Squirrels need to go says my Wife
- Thread starter Baldone
- Start date
Be I’m not for total elimination of species on the planet…. But they’ve declared war on you, and the wife has signed off on the local populations utter demise. With prejudice….
Have fun! I hate squirrels. We have the red ones… no good for eating-taste like turpentine , and they’re incredibly destructive. The ravens love em though.
Might I suggest a feeding station? Stock it with sunflower seeds let the habituate to using it and you can clear all of the out in the spot with the best backstop. I knew one old guy who would shoot them off his bird feeders. He’d get 75-120 every single year. Prolific little tree rats. But it kept the population knocked back pretty well. They can have multiple batches of young between 3-7 little ones.
Have fun! I hate squirrels. We have the red ones… no good for eating-taste like turpentine , and they’re incredibly destructive. The ravens love em though.
Might I suggest a feeding station? Stock it with sunflower seeds let the habituate to using it and you can clear all of the out in the spot with the best backstop. I knew one old guy who would shoot them off his bird feeders. He’d get 75-120 every single year. Prolific little tree rats. But it kept the population knocked back pretty well. They can have multiple batches of young between 3-7 little ones.
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ThomasT
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- Apr 25, 2021
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Hello @Baldone
They are "pest" and that is why we have PCP airguns
. In the past they destroyed 6 Blue Bird bird house that I made out of cedar, dug up most of two rows of corn seeds that I had just planted and so on. I would see as many as eight in my yard at one time, now only one or two a day and I almost always "tattoo" at least one of them Good shooting,
ThomasT
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Most states consider squirrels game animals and taking them is covered under wildlife management hunting laws. Just saying.
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My state fortunately has a year round season with no bag limits or take restrictions. If they are grey squirrels and game animals there may be a season. There’s usually a nuisance animal permit available for critters destroying property in most places if there is a season in your area.
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They do have a season here, but anything with proof of destruction of property can be taken out of season.
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Squirrels are a game animal in my state too. And shooting an air rifle within the city limits is also prohibited in my town. So, maybe I'll get a quantity discount! But seriously, I think the practical considerations are much more important than any legal issues. If you keep the pellets on your property, and your rifle is suppressed, unless you advertise what you're doing you should not have any problems. I have two neighbors close enough to see me, but I've talked with them about the squirrel problem, and they understand. Especially one, who had over $500 damage to his car wiring from squirrels.
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Where I live you must allow their Destruction during the Summer, and get Revenge in the Fall/Winter.
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If you have red squirrels you have a problem, they will destroy anything and everything on your property just to mess with you . Every one of those critters I take-out justifies every penny I have spent on my back yard defense arsenal. In fact I am saving money every time I make an airgun related purchase.
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Who knows now a days it pays to check everything out first LOL ! He could be exempted or have some sort of special status or maybe he is a rescue Squirrel
haha. Just a Joking Poke of course lol . No offense intended .Upvote 0
Squirrels are a game animal here in massachusetts, starts in September and goes through the cold months. I believe this is due to them being a host for bot flies. Once the temp drops and they are no longer carrying oversized maggot shaped bot fly larvae hunters are more likely to eat them, result in less killed and discarded animals. I don't think squirrel population numbers have anything to do with it here.
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Whew! That is a none appealing appearance for sure haha !
I think I remember a story from a while back about some members going squirrel hunting and running into a Game Warden for a check . He said something to the effect of one of his crew mentioned that he had shot one that looked gruesome / bot fly ridden (for lack of a better word from me ) to the Warden and the Warden told him to go get it . The Warden then skinned it out in front of them and explained in a harsh way that they did no damage to the actual meat Bye showing them the skinned game and proceeded to give the poor fellow a ticket . Now this is my memory only which is not always a steal trap haha. I could be mistaken about a few things but I am sure someone here will point it out if I am.
I have no desire to eat one that looks that gruesome but my point is I found it a enlightening piece of information at the time . I have not tested it out myself yet . But I did find it very interesting .
To the OP == Wow that is some serious damage and cannot go ignored . Best of luck to you Sir I agree with your wife and I am almost positive you do too haha .
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I have started putting raw in the shell peanuts on top of back stop at 60 yards but haven't had a chance to catch them in the act.
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My father in law had major squirrel problems with vehicles. They took out the main wiring harness on his Prius that was a very expensive repair(edit-I just remembered they did that harness twice, once after the replacement parts became unavailable from the manufacturer), one trip my brother in law made down there they took out the harness on his car.
The final straw for the father in law was when they chewed a hole about a quarter of the way up on his Toyota Tundra's gas tank…he pulled into the gas station and went to fill up and gas was just dumping everywhere…after that it was full on war at his house. In the tall oaks there his preferred solution was a 12 guage with birdshot.
The reds I’m dealing with don’t seem to like vehicle wiring as much as his grey squirrels do though. I’ve been there and watched the darn things just running across the big yard to a parked vehicle. That was weird behavior I thought.
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I wouldn’t eat it personally…I’m not squeamish, but I don’t think I could get past that. It’s a pretty rough looking critter. The workaround is to remove it from the field. Take it to a ”center for processing” (home) as our rules read…then cremate the nasty little bugger…
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The game warden was right. The parasite looks nasty, but it doesn't invade below the skin. The meat is not affected. The remaining question, is good squirrel meat all that good? I grew up hunting and eating them, and my experience is that younger squirrels tend to be rather tender and tasty. Older specimens, tough as shoe leather. My advice, dump them in a crock pot for a few hours with your favorite veggies, take it all out, throw away the squirrels and enjoy the veggies.
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Holdover , yuk ! I must say I've never seen those bot larvae in anything but rabbits or cats . On occasion I"ve seen them on G-hogs also.
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