Survey for friend...Outer Circle Publications HOTSHEET, Your opinion valued...

Originally Posted by GordonJ

PS. We have a squirrel problem, any hints on that?

Before I go there...perhaps consider antiques for a hotsheet...I used to do a newsletter for them...great for paid classifieds and small display ads.

Funny you should ask....I mentioned about feeding the critters in another post....that's how it started when I moved to this location 18 years ago.

I had squirrel, raccoon, skunk, and opossum problems.

Squirrels chewing into everything looking for food , the other three would constantly find a way to get into the garbage and scatter it everywhere....and all of them liked the garden....not to mention a deer that liked parts of the garden (right now I am having a problem with a flock of wild turkeys).

My solution was if I couldn't beat them ...feed them

I feed them and they leave the garden and garbage alone (actually we had a verbal agreement - at least me talking and presumably them listening)...and when they try to take up a residence where I don't want them I scatter a few mothballs (have to be careful though as not good for kids or pets).

However having said that I caught a young squirrel (not yet a regular at feeding time and may not be any time soon) last week plucking small green tomatoes from the plant and chowing down...shooed him away. Spotted him a second time only with a baby cucumber....walked silently into the house and back to the deck...lit the fuse and let her fly....firecracker went off about 6 feet above him...he hasn't been back.

I use the firecrackers for stray cats also...they like to hover at feeding times for the birds and rabbits. I just launch the firecracker to go off about 3 feet behind them...usually only takes one or two of these episodes and they look elsewhere for an easy meal. I know they have a right to eat, and I will feed them if they come to the deck...but to prey on the other critters eating - that's a no-no around here....everybody gets along or they aren't welcome. Regular rabbits and squirrels have become accustomed to me and the firecrackers and when they go off they just check me out to make sure that's all it is and continue munching. Birds scatter every time.

I don't use feeders...the food is scattered on the ground in the same 10 x10 area every day....and all eat harmoniously together (birds, squirrels, rabbits)...raccoons get hand fed on the deck and there is a small supply left for during the night (every once in a while I have to step out in the wee hours and settle an argument between a couple of them fighting over the peanuts...and it is always the same two). Skunk is fed in a different section and the opossums have a green garbage bag that their food goes in on another corner of the deck....it seems they like to think they are stealing it.

Snakes I am not very fond of, but the non aggressive ones I exist in harmony with...the aggressive ones I attempt to discourage and send on their way...however if they persist it usually means their demise....I don't take any chances with them.

And a new welcome guest arrived 4 weeks ago and has been added....built and put up a house for him....a bat....now I don't have to spray my garlic spray weekly for the mosquitoes...the bat is just merrily gobbling them up every night.

Gotta love Nature.

Cornell