Squirrel Damage

find a way to encourage as many birds of prey as possible. Good nesting areas, habitat trees and perches etc. maybe there is a specialist in your area to advise on how to encourage that. There is also people who will do vermin control with raptors.
 
There has to be a. Biologist who is the squirrel expert at the regional land grant college. Contact them

We’ve had some fun with solutions that don’t work and are likely illegal too.
 
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Basswood said:
find a way to encourage as many birds of prey as possible. Good nesting areas, habitat trees and perches etc. maybe there is a specialist in your area to advise on how to encourage that. There is also people who will do vermin control with raptors.
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My friend has a bird box biz for raptors as biological control for orchards... probably applicable.
 
Squirrels have chewed thru our ground level deck (PT 2X6 or 2X8's) from the top and the sides to store spruce cones between the gravel and the decking (a 3-4" space). Must now be thousands of spruce cones protected from rain by a membrane covered main floor upper deck. Been using a HavaHart trap and peanut butter on the trip pan and have sent way over 200 of them over the last two years to the great peanut butter jar in the sky. Used to drive them outta town to release but couldn't afford the gas finally. Take trap, place in super sized industrial black garbage bag (calms them down - maybe they think it's night) and hook up to truck tailpipe. Run for 5 min and they just go to sleep. Takes 10 min. Way more humane than drowning in garbage cans of water and other things I've seen on YouTube. And they all have had a last great meal . . . But I don't let the trapped animal stay out overnight to freeze in fall or winter.
 
I read that catch release isn’t a good solution for many animals.

They are considered invaders and killled

Then the new void in the range is considered a vacuum and whatever squirrels were in the edges of this new vacuum or void just fill back in. It’s like smoke so it’s a tough solution.
 
Basswood said:
find a way to encourage as many birds of prey as possible. Good nesting areas, habitat trees and perches etc. maybe there is a specialist in your area to advise on how to encourage that. There is also people who will do vermin control with raptors.
Click to expand...
Interestingly enough, I'm a licensed Falconer and this is the only viable option we've considered, but it'd be a big Public Relations problem with the students/the town. The squirrels (I'm 100% not joking) have their own instagram page with 14k+followers, so me calling in some favors with some friends and hawking through campus over Christmas break would not be well received...but it's the most 'natural' form of population control we can come up with.

Encouraging birds of prey isn't as easy as you'd think...hawks are very territorial, and the ones on campus are very fat and happy, so overcrowding hawks (who don't regularly hunt squirrels, as they're far more dangerous to the hawk than mice and smaller rodents) would actually hurt their own populations, and isn't really doable.

Allowing local Falconers to come in and hunt as a special population mitigation event would, I'm sure, be effective...but getting permission from the top down might be impossible.
 
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I'd assume that the choices for what to hunt with are limited to larger birds like female Red-tailed Hawks and Great Horned Owls, etc? That analysis makes sense. Plenty of easier meals to be had for the resident birds but bring in a team of hungry birds and make a big dent, then leave.
 
Greg_L said:
Interestingly enough, I'm a licensed Falconer and this is the only viable option we've considered, but it'd be a big Public Relations problem with the students/the town. The squirrels (I'm 100% not joking) have their own instagram page with 14k+followers, so me calling in some favors with some friends and hawking through campus over Christmas break would not be well received...but it's the most 'natural' form of population control we can come up with.

Encouraging birds of prey isn't as easy as you'd think...hawks are very territorial, and the ones on campus are very fat and happy, so overcrowding hawks (who don't regularly hunt squirrels, as they're far more dangerous to the hawk than mice and smaller rodents) would actually hurt their own populations, and isn't really doable.

Allowing local Falconers to come in and hunt as a special population mitigation event would, I'm sure, be effective...but getting permission from the top down might be impossible.
Click to expand...
We had a feral domesticated rabbit population in town. The county fair back in the day would have all the kids circle around the arena and release baby animals. The kids got to take home what they caught. Obviously this presents many issues and the bunnies well are bunnies… hard to catch and get away easily.
Their population exploded and the town was well known for it. Gardners hated them, and the town was pretty heels dug in divided. Many council meetings about the bunnies, creating traffic hazards, tripping hazards, the school feild was unusable many twisted ankles. I almost hit a bald eagle in my car as it dove for a bunnie chilling on the shoulder, not once but a handful of times.

The town approved some control and the people went nuts. Halloween turned bunny political and many Elmer Fud/bugs bunnie outfits were out that night. Our local falconer came and started with the controls, he was received with outrage. Eventually a virus came in and nearly leveled the population. Seriously down from 1000’s to maybe 10.

Unfortunately that public issue will be almost impossible to deal with
 
evo said:
We had a feral domesticated rabbit population in town. The county fair back in the day would have all the kids circle around the arena and release baby animals. The kids got to take home what they caught. Obviously this presents many issues and the bunnies well are bunnies… hard to catch and get away easily.
Their population exploded and the town was well known for it. Gardners hated them, and the town was pretty heels dug in divided. Many council meetings about the bunnies, creating traffic hazards, tripping hazards, the school feild was unusable many twisted ankles. I almost hit a bald eagle in my car as it dove for a bunnie chilling on the shoulder, not once but a handful of times.
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We too, have been having bunnies everywhere - really gross late last fall - was minding my own business on an elm prune when I rounded a corner onto a nice wide branch union and found it was a "bunny buffet", for some cat named Bob probably. There were bits of Uncle Benny Bunny and Cousin Clem Bunny and probably more, with fur and smelly bits all over and dried blood down the trunk. I've seen Bobcats get rabbits but also if you can believe, they're fast enough to chow down on squirrels. Squirrel (and rabbit) predators may not just be the airborne kind. Go Bob ! Apparently Bob is quite good at what he does !
 
Maybe 40 years ago at my parents place an unusual winter with heavy snow cover drove the also unusually larger rabbit population to girdle the bark off every delectably small bush and tree they could find sticking up through the snow. Bad for the landscaping in the yard, semi-rural small acreage. So out comes the 22, method to dispose of the rabbits was 1 put them in the natural -30 freezer -on the roof of the tool shed- and 2 take an axe and chop the frozen rabbit in two, giving half to each dog. Completely gone, dogs started salivating upon walking towards the shed "freezer". On a bit disturbing note, one year we had pet rabbits and the babies could fit through the chicken wire. Our one wild rescue macho cat was found hovering near the cage waiting for escapees. At first we wondered if we were counting the number of babies right. So I concur with the cat story.
 
evo said:
We had a feral domesticated rabbit population in town. The county fair back in the day would have all the kids circle around the arena and release baby animals. The kids got to take home what they caught. Obviously this presents many issues and the bunnies well are bunnies… hard to catch and get away easily.
Their population exploded and the town was well known for it. Gardners hated them, and the town was pretty heels dug in divided. Many council meetings about the bunnies, creating traffic hazards, tripping hazards, the school feild was unusable many twisted ankles. I almost hit a bald eagle in my car as it dove for a bunnie chilling on the shoulder, not once but a handful of times.

The town approved some control and the people went nuts. Halloween turned bunny political and many Elmer Fud/bugs bunnie outfits were out that night. Our local falconer came and started with the controls, he was received with outrage. Eventually a virus came in and nearly leveled the population. Seriously down from 1000’s to maybe 10.

Unfortunately that public issue will be almost impossible to deal with
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“Kids, there are extra points if you can catch the honey badger!”…
 
Is it possible to use the power of social media for your advantage? Explain to the students on their own page that the squirrels are doing a lot of damage, perhaps show the damage and explain what will happen if the squirrel population is not reduced or managed, and get the students involved in the management process somehow? At least get them to pose ideas as to how the plants and the squirrels can both coexist?
 
Reach said:
Is it possible to use the power of social media for your advantage? Explain to the students on their own page that the squirrels are doing a lot of damage, perhaps show the damage and explain what will happen if the squirrel population is not reduced or managed, and get the students involved in the management process somehow? At least get them to pose ideas as to how the plants and the squirrels can both coexist?
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Not saying that's a bad idea....but is there any solution that doesn't involve a lot of dead squirrels? There will almost certainly be a vocal population for whom that will never be accepted as a viable option.
(Ther earlier mentioned birth sterilization may be the only exception...if that's even an option).

On one hand, the quieter it's kept the better. On the other, once people do realize what's happening and there was no public disclosure, it could get ugly fast.

Rock/Hard place.

Is this a public or private institution?
 
ATH said:
Not saying that's a bad idea....but is there any solution that doesn't involve a lot of dead squirrels? There will almost certainly be a vocal population for whom that will never be accepted as a viable option.
(Ther earlier mentioned birth sterilization may be the only exception...if that's even an option).

On one hand, the quieter it's kept the better. On the other, once people do realize what's happening and there was no public disclosure, it could get ugly fast.

Rock/Hard place.

Is this a public or private institution?
Click to expand...
I agree, it may be necessary to make a lot of dead squirrels, but if they can get the students to come up with the idea, and largely buy in, seems like it would go over better overall, even though there will always be some opposed. No matter what you do, when you have 5000 students running around, there will be a vocal opposition group.

I am not a fan of the idea of keeping it quiet, secrets always manage to get out, and it seems to me that something like this would go over better if it was known about beforehand.
 
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