches queueing up above. Time to bring the Kania 2000 out again and feed the foxes some Sciurus carolinensis crumble.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
I live in woodland so squirrels are plentiful in my garden. I like them, especially now there are several back ones. With so many trees around they've done little harm until they recently started chewing at my hen house to get at the food inside. I'm hoping a chilli powder wash will put them off. I might try that to keep the deer off my roses too. If anyone knows of any deer deterrents I'd be grateful.
Apparently the greys carry a virus which is lethal to reds, but which they themselves are not affected by. They are not native to the UK but were introduced some time in the 1800s, and around the middle of the 20th century people were paid a shilling for every grey squirrel they "disposed of" because of the damage they caused to trees. They eat birds' eggs too and - as far as I can tell - don't do anything useful at all! Just rats with fluffy tails............
Just thought of one useful thing though - the horsechestnut tree in my garden is there as a result of grey squirrel "planting" a "conker" years ago. No sign of the tree when I first came to live here - over 25 years ago now - and there is a huge horsechestnut tree just up the lane, so it must have been brought from there by a squirrel.
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Never saw him again.
Ungrateful!
it is not unusual to see six or seven at once eating the monkey nuts I put out for them.
yes they can be a nuisance digging in pots and steeling the bird food but they have as much right to be here as I do so I live with them quite happily. Wires I protect with trucking and my cats keep them away from the house itself.
my neighbor at the back of me doesn’t seem to like them as he has topped all his fences with anti squirrel plastic spike strips and it amuses me to watch them running along the fence jumping over the spikes.
http://scottishsquirrels.org.uk/
Apparently the greys carry a virus which is lethal to reds, but which they themselves are not affected by. They are not native to the UK but were introduced some time in the 1800s, and around the middle of the 20th century people were paid a shilling for every grey squirrel they "disposed of" because of the damage they caused to trees. They eat birds' eggs too and - as far as I can tell - don't do anything useful at all! Just rats with fluffy tails............
Just thought of one useful thing though - the horsechestnut tree in my garden is there as a result of grey squirrel "planting" a "conker" years ago. No sign of the tree when I first came to live here - over 25 years ago now - and there is a huge horsechestnut tree just up the lane, so it must have been brought from there by a squirrel.