For the past several months, Little Mil and I have been active participants in The Squirrel Relocation Program, a project we conceived and initiated shortly after a good neighbor offered to let us borrow his squirrel trap. I say borrow advisedly because I think we’ve had it now since May or June of 2007. But the neighbor keeps telling us it's okay because his squirrels are gone—probably because he was ambitious enough to pour cement in their burrows after trapping and removing them from his premises—which I’m sure is partly why squirrels new to the neighborhood now set up house in our yard instead of his.
The trap is a simple wonder made of galvanized wire forming a rectangular box with a solid top and flaps at each end which are up when the trap is set, but slam down sealing the critter in when the trap is sprung. It’s very easy to set once demonstrated but very hard to set if you have to be told how to do it over the phone. This we discovered while away on vacation after having left our oldest daughter in charge of The Squirrel Relocation Program (hereafter referred to as The Program). In the short week we were away, at least a dozen squirrels converged on the property to take advantage of the situation and enjoyed a veritable feast from our fully loaded vegetable garden.
Since The Program began, we have managed to trap and relocate approximately 43 squirrels, all of which were driven in air conditioned comfort to a beautifully wooded mountain area a short distance from our home and released into the wild—except for one. This particularly tough old squirrel we found dead in the trap with its teeth clamped tight around the wire. We can only assume it was suicide, because it never happened before nor has it happened since. I had to pry the varmint’s jaws open with a screw driver to get it out of the trap!
The Program has provided an excellent educational experience for our entire family, including the dog; she loves to lecture the trapped squirrels with an incessant bark. It’s also provided some unexpected surprises. In addition to the 43 or so squirrels trapped since inception (including an entire family this summer caught in succession—the baby squirrels were so cute) we have also caught a Scrub Jay, a Gambel’s Quail, and most recently, a great big rat!
Many would be surprised to know that rats are common in Davis County. I was surprised to learn this myself, but the folks at the garden and vermin eradication store told me it’s so. The local rats are not as big and scary looking as New York subway rats, but ours has been hissing at me from the trap now for almost a day and when it bares its little teeth and jumps at me in full fury, it’s scary enough—which is why it’s still in the trap. For some reason, I can’t abide the thought of releasing it back into the wild, yet I don’t have the heart to murder it either. I fed it some rat poison yesterday afternoon hoping it would die in my sleep but dang; these things are as hard to kill as cockroaches!
Finding little Ratatouille alive and well this morning, I fed it a peanut then fixed up the water thing from our hamster cage for it to drink from. It was really kind of tender watching Rata wash his or her little face and paws after consuming the peanut. I find it fascinating that while most wild animals will never eat in captivity, rats apparently do not let anything get in the way of a nice snack. Later, it snatched one of the Quaker Oat Squares I tossed into the trap from mid-air and was eating it before it hit the ground. I think I’ll give our little friend some celery next.
The trap is a simple wonder made of galvanized wire forming a rectangular box with a solid top and flaps at each end which are up when the trap is set, but slam down sealing the critter in when the trap is sprung. It’s very easy to set once demonstrated but very hard to set if you have to be told how to do it over the phone. This we discovered while away on vacation after having left our oldest daughter in charge of The Squirrel Relocation Program (hereafter referred to as The Program). In the short week we were away, at least a dozen squirrels converged on the property to take advantage of the situation and enjoyed a veritable feast from our fully loaded vegetable garden.
Since The Program began, we have managed to trap and relocate approximately 43 squirrels, all of which were driven in air conditioned comfort to a beautifully wooded mountain area a short distance from our home and released into the wild—except for one. This particularly tough old squirrel we found dead in the trap with its teeth clamped tight around the wire. We can only assume it was suicide, because it never happened before nor has it happened since. I had to pry the varmint’s jaws open with a screw driver to get it out of the trap!
The Program has provided an excellent educational experience for our entire family, including the dog; she loves to lecture the trapped squirrels with an incessant bark. It’s also provided some unexpected surprises. In addition to the 43 or so squirrels trapped since inception (including an entire family this summer caught in succession—the baby squirrels were so cute) we have also caught a Scrub Jay, a Gambel’s Quail, and most recently, a great big rat!
Many would be surprised to know that rats are common in Davis County. I was surprised to learn this myself, but the folks at the garden and vermin eradication store told me it’s so. The local rats are not as big and scary looking as New York subway rats, but ours has been hissing at me from the trap now for almost a day and when it bares its little teeth and jumps at me in full fury, it’s scary enough—which is why it’s still in the trap. For some reason, I can’t abide the thought of releasing it back into the wild, yet I don’t have the heart to murder it either. I fed it some rat poison yesterday afternoon hoping it would die in my sleep but dang; these things are as hard to kill as cockroaches!
Finding little Ratatouille alive and well this morning, I fed it a peanut then fixed up the water thing from our hamster cage for it to drink from. It was really kind of tender watching Rata wash his or her little face and paws after consuming the peanut. I find it fascinating that while most wild animals will never eat in captivity, rats apparently do not let anything get in the way of a nice snack. Later, it snatched one of the Quaker Oat Squares I tossed into the trap from mid-air and was eating it before it hit the ground. I think I’ll give our little friend some celery next.
4 comments:
hey,
Its a good job you are doing. The Nations are worried about wild animals. People have to be cautious to understand the importance of these so-called "pests" in our environment cycle.
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It's looking good, fun read as well
ps "play" in the first line of your about me is spelled wrong.
Loved the description of your summer hobby. I have a similar hobby to do with garden slugs only they are not being relocated.
Mills is only half right unless I misunderstand how you really feel about your 'day job'. I think the word is 'plies'.
Thanks for the fun read!
Squirrels! It's a love/hate relationship here. So cute, and yet so persistent in digging up my potted flowers. You are braver than I. Having borrowed the trap and thinking of something alive running around in it while I tried to get it into the air-conditioned comfort freaked me out enough to return it the next day. At wit's end I verbally threatened the squirrels with the threat (empty of course, but they didn't know that) of taking them away where they would never see their families again. Amazingly enough, it worked! Really! There was one other scolding a few weeks later but my plants have remained untouched this summer. Hmmmmm.
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