Grey Squirrels

Hi Woo, are the grey squirrels in your garden ?
I had them in my last garden. They lived in the huge, partly hollow, ash tree. Although it was a big space with open countryside around, we never had more than a pair and their young. The babies were very cute. I never found them to be a problem. Well, they dug up the bulbs, but I learned to put some chicken wire over them when I planted them and there was no real problem. My sister in Dorset sometimes had them 40 at a time in her garden and they were a real nuisance in those numbers. They had to resort to shooting them - much to their regret.
Around here we have the red squirrels (not in the garden) and I see them on my walks. They're just so cute and gorgeous.

 

I find them a problem and I'm constantly trying to find ways of detering them. Chilli powder dusted on bird seed is effective. But they are nice to photograph.

 

Lovely picture Rob. Mine's not as clear as yours but it shows our local squirrel pinching the birds' peanuts during the recent snowfall. I've had to wire the feeder on because he kept knocking it to ground and emptying the contents!

Chris

 

Don't have any in the garden here but at work they bury peanuts etc in the pots outside and dig half the soil out, annoying but bearable.

 

Lovely photo, Rob. I don't seem to have any squirrels here. My sister had a real problem with them at her last house. They got into the loft and did all kinds of damage. Once, she came home from work to find that she had been burgled. There was stuff all over the floor and everything had been comprehensively trashed. She was just about to ring the police when she caught the culprit red-handed. A small grey squirrel was sitting on the dining room table looking at her in a rather challenging 'yeah? Wot of it?' kind of a way. As well as turning everything upside down, it had tried to chew its way out of the house by chomping through the window frame. Not a pretty sight.

 

Yes, that can be the problem with squirells ClaraLou. As I said earlier, my sister had them in big numbers in her garden and had to resort to shooting them. Sad - but necessary
They're really just rats with fancy tails and good PR.
But the little red squirrels around here are gorgeous.

 

Why do people call squirrels "rats"?
They do damage I agree, but do they carry disease?

I've never heard of them infesting sewers or the like, and they're only doing their best to survive in the same way other wildlife do.
The fact that they are very good at it, (surviving that is), is something we humans are also very good at.:D

 

Well yes, Pete. They can carry disease. Rabies and Tetanus for a start. The liklihood is low but it's there.
I don't think people call them rats because of their disease carrying potential but because of their habits and modus operandi - the same as rats.
They are officially classed as vermin.
I have nothing against them in the right place and reasonable numbers. But if they moved into my loft ..............

 

Well I wouldn't want an elephant in my loft.:D

 

My daughter Willow likes squirrels and rats (: We used to have rats, one was albino and he liked pears, so we called him Pear. The other one was called Morris...

 

My sis is an animal lover and couldn't bear to have the squirrels in her loft destroyed, so she had a series of humane traps put up there instead. Every now and then, frantic noises in the loft would alert her that she'd got another captive. She'd then climb into the loft, remove trap plus irate squirrel, and drive over to my Mum's to set them free in her garden, where they had a great time digging up her bulbs. 'What can you expect?' she'd say. 'They're from Lewisham'.:D