|
Home > Archive > UK gardening > November 2007 > Help - Squirrels ate my garden
You are viewing an archived Text-only version of the thread.
To view this thread in it's original format and/or if you want to reply to
this thread please [click here]
| Author |
Help - Squirrels ate my garden
|
|
| honeyrose 2007-11-15, 5:25 pm |
|
I have recently returned to gardening after a couple of years off
looking after my sick mother. During that time I did little apart from
mow the lawn and some occasional weeding and the local squirrels, grown
fat on my uncollected apples have become fit and bold and aggressive.
This last spring and summer they ate or dug up virtually everything I
planted in the garden: they dug up and ate all my spring anemone bulbs
from their tubs, bit off all the tomatoes and capsicum plants in grow
bags, dug up the antirrhinum and sunflowers seedlings in the border,
dug up the lawn for buried apples and then finally this summer, the one
remaining sunflower which was growing on its own away from anything else
and had got to 10 feet? They ran up the stalk and bit the head off. I
tried a cat scarer and that scared the cats off but not the squirrels.
It seems impossible to stop them digging up or eating EVERYTHING I
plant. It never used to be a problem but I assume they have got bold
after having free run of the garden for two years. Can anyone recommend
any plants or vegetables (apart from daffodils) that squirrels don't
like? I have a small town garden in London.
Honeyrose
--
honeyrose
| |
| JonH@Underthewagon.net 2007-11-15, 5:25 pm |
| On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:41:18 +0000, honeyrose
<honeyrose.1b26416@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote:
>
>I have recently returned to gardening after a couple of years off
>looking after my sick mother. During that time I did little apart from
>mow the lawn and some occasional weeding and the local squirrels, grown
>fat on my uncollected apples have become fit and bold and aggressive.
>This last spring and summer they ate or dug up virtually everything I
>planted in the garden: they dug up and ate all my spring anemone bulbs
>from their tubs, bit off all the tomatoes and capsicum plants in grow
>bags, dug up the antirrhinum and sunflowers seedlings in the border,
>dug up the lawn for buried apples and then finally this summer, the one
>remaining sunflower which was growing on its own away from anything else
>and had got to 10 feet? They ran up the stalk and bit the head off. I
>tried a cat scarer and that scared the cats off but not the squirrels.
>It seems impossible to stop them digging up or eating EVERYTHING I
>plant. It never used to be a problem but I assume they have got bold
>after having free run of the garden for two years. Can anyone recommend
>any plants or vegetables (apart from daffodils) that squirrels don't
>like? I have a small town garden in London.
>
>Honeyrose
A few observations/questions:
(a) What constitutes 'small'?
(b) I have seen suggestions that feeding the blighters may distract
them from more decorative foliage. I remain unconvinced - its a bit
like providing controlled drugs to junkies; appeasment won't work in
the long term.
(c) Buy traps and Google for 'Brunswick Stew'.
(d) As an outside possibility grow LOTS of really hot Chilli Peppers.
I have yet to identify a predator that can successfully control grey
squirrels without <Ahem> intervention with weapons of mass rodent
destruction.
Good Luck
JonH
p.s. Occasionally, the less careful (or more desperate) specimens
fall into water butts. They don't seem to swim well. A moat might be
a possibility?
| |
| Dave Liquorice 2007-11-15, 5:25 pm |
| Kill 'em, only real solution. They are legally classed as vermin, like
rats, mice etc.
--
Cheers new5pam@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
| |
|
|
| Dwayne 2007-11-15, 8:25 pm |
| I have put up a feeder for them, and normally, as long as it has food in it
for them, they will stay away from most of the rest of the garden. We also
have bird feeders that the squirrels will get into if they don't have
something in their's.
I did notice them getting an 4 or 5 apples and a few peaches, but I had so
many I didn't mind. I have a water container for the birds that the
squirrels share as long we change the water regularly. It might be that
they went to the fruit, when we let the water stay there over 2 days without
changing it. During the hot part of the year, it needed changing more often
than we did it.
Dwayne
"honeyrose" <honeyrose.1b26416@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in message
news:honeyrose.1b26416@gardenbanter.co.uk...
>
| |
| Alan Holmes 2007-11-16, 9:25 am |
|
"honeyrose" <honeyrose.1b26416@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in message
news:honeyrose.1b26416@gardenbanter.co.uk...
>
> I have recently returned to gardening after a couple of years off
> looking after my sick mother. During that time I did little apart from
> mow the lawn and some occasional weeding and the local squirrels, grown
> fat on my uncollected apples have become fit and bold and aggressive.
> This last spring and summer they ate or dug up virtually everything I
> planted in the garden: they dug up and ate all my spring anemone bulbs
> from their tubs, bit off all the tomatoes and capsicum plants in grow
> bags, dug up the antirrhinum and sunflowers seedlings in the border,
> dug up the lawn for buried apples and then finally this summer, the one
> remaining sunflower which was growing on its own away from anything else
> and had got to 10 feet? They ran up the stalk and bit the head off. I
> tried a cat scarer and that scared the cats off but not the squirrels.
> It seems impossible to stop them digging up or eating EVERYTHING I
> plant. It never used to be a problem but I assume they have got bold
> after having free run of the garden for two years. Can anyone recommend
> any plants or vegetables (apart from daffodils) that squirrels don't
> like? I have a small town garden in London.
>
> Honeyrose
The ONLY answer is to catch the buggers and kill them.
| |
| Alan Holmes 2007-11-16, 9:25 am |
|
"Dwayne" <jenco@st-tel.net> wrote in message
news:8929f$473cf28a$c644ed76$27416@st-tel.net...
>I have put up a feeder for them, and normally, as long as it has food in it
>for them, they will stay away from most of the rest of the garden. We also
>have bird feeders that the squirrels will get into if they don't have
>something in their's.
>
> I did notice them getting an 4 or 5 apples and a few peaches, but I had so
> many I didn't mind. I have a water container for the birds that the
> squirrels share as long we change the water regularly. It might be that
> they went to the fruit, when we let the water stay there over 2 days
> without changing it. During the hot part of the year, it needed changing
> more often than we did it.
You should be bloody ashamed of yourself, feeding the vermin, I would have
thought that was against the law.
| |
| Don H3 2007-11-16, 1:25 pm |
| On Nov 15, 7:41 am, honeyrose <honeyrose.1b26...@gardenbanter.co.uk>
wrote:
> I have recently returned to gardening after a couple of years off
> looking after my sick mother. During that time I did little apart from
> mow the lawn and some occasional weeding and the local squirrels, grown
> fat on my uncollected apples have become fit and bold and aggressive.
> This last spring and summer they ate or dug up virtually everything I
> planted in the garden: they dug up and ate all my spring anemone bulbs
> from their tubs, bit off all the tomatoes and capsicum plants in grow
> bags, dug up the antirrhinum and sunflowers seedlings in the border,
> dug up the lawn for buried apples and then finally this summer, the one
> remaining sunflower which was growing on its own away from anything else
> and had got to 10 feet? They ran up the stalk and bit the head off. I
> tried a cat scarer and that scared the cats off but not the squirrels.
> It seems impossible to stop them digging up or eating EVERYTHING I
> plant. It never used to be a problem but I assume they have got bold
> after having free run of the garden for two years. Can anyone recommend
> any plants or vegetables (apart from daffodils) that squirrels don't
> like? I have a small town garden in London.
>
> Honeyrose
>
> --
> honeyrose
Around here housecats (if not overfed) will predate on squirrels.
I like the other ideas too though. I know squirrels feed
preferentially from bird feeders (being an arboreal critter) so
placing a well-greased feeder above a cistern with downward pointing
spikes around the sides should quickly provide you with a lot of
drowned rodents for use as fertilizer.
Or you could set up a platform to encourage them to visit a feeder,
and electrocute them as they walk across it.
Or you could just eliminate their nesting sites: If the population
density falls below a certain point, squirrels will stay off the
ground, hence away from your veggies.
Don
| |
| 'Mike' 2007-11-16, 1:25 pm |
|
"Don H3" <ehofehof@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:90925cb9-aed5-4269-82bd-98cdc946b063@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> Around here housecats (if not overfed) will predate on squirrels.
> I like the other ideas too though. I know squirrels feed
> preferentially from bird feeders (being an arboreal critter) so
> placing a well-greased feeder above a cistern with downward pointing
> spikes around the sides should quickly provide you with a lot of
> drowned rodents for use as fertilizer.
> Or you could set up a platform to encourage them to visit a feeder,
> and electrocute them as they walk across it.
> Or you could just eliminate their nesting sites: If the population
> density falls below a certain point, squirrels will stay off the
> ground, hence away from your veggies.
>
> Don
Don you have some wonderful ideas there for eradicating another vermin ....
cats :-))
Mike
--
www.rnshipmates.co.uk for ALL Royal Navy Association matters
www.rneba.org.uk. The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association to find your ex-Greenie mess mates.
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will be there.
| |
| Alan Holmes 2007-11-17, 9:25 am |
|
"Dwayne" <jenco@st-tel.net> wrote in message
news:8929f$473cf28a$c644ed76$27416@st-tel.net...
>I have put up a feeder for them, and normally, as long as it has food in it
>for them, they will stay away from most of the rest of the garden. We also
>have bird feeders that the squirrels will get into if they don't have
>something in their's.
I just wondered, do you feed rats and mice as well?
And if not, why not?
Cos you seem to like feeding other vermin!
| |
| Dwayne 2007-11-17, 8:25 pm |
| Of course I dont feed mice or rats? They dont eat my garden when they are
hungry. The squirrels do.
Dwayne
"Alan Holmes" <alan_holmes@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:oiz%i.57251$Eq.35909@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...
>
> "Dwayne" <jenco@st-tel.net> wrote in message
> news:8929f$473cf28a$c644ed76$27416@st-tel.net...
>
> I just wondered, do you feed rats and mice as well?
>
> And if not, why not?
>
> Cos you seem to like feeding other vermin!
>
>
| |
| Alan Holmes 2007-11-18, 5:25 pm |
| On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:49:06 -0600, "Dwayne" <jenco@st-tel.net> wrote:
>Of course I dont feed mice or rats? They dont eat my garden when they are
>hungry. The squirrels do.
>
>Dwayne
You should be killed along with the squirrels!
| |
| Dwayne 2007-11-18, 8:25 pm |
| That is what your dad said when he caught me and your mother in bed
together. Dwayne
<Alan Holmes> wrote in message
news:0u51k3pk69ql9ebf0vl1b54vbkdjfhhkui@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:49:06 -0600, "Dwayne" <jenco@st-tel.net> wrote:
>
>
> You should be killed along with the squirrels!
>
| |
| thelane 2007-11-19, 1:25 pm |
| Why not a dangling bird feeder to attract the vermin, and then invite
the lads round from off the council estate with their air guns, and
whilst they are bobbing around pop the vermin off.
A bit like the ping pong ball on top of a water jet at the fair. Gr8
fun.
| |
| 'Mike' 2007-11-19, 1:25 pm |
|
"thelane" <thelane@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:dqd3k3pgh7g3ce6e7o86jig5aqbdvsbe2q@4ax.com...
> Why not a dangling bird feeder to attract the vermin, and then invite
> the lads round from off the council estate with their air guns, and
> whilst they are bobbing around pop the vermin off.
>
Air Guns?
;-{
Mike
--
www.rnshipmates.co.uk for ALL Royal Navy Association matters
www.rneba.org.uk. The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association to find your ex-Greenie mess mates.
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will be there.
| |
| ®óñ© © ²°¹°-°³ 2007-11-19, 1:25 pm |
| On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:25:29 GMT, thelane <thelane@yahoo.co.uk> wrote
and included this (or some of this):
>Why not a dangling bird feeder to attract the vermin, and then invite
>the lads round from off the council estate with their air guns, and
>whilst they are bobbing around pop the vermin off.
Are you allowed to pop off at the council estate lads, then?
--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°³
| |
| Janet Tweedy 2007-11-21, 9:25 am |
| In article <15f40$473f9a12$c644ed76$23159@st-tel.net>, Dwayne
<jenco@st-tel.net> writes
>Of course I dont feed mice or rats? They dont eat my garden when they are
>hungry. The squirrels do.
They eat my blinking seeds though I can tolerate the tinsy little mice.
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk
| |
| Don H3 2007-11-22, 3:25 am |
| On Nov 21, 4:13 am, Janet Tweedy <j...@lancedal.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <15f40$473f9a12$c644ed76$23...@st-tel.net>, Dwayne
> <je...@st-tel.net> writes
>
>
> They eat my blinking seeds though I can tolerate the tinsy little mice.
>
> --
> Janet Tweedy
> Dalmatian Telegraphhttp://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk
Is hantavirus not a problem in UK?
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hanta/hps/
Although the article says its appearance is "rare",
if fails to mention that when it DOES appear it is
usually epidemic in proportion, killing 10% of those
exposed via airborne rodent feces or urine.
(Usually deer mice in the U.S., voles in U.K., but
any rodent can be a carrier showing no symptoms
at all, and any mammal can be infected. And pass it
on)
eg. via exposure to an infected person:
http://www.studysphere.com/Site/Sphere_10226.html
| |
| Mr Poster 2007-11-22, 1:25 pm |
| On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:32:16 -0000, "'Mike'" <3d&6d@woolies.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>"thelane" <thelane@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:dqd3k3pgh7g3ce6e7o86jig5aqbdvsbe2q@4ax.com...
>
>Air Guns?
>
>;-{
>
>Mike
http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/pest.htm
Mr P
| |
|
| Dave Liquorice <new5pam@howhill.com> writes
>Kill 'em, only real solution. They are legally classed as vermin, like
>rats, mice etc.
>
Can you give me a reference to that?
--
Kay
| |
| Dave Liquorice 2007-11-23, 5:25 pm |
| On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:38:50 +0000, K wrote:
>
> Can you give me a reference to that?
Wildlife and Country Side Act 1981, Part 1, Section 14 together with
Schedule 9 of said Act.
--
Cheers new5pam@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
| |
|
| Dave Liquorice <new5pam@howhill.com> writes
>On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:38:50 +0000, K wrote:
>
>
>Wildlife and Country Side Act 1981, Part 1, Section 14 together with
>Schedule 9 of said Act.
>
Am I looking at the right bit? Part 1 Section 14 says a person is guilty
of an offence if they release or allow to escape into the wild an animal
not normally resident in the UK or which is included in Schedule 9, Part
1. Schedule 9 Part 1 includes grey squirrel.
But I can't find anything which legally classes grey squirrel as vermin.
Nor anything in here which links grey squirrels with the brown rat or
with mice.
--
Kay
| |
| Dave Liquorice 2007-11-24, 5:25 pm |
| On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:20:32 +0000, K wrote:
> But I can't find anything which legally classes grey squirrel as vermin.
I asked if there was a legal definition of Vermin, it appears that there
isn't in UK law. However this bit of Hansard from 2003 indicates that it
is accepted the grey squirrels are "vermin".
<begin>
8 Oct 2003 : Column WA60
Vermin
Lord Selsdon asked Her Majesty's Government:
Which mammals and other animals are classified as "vermin".[HL4559]
Lord Whitty: There is no definition of the term "vermin" in UK law. In
such a situation the Oxford Dictionary definition should be applied.
The Oxford Dictionary defines "vermin" as "Animals of a noxious or
objectionable kind. Originally applied to reptiles, stealthy, or slinky
animals, and various wild beasts; now, excluding in US and Australia,
almost entirely restricted to those animals or birds which prey upon
preserved game . . ."
The Small Ground Vermin Traps Order 1958 and the various Spring Traps
Approval Orders, refer to "small ground vermin". Neither the orders nor
the Pests Act 1954, under which they are made, define this term or provide
an exclusive list of species. However, the following animals are listed
under various orders: moles, grey squirrels, rabbits, mink, stoats,
weasels, rabbits, rats, and mice.
Traps approved under the Spring Traps Approval Order 1995 do not apply to
small ground vermin listed in Schedules 5 and 6 to the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981. This means that red squirrels, dormice, water voles,
shrews, hedgehogs, polecats and a number of other species are excluded.
http://www.publications.parliament....vo031008/text/3
1008w02.htm
I guess stoats and weasels are in the "vermin" list because they take game
birds/chicks/eggs.
--
Cheers new5pam@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
| |
| Dave Liquorice 2007-11-24, 5:25 pm |
| On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:20:32 +0000, K wrote:
> But I can't find anything which legally classes grey squirrel as vermin.
Is there a legal definition of vermin?
--
Cheers new5pam@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
| |
|
| Dave Liquorice <new5pam@howhill.com> writes
>On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:20:32 +0000, K wrote:
>
>
>Is there a legal definition of vermin?
>
Someone earlier in the thread said " They are legally classed as vermin,
like rats, mice etc." .... er, wait a minute - wasn't that you? ;-)
--
Kay
| |
| Dave Liquorice 2007-11-25, 9:25 am |
| On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:49:09 +0000, K wrote:
> Someone earlier in the thread said " They are legally classed as vermin,
> like rats, mice etc." .... er, wait a minute - wasn't that you? ;-)
Well spotted but at least we have all learnt something. The statemnet
should have read "They are classed as vermin, like rats, mice etc.".
I am rather surprised that there is, apparently, no legal definition of
vermin but then leaving it open means that the dictionary definition
applies. What could be "vermin" in one place and/or situation may not be
"vermin" in another.
--
Cheers new5pam@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
| |
|
| Dave Liquorice <new5pam@howhill.com> writes
>On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:49:09 +0000, K wrote:
>
>
>Well spotted but at least we have all learnt something. The statemnet
>should have read "They are classed as vermin, like rats, mice etc.".
>
>I am rather surprised that there is, apparently, no legal definition of
>vermin but then leaving it open means that the dictionary definition
>applies. What could be "vermin" in one place and/or situation may not be
>"vermin" in another.
>
Very true. I can understand how much of a nuisance grey squirrels can
be, but living in an urban area with very little in the way of wild
mammals, the very few grey squirrels we have are a welcome addition.
--
Kay
| |
| Dave Liquorice 2007-11-25, 5:25 pm |
| On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:26:47 +0000, K wrote:
> Very true. I can understand how much of a nuisance grey squirrels can
> be, but living in an urban area with very little in the way of wild
> mammals, the very few grey squirrels we have are a welcome addition.
Aye, living in one of the few areas of England that still has Red
Squirrels any grey that puts in an appearance is dicing with its life.
Greys have been spotted recently, there has been local fund raising for
traps and a "hotline" to one of the licenced keepers well publicised.
It's not so much the out competing, I suspect the numbers of greys could
be controlled perfectly well by culling but squirrel pox. Greys carry pox
with little or no symptoms, pox has a very high morbity rate in Reds,
killing in less than a two weeks.
--
Cheers new5pam@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
|
|
|
|
|