We get a few cases and a couple of deaths state wide a year from bird flu - lots more people die in car accidents. I can't see condemning the species squirrel (or bird) over a remote possibility. Same goes for rabies. Obviously, if an animal is acting oddly, don't engage it but the media seems to enjoy public hysteria, imo.
Kate
If they had a better food source, would they harm the mulberry?
Kate
The showcase garden is in an urban area, directly across the street from city hall (city has a population of ~127,000). On the same side of the street as the garden, there is a neighborhood shopping mall on one side and an up-scale steak house on the other. On the street behind are apartments and small houses.
The garden is not intended to be a lunch buffet for rodents. It's intended to be a showcase of garden design concepts from different parts of the world.
Let someone else feed the squirrels . . . and put up with squirrel crap.
I use a HavaHart at home. When I catch a squirrel, I take the trap down to a state park where there are plenty of hungry coyotes, hawks, and owls and probably some snakes.
Next, I'll have to buy a larger HavaHart to catch raccoons. Raccoons stripped my grape vines of 3/4 of a year's crop. The law does not allow me to relocate raccoons, so I'll let the county's animal control service dispose of them. They will probably dispose of them the same way they dispose of 1/3 of the stray dogs they collect -- not by adoption or relocation but by extermination. :)
Where I live, a coyote is more likely to catch a cat (even a feral cat) than either of them is likely to catch a squirrel.
"Plague is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In 2006, a total of 13 human plague cases have been reported among residents of four states: New Mexico (seven cases), Colorado (three cases), California (two cases), and Texas (one case). This is the largest number of cases reported in a single year in the United States since 1994."
to make matters worse multidrug resistant plague bacteria have been found >Plague among humans is rare but not unknown in southern California. >
when it comes to hantavirus it is both the feces and dried urine as well as the dead dried bodies that can pass disease. It isnt up to us to decide the risk factor for others. I dont mind snakes, but then I live where there are no poisonous snakes at all and grew up here. people down south have a much different view and I have to respect their dislike.
sick animals dont always "act oddly". happily, rodents dont pass rabies. but even mice scurrying around in the back yard can spread the ticks of lyme disease up in our neck of the north so we dont leave food around that would draw them, and discourage people from putting out bird feeders that would draw them in.
you dont understand reproduction? squirrels crank out more than one litter per years and after a while there are simply too many squirrels for the amount of "wild" food and the amount of natural living spaces. then they begin eating their way into houses (made of wood much like trees) and eating everything in sight. at some point the population explosion has to be thinned out to reasonable levels. in my case it is NOT MY HOUSE, NOT MY FRUIT TREES.
Ingrid
I have a bird feeder. It's called a lawn. Got ready to go out to the garden this morning, but when I looked out the front window, there were 218 billion birds having some sort of feast on the lawn. Maybe I'm exaggerating and it was only 183 million. More than I've ever seen on my lawn at one time. I decided to read the newspaper for 1/2 hour until they're done.
I don't understand the fascination with bird feeders. I don't live in a wildlife sanctuary. I'm in a "regular neighborhood". There's no shortage of birds. Friends who have feeders don't seem to attract anything more exotic than what I see in my yard. This is upstate NY. What do some people hope to attract with their feeders? Cockatiels?
it isnt smarts... it is time. squirrels have all day to figure out "work arounds", humans need to go to real work.
the problem is the squirrels dont have enough brains to figure out that some yards and fruit trees are "death".
any chance of a picture?
snipped-for-privacy@wi.rr.com
I do understand reproduction. I also understand loss of habitat, human overpopulation and caring for the world in general, not just my species. Obviously you see things differently. IMO, we humans are the responsible ones if nature is unbalanced and it's up to us to come up with responsible solutions. My idea of responsible doesn't involve extermination.
Kate - but then I enjoy squirrels
When the first robins arrive my lawn looks invaded by zillions of worm hunters. When I mow masses of swallows swarm all about my tractor. The only bird feeding I do is a few slices of bread for the pair of Canada geese that come to my deck three times a day, and very occasionally wild turkeys come by for a snack... they like dry cat food. There is no need for bird feeders in rural areas. Even in winter birds find plenty of food, and even at temps below zero water still flows in culverts under roadways where deer hoofs break up surface ice where they exit from below ground and there are lots of openings around beaver dams... plus there is always food and water at all the many livestock farms. And the squirrels aren't existing on my few peanuts alone... just yesterday I walked into my Norway spruce windbreak to check the gauge on my 500 gallon propane tank that's hidden in there and there hidden from view are *mountains* of cones and seed husks...squirrels are very neat, they pile their debris very uniformly, cones to the left, husks to the right.
What you don't and are obviously incapable understanding is unlike humans squirrel parents kick their offspring out of the family home as soon as they are able to fend for themselves, they move on to other parts never again to return to the area where they were born... squirrel parents do not support their adult offspring.
then they begin eating their way into
Squirrels can only enter the homes of the pinheaded imbeciles who don't properly maintain their homes.
Squirrel populations do not increase past what their environment can sustain... any extras are culled out by their natural preditors, some years at a slightly higher rate than they reproduce... squirrel populations, as with most mammilian wildlife, remain very stable or decrease, rarely do mammal populations in the wild increase.
Typical tenant, doesn't give a shit about other's property... and hasn't the common sense of a rodent... I'll bet you're still sponging off your parents, and whoever else, including the tax payers. The only reason that wildlife can take up residence in homes is because lame brained people permit them access.
This morning, I had lazuli buntings, canyon wrens, American goldfinches and grosbeaks. The most color I've seen in months.
"David E. Ross" wrote
We have coyotes come within 25 feet of our house.
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