Posted on 09/16/2018 10:36:21 AM PDT by Olog-hai
There’s a bumper crop of squirrels in New England, and the frenetic critters are frustrating farmers by chomping their way through apple orchards, pumpkin patches and corn fields.
The varmints are fattening themselves for winter while destroying the crops with bite marks.
Robert Randall, who has a 60-acre orchard in Standish, Maine, said he’s never seen anything like it.
“They’re eating the pumpkins. They’re eating the apples. They’re raising some hell this year. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Evidence of the squirrel population explosion is plain to see along New England’s highways, where the critters are becoming roadkill.
Last year, there was a bumper crop of acorns and other food that contributed to a larger-than-normal squirrel population this summer across the region, said Rob Calvert, wildlife biologist from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
This summer, there’s not as much food, so the squirrels are looking for nutrition wherever they can find it, including farms, Calvert said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Omens of a brutal winter?
Troops of pre teen boys (and girls)
Pass around BB guns
Tell them not to shoot each other
Problem solved
Gonna be COLD this winter, due to global warming no doubt.
Sounds like a severe cat and owl shortage.
Maybe they got too large of an owl size, and they ate the cats.
Perhaps investing in twelve year olds and pellet guns would fix the problem.
Now, if only the squirrels will eat the rabid left-wingers of New England.
They go from sun up till sun down carrying Hickory nuts from one tree of mine across a 50 yard field and then the road to some where on the other side of the road and back again.
been going on now for 2 weeks.
Its a hoot to watch them climb the tree,snip off a bunch and then go down and make the journey and start all over again
We seem to have fewer squirrels this season, but we do have quite a few hawks, owls and other animals on our property.
Squirrel pot pie! Yumm!
squirrel stew shortage?
bye the way there is no shortage of Acorns or Hickory nuts around her and nothing has bothered my Pumpkins or Acorn Squash other than the frigen deer
I have the solution
jesse ventura is the pumpkin/appe/etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgzxSr6l9Y4
Perhaps the farmers/gardeners could scale up the rat trap that utilizes a couple of boards for ramps up a 5 gallon bucket of water, with a “friction-less” rod that has food in the middle?
I love using hickory nuts in my smoker. Soak then overnight and wrap then in foil. Throw then on the grill as well....... Love the taste
Farnham makes a product called “JUST ONE BITE”.
Comes in a brick that is 1# and looks like peanut brittle.
I have lived rural for over 25 years, and dealt with Norway rats down to ground squirrels.
Brick should cost you about $7, but locally I can only buy it now in boxes of 8 bricks.
I place the unwrapped brick inside double Ziplock freezer bags, and pound it with a hammer on a hard surface. That breaks it up into pieces & crumbs.
Put those items where the squirrels run, even in the crotch of a tree. Keep way from your pets.
You should be finding dead squirrels within 3 days.
One of the reasons I bought my house was because of the hickory trees.
Yup. Gonna be a bad one. The boys are saying that the squirrels are really active this year where I used to live.
Friend of mine said the swallows left at the beginning of August this year. They never leave till the last of August.
N Central USA.
What works for me is rat bait. From the hardware store. Cheap Easy 100%
The roads and highways are covered with dead squirrels here in Maine, many more than in previous years. They are suicidal running across roads. I had one person break ahead of me to avoid a squirrel. Myself, no breaking, have hit one and missed many others.
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