Squirrels / what are you all using to control back yard pests
- Thread starter markT
- Start date
Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Can you discharge a firearm? A 410 shotgun might be ideal. Otherwise you could poison them using a few "rat hotels". Works great on our local ground squirrels Otospermophilus beecheyi but if yours mostly stay up in the arboreal canopy, that might not work very well.
Wow, you raise figs in SC? I thought outside the Mediterranean and Middle East, all figs were grown in the San Joaquin Valley of Kalifornia, mostly by "Fresno Indians" (aka Armenian-Americans).
My neighbor has a large 65-year-old mulberry tree. Its millions of fruits feed hordes of Starlings, American Robins, and a few other birds, but otherwise rot on the ground. Are you saying they have nutritional value?
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I can not discharge a firearm..
My grandfather planted some fig trees approx 75 years ago.. they bear some really good figs.. very good in fact..
The starlings and Robins eat the mulberry's and figs like crazy..they get stupid from all the sugar..
I also have 5 huge pecan trees in my yard also.. squirrels just keep coming.. but I've got pellets!!
hogpatrol
Silver $$ Contributor
Can you trap and relocate them, preferably on the other side of a waterway lest they find their way "home". My next door neighbor did this, hit them with a little spray paint and took them a mile behind us. They were back on the bird feeders in one day.
On a lighter note, that reminds me of a story about a guy who hated his wife's cat. After a move to a new area, and while his wife was out, he took the cat out of the neighborhood, let him out, ran some errands and when he returned the cat was sitting on the porch. Next time he took it out to the edge of town, dropped it off, returned and the cat was there waiting for him. Finally he took the cat out of town, on one road, then another, drove around in the country for a while eventually dumping it in the middle of nowhere. After a few minutes of trying to retrace his route and now confused as to his location, he called his wife and asked if that gd cat was there. She replied "Yes, he's out in the front yard. He shot back "Put that SOB on the phone, I need directions to get home".
On a lighter note, that reminds me of a story about a guy who hated his wife's cat. After a move to a new area, and while his wife was out, he took the cat out of the neighborhood, let him out, ran some errands and when he returned the cat was sitting on the porch. Next time he took it out to the edge of town, dropped it off, returned and the cat was there waiting for him. Finally he took the cat out of town, on one road, then another, drove around in the country for a while eventually dumping it in the middle of nowhere. After a few minutes of trying to retrace his route and now confused as to his location, he called his wife and asked if that gd cat was there. She replied "Yes, he's out in the front yard. He shot back "Put that SOB on the phone, I need directions to get home".
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Fast14riot
Gold $$ Contributor
Crosman 1322 pistol, or gamo shadow 1250 springer. Sometimes ill use a sling shot or blow gun too.
Rick in Oregon
Gold $$ Contributor
Neighbors about, so my Beeman R10 .20 cal (1,000 fps) gets it done quite nicely. 
TheOtherZilla
Pull my finger
Air rifle and a mean cat. Make a feed station and keep watch. A blind might help too. I put a bounty on em and my boys took care of em one year
I put up a feeder on a utility pole. Put out some "black crack" ( sunflower) those tree rats just cant stay away.. they pick up a single sunflower seed and then begin removing the hull, that provides me enough time to apply pressure on the 10 oz trigger and if I don't blink, I can see the impact of the pellet in the skull or heart lung..
Attachments
I moved to Arizona this year so my duty to protect the fruit trees are simply a fond memory. For years I used a Remington 22LR single shot that I received for christmas when I was 9 years old. It's killed more squirrels than I could possibly count. The kitchen window would slide back soundlessly and the range was anywhere from 5 to 25 feet. A good morning would claim as many as 6-8 pesky critters.
I use a Gamo 177 cal. breakdown pump with a 6x-18x simmons pro hunter scope on it. I have it sighted in at 100 feet and with a little hold over have picked off the starlings on the poles at 76 yards. The critters have my picture up at their community center, cause when they see me they take off.
Tarey
Tarey
centershot
Silver $$ Contributor
I used that rifle with CCI .22 long CB. knocked them right out of the bird feeder.
timeout
Silver $$ Contributor
6 power Burris HBR scope, small dot reticle. Love to shoot English sparrows and starlings out the patio door. I won't live where I can't shoot until they haul me to the old folks home.
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