Squirrel Saver

When it is stood there being confused would be an ideal time to administer lethal force.

what you need is for another mirror to ping up behind it when it freezes.

I was tempted to make a box with the mirrors facing inwards and a small trap door for the squirrel to enter through but I thought that might upset the bunny huggers on here 🙂

My FIL used to come up with all sorts of ideas to stop the squirrels getting at the bird feeders. He spent ages devising 'contraptions'.

He once went into Homebase and went to the till with a kitchen bin flip lid. The assistant said 'sir there is a bin to go with that'. He said, no, I only want the flip lid, happy to pay for the whole bin, but I don't need that part !.

[i]He once went into Homebase and went to the till with a kitchen bin flip lid. The assistant said ‘sir there is a bin to go with that’. He said, no, I only want the flip lid, happy to pay for the whole bin, but I don’t need that part !.[/i]

In the past 'a friend' devised a very effective trap door device that went over a half full barrel of water. You just needed to empty the squirrel soup once a week. Clearly not an approach I would consider or condone now.

Yeah, that is a pretty cruel way to deal with the problem. At least your head-shot device was fast.

bring back the headshot device.

Grey squirrels are a non native invasive species. Humane ie instant dispatch is absolutely the correct thing to do.

My parent have a guy that comes round and shoots them in a humane trap. reason they have to use that approach is every third squirrel is a red and they release it. aparently quite funny, they get all angry and shout at you from across the garden.

The greys are fed to raptors.

That's a bit OTT feeding squirrels to dinosaurs !

Grey squirrel are vermin and if you trap it, it's illegal to then release it

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/march-2019-update-invasive-non-native-species-and-grey-squirrels

Can I suggest WCA stops attention seeking and gets back under his bridge and waits for the Billygoats.

Motion sensor, (*or remote, more fun), car windscreen washer kit, timer relay, battery.

bring back the headshot device.

Surely a mirror is quicker and cheaper to set up than a photo booth

Grey squirrels are a non native invasive species

I wonder at what point we will change that description of them. Unless anyone is serious about a programme of elimination then we should really get around to accepting they're here to stay.

Control the numbers if they are pests (e.g. nesting in people's roofs) and protect red squirrels as much as possible but anything beyond that is surely unnecessary.

Surely a mirror is quicker and cheaper to set up than a photo booth

WCA is issuing passports and sticking them on a ferry to France to balance the dinghies coming the other way.

I went for the controlling numbers approach when the normal family group of 3 - 4 adults in the small strip of woodlands (obviously varying as litters were born) became about 20-30 due to a neighbour feeding continually over an 18 month period which was bringing them in from far and wide.

It was largely effective once the mad neighbour had stopped, hence the downgrade to mirrors which is more for fun than as a serious deterrent

Get some fun house mirrors too for added LOLZ

Are feral cats/kittens and stray dogs/puppies now fair game ?.

This thread needs more videos!

WCA is issuing passports and sticking them on a ferry to France to balance the dinghies coming the other way.

He’s gonna need a bigger ferry.

It's only bloody working!!

Day 2 and no squirrels in the garden so far

😁

We are literally the line between reds to the north of us and greys moving up from the south.

I would happily terminate the greys, and I note someone has developed a contraceptive for greys that can be administered through selective traps and laced food. Perhaps we may see a UK wide effort to get rid of them.

The other approach is to support more Pine Martin's - apparently reds are nervous but the greys are too cocky for thier own good, and so easy meal....

Will the same strategy be effective with Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Will the same strategy be effective with Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Nope. They don't have reflections.

I wonder at what point we will change that description of them. Unless anyone is serious about a programme of elimination then we should really get around to accepting they’re here to stay.

Control the numbers if they are pests (e.g. nesting in people’s roofs) and protect red squirrels as much as possible but anything beyond that is surely unnecessary.

The description should stay the same becasue that is literally what they are. elimination is clearly impossible but for some areas they are not yet well established. YOu're more likely to see red than greys in Glentress for example. controlling numbers should be ongoing so they don't become a problem.

And more pine martens obviously

Will the same strategy be effective with Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Nope. They don’t have reflections.

I'll just have to stick with the headshot and sending the corpse to France then.

Like Matt, I am on the red/grey boundary and I get both in my garden. NatureScot have lent me a humane trap,and come and exchange it for an empty one it has a resident.

7 Greys have been terminated so far. They started it by getting into my attic, building a nest, and pissing there. Their actions radicalised me. Now I am always on the look out for the next one.

Since eliminating the Greys, the Reds have increased in number.

I would prefer it that if squirrels are a problem to contact a pest controller to sort the problem, or if theres a big increase to contact the council about a cull, rather then people thinking they doing the right thing by embarking on a killing spree themselves.

Face it, you aren't Rambo, nor any skilled marksman for the most part, and the thought of some poor creature suffering fear and pain as it slowly dies from horrific injuries due to incompetent would be killers quite a horrible thought.

Im sure any and all here would recoil in disgust if someone randomly shot their pet dog if it went stray and died in pain and fear and would be looking for answers. Just because Grey Squirrels are an invasive species shouldn't mean everyone has the right to kill them, or try to kill them but just cause pain and suffering.

I'm happy WCA has devised a non lethal method of deterring them from his property, though it just passes the problem on to someone else.

If its a problem, then contact pest control, who at least have powerful rifles and the training and the experience to dispatch the animal quickly.

The ones in London literally stare you down and try to bully you out of the way. It's only a matter of time before one of them pulls out a knife

Do you get intimidated by the dirty pigeons too?

Ahhhh park life.

Greys are pest and need a predator can we introduce honey badgers

I suspect Honey Badgers might be more trouble than the greys 🤔

[i]Face it, you aren’t Rambo, nor any skilled marksman for the most part, and the thought of some poor creature suffering fear and pain as it slowly dies from horrific injuries due to incompetent would be killers quite a horrible thought.[/i]

I agree and if you check back to my very first squirrel thread which got me branded and a murdering psycho you will find I spent months trying to find a humane way toe reduce the massive population increased by human overfeeding. There are many trap types from glorified rat snappers to slow poison to catch and release (which is illegal with greys). I eventually decided on a trap that was fast and efficient - CO2 powered bolt to the head - and had minimal risk of side kill - there are no pine martins or red squirrels in Southampton which are the only other animals likely to trigger the bolt.

The council were really not interested and pest exterminators mostly suggested poisons or less humane traps. I made the choice and have learned to live with the abuse I get on here, both joking and serious, as I believe it was the best solution to the issue. If you agree or not that the issue needed a solution is a different debate.

I suspect Honey Badgers might be more trouble than the greys

Simple, just introduce African leopards

I just want to read what happens if worldclassacident happens to catch one.

England needs some bitey wildlife to spice up a walk in the woods

Greys are pest and need a predator can we introduce honey badgers

As others have mentioned pine martins seem rather effective although there is some evidence they dont fancy urban areas and hence they end up being strongholds for them.
The problem is those fine guardians of the countryside tend to butcher anything vaguely carnivorous and so we end up with way to many greys.

The greys in our area were being fed by a neighbour, until they got into his attic and caused havoc, the damage cost quite a lot to repair.

Greys are being taken by pine martens and because of this, pine martens are thriving. They hardly take reds. Reds learnt from the past that pine martens are a predator so stay clear, also reds are more agile and quick. The grey hasn't been bred with this 'predator knowledge', so little fear, also slower and less able to escape a pine marten.

The greys destroy tree bark, causing so much damage in our native forests and woodland. The local greys ate their way through my veg patches and fruit trees. They are a menace and where they are culled the reds make a very welcome comeback.

You seem to have taken it personally that squirels do damage. They are being squirels behaving nature dictates. Do you not think that red squirels chew trees. They are all rodents and need to gnaw to keep their teeth in order.
Pine martens are come in Marple?
Blame the idiot who introduced them.

Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford introduced grey squirrels into the park at Woburn Abbey in the 1880s. He is credited with introducing the large population into Regents Park in London and Richmond Park in Surrey.

Perhaps we may see a UK wide effort to get rid of them.

There was a programme that offered the equivalent of a couple of quid for a tail. It didn't work. Cost the taxpaper huge amounts, and I probably don't need to tell you who benefited the most from it - hint; it wasn't populations of Red squirrels, (it was large estate owners, natch)

Y'know, I think it's fair to say that humans have been ****ing about with the squirrel populations so much over the years, it's probably best to just leave the things well alone. Deforestation did it for Reds in Ireland and Southern Scotland, and had to be reintroduced from England and Scandinavia in the 18thC and Reds by mid 19thC being described as being in Plague proportions, and between 1900 and '25 were killed in vast numbers, the squirrel club reporting a "harvest" of 150,000 one year alone.

And we didn't do anything any favours when we both introduced the Grey and spread it about the country, and now we want rid of those because Reds are fluffier or something. Just stop ****ing about it with it all. What reds there are are mostly European stock, not native, there's no evidence that killing greys will encourage native reds to return to those areas

no squirrels in my garden,,tho there is only the one little apple tree.
We've reintroduced bison, beavers, helped otters come back from nr extinction, pine martens, red kites, golden eagles etc
The badger cull is a tragedy, theyre a protected species, being eradicated despite al the science, and all for farmer's supposed desire to transform the UK into some massive cattle factory.
Look at malaysia, indonesia, Laos, cambodia, and all the deforestation etc'happening' there, for cash crops, land grabs etc, indigenous people getting killed off, like it used to be in uk.
So I understand they want progress, but theyre lining their own pockets, and they have much of the last remnants of rain forest on the earth
Unless you want your grandchildren to live in a concrete jungle, and never look out the windows, like so many people these days,
Oh Ive got lost now, but you know the rest
So lets not feed the rats/greys, you cant save the whole world like that

My favourite was the birdfeeder on a pole, a greasy pole

Reds only down here, any greys round here would be ripped apart by the locals!

It’s even often cited as a reason for not building a bridge to our island, apparently the grey squirrels are all lined up at Southampton docks waiting for us to build a 3mile dual carriageway across the water so they can get over in their wee vans and tiny motorbikes

Crime is the other one, apparently the criminals can’t cross on a ferry so they are all lined up next to the squirrels 😂

It’s even often cited as a reason for not building a bridge to our island

Unless the bridge is a Johnson garden bridge special wouldnt do much. They dont like going over to much open ground hence why reds were successfully introduced onto mersea island since the greys dont cross the causeway.

We need the squirrel equivalent of this video to amuse the people on the Google.

Tempted to rig up a PIR security camera to try for that footage

Is that bear thing real? Hilarious if so