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Squirrels ???

Bart Leetch

Bart Leetch

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3,206
Location
Clinton, Washington on Whidbey Island
We now live way out in the country & have grey squirrels & dark brown with tan bellied squirrels . I have 1 setting under the hood of my S10 shuckin & eating.
I know they can be destructive.
My question how do I stop this?
A few shots of where we live in Clinton, Wa. Woods all around.
 

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Bart Leetch said:
We now live way out in the country & have grey squirrels & dark brown with tan bellied squirrels . I have 1 setting under the hood of my S10 shuckin & eating.
I know they can be destructive.
Click to expand...

Yep, had one chew through my windshield washer hose. I trapped and relocated more than a dozen. One thing I want to try is putting up owl decoys.
 
Pellet gun.... Squirrels are rats with a bushy tail.... My neighbor brought some in to turn loose. Talking to her one day she told me how she had her brother catch them, then she turned them loose so we would have the "cute squirrels in out neighborhood. She didn't understand why they disappeared... I just shrugged my shoulders,,,, as I held my trusty pellet rifle behind me. They are nasty animals.... That said... Clinton, Wa. on Whidbey Island... Beautiful place, My folks retired to a home on Possession Shores, at the very south end of Whidbey. We wish we had kept it in the family after they passed. Lovely place.
 
Might try some mothballs under the hood to deter the squirrels.

On newer (post ~2005) GM vehicles, some of the wiring insulation is soybean based, so the varmints love it. A neighbor had mice/squirrels do over $2000 damage to the wiring in his Silverado.
 
Cats! There is a population of squirrels in our neighborhood that are interesting to watch, especially when one of our cats chases one! The only time we see a squirrel around either of our vehicles is when a cat has killed one and brings it for the others to see or enjoy. Snakes don't like to be around cats, either.
 
"Cats" reminded me. We had a little mini-poodle that was a squirrel killer... He would go right up a tree after one and he could kill one so fast you wouldn't even see it happen.. The squirrels were almost a big as he was. Little Sid made me rethink my thoughts on little poodles.... I miss that little guy. Now I have Abbey, the princess, diva standard poodle.... she would do the same, except, there are very few squirrels left. She is a real hunter though.. If she had a chance there is no doubt the squirrel would be the loser...Poodles are very miss rated dogs.... They are great hunting and outdoor dogs... Divas, snobs and independent, yes, but they love to hunt....even more so than my lab. He really only want to hunt a ball and bring it back...
 
Bill Arnold said:
Cats!
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest luring in a Bob cat :D

I suspect most of the repellent theories vary wildly in their success rates:
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/can-use-discourage-squirrels-eating-hibiscus-plants-46102.html\

I suspect that the predator urine one might have some legs so to speak, a gallon of coyote urine isn't terribly expensive so might be worth a try. They might also not like the two legged flavor (justification for that if you need it hehe). The coffee grounds one is one I hadn't heard of, you could probably ask for some from a local shop to get enough to spread around and see if that helps for free. Any of those has the "washing off" problem though so the more permanent solutions might slow them down a bit more. Expect a new influx in the spring and fall regardless.
 
We used to have a huge rodent problem with our vehicles. Both of ours had significant damage from rodents chewing the wires in our vehicles. From what I've read, they make the insulation for the wires from vegetable oil sources, so thats why it's attractive.

I actually bought some tape that supposedly had hot pepper in it that I was going to put on the wires in the vehicles.

I've tried mothballs, sprays of various sorts, and nothing worked.

Once we got rid of the 200' of junipers along the front of the house and got rid of the rodent habitat, things got much better.

Of course, I live in a desert so it's easy to get rid of the vegetation and habitat that encourages rodents.
 
Oh, and I tried to trap a feral cat once to see if I could convince it to live around the house to take care of the problem.

I was successful in trapping him, but not so successful in the second part.

The problem is he moved inside and became tame. He loves sharon, hates me. Go figure.

I will say I haven't seen a mouse in the house though since he moved in.
 
My neighbor has a huge walnut tree just 20' from the property line along my driveway. I used to park my truck along the edge of the property where there is no pavement. Squirrels thought my engine bay was a vault and stored dozens of walnuts on the engine. What a mess. I put two mesh bags full of mothballs under the hood and that worked moderately well, but the real improvement came when I moved the truck away from the tree and up on the pavement closer to the shop. No nut storage so far this year.
 
Haven't had any problems with walnuts being stored...though I do have a tree up on the hill behind the house.... but my shop sits under a huge oak tree... a few years back I left the cover off my headstock on my lathe and discovered it full of acorns.... then turned on my little band saw and discovered it full of acorns too... after the black snake moved in under the shop haven't had any more problems with acorn storage... he's gone now, so may have more problems in the future... I keep the cover off my lathe now so i can get to the spindle when it doesn't open and close the pulleys correctly... maybe after I put the new bearings in I'll close it up again.

As for squirrels, we have them all over the yard... LOML feeds them so she can watch them. They scurry around the yard and Maggie our outside dog just watches them... she's getting older and it's too much effort to catch one. Harley, the inside dog, goes berserk when he sees one through the windows.
 
We have an ongoing problem with rats primarily getting under the hood of Belinda's car. Every two weeks we change out moth ball cakes that we place under the hood. Usually 4 of them. The odor does not hardly ever carry into the passenger compartment. Also, we spray fox urine liquid bait on the tires. I've tried all kinds of electronic gizmos with no success. Very determined rats. Have to stay on top of it, or they will overrun your perimeter and chew the wires under the hood. That can become quite costly and darned sure inconvenient.
 
Had a problem with chipmunks chewing the wires of my truck. I drilled holes around the top of a small Gatorade bottle, filled it with moth balls and zip tied 1 on each side of the engine compartment. I haven't had a problem since, 2 years now.
 
Growing up as a share croppers kid in the '40's ... sometimes squirrel was the only meat available for us.... my dad was a serious squirrel hunter.. he took a dog, a .22 rifle and an ax... if he treed a squirrel, and couldn't shoot it, he cut the tree down and let the dog catch the squirrel..... my job was to carry any squirrels we caught and the ax.
 
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