# It's been a bit since anyone has ranted about goddamned squirrels **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 18, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185 "2017-10-18T04:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/21 "2017-10-18T14:51:02Z")
Can we add raccoons to this pit? Bastards keep coming in the cat door and getting into stuff. The boyfriend has shot 4 in the kitchen. I asked why shoot them in the house and he says because it’s illegal to discharge a firearm in the city. Great He must be a good shot since the only other casualty of his 22 is a can of milk. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/22 "2017-10-18T15:33:43Z")
I live on the squirrel highway, so I endorse this pitting. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/23 "2017-10-18T15:41:22Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > Can we add raccoons to this pit? Bastards keep coming in the cat door and getting into stuff. The boyfriend has shot 4 in the kitchen. I asked why shoot them in the house and he says because it’s illegal to discharge a firearm in the city. Great He must be a good shot since the only other casualty of his 22 is a can of milk. Inside your house is still in the city. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/24 "2017-10-18T15:42:38Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Inside your house is still in the city. :dubious: But it’s a castle first. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/25 "2017-10-18T15:51:16Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > But it’s a castle first. 😛 Hmmm…I’ll set up a target range in the hall. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/26 "2017-10-18T16:43:29Z")
my squirrels left when I got neighbors with dogs behind me … but they hibernate this time of year and they get in houses sheds ect … ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/27 "2017-10-18T17:34:22Z")
Love/hate relationship with 'em. On the one hand it is cute to see them scampering around the neighborhood, leaping from power line to tree branch. (When I was young you could buy squirrel sculptures to hang on/sit by your tree. My mother had two of them. Don’t know why, as there were plenty of live squirrels.) So we used to leave a pumpkin or two out for them, and watched as they collected the seeds and buried them. Then they broke into our attic, repeatedly, at which point we decided no more free lunch for them. After several years we were feeling more or less mellow toward them, again, to the point of even leaving another pumpkin out for them last winter. They entertained us, even when they were making off with a giant sunflower (it took two of them; their cooperation or lack thereof was hilarious.) They repaid us by COMPLETELY DESTROYING our hammock. They just ate it right up. I don’t know why it suddenly appealed to them. Was it hemp? We had it for years before they chowed down on it. I don’t know where the Border COllie Police were when that happened. So no pumpkin for them again this year, destructive little buggers. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/28 "2017-10-18T18:50:48Z")
My dog would like to join in on this pitting of squirrels. She says that squirrels are evil and up to no good and that more people should know about the menace. She’s doing what she can to solve the problem and alert others. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/29 "2017-10-18T19:04:03Z")
Hate the little fuckers. I’ve had to replace all four corners of the eaves on my house. And it’s walnut season around here, so they are extra active. Thinking about an air-gun. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/30 "2017-10-18T19:05:55Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > My dog would like to join in on this pitting of squirrels. > She says that squirrels are evil and up to no good and that more people should know about the menace. She’s doing what she can to solve the problem and alert others. Mine has a path worn in the grass from the back door to the oak tree where they sit and taunt him. One of them has figured out that he’s too short to reach the bird feeder and his indignant barking can be simply ignored. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/31 "2017-10-18T20:21:07Z")
I belonged to a carnivorous plant mailing list. [Sarracenia](http://www.sarracenia.com/photos/sarracenia/sarrahyb01003.jpg) capture insects in a leaf rolled into a tube. Squirrels are infamous for destroying the tube to eat the insects. One very sick person described how he would catch squirrels in a have a heart live trap and submerge the trap to drown the squirrels. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/32 "2017-10-18T21:22:43Z")
Squirrels are rodents and therefore habitually chew on anything they can wrap their mouths around. It’s not like they like the taste of telephone wires and hammocks; if they don’t keep their incisors worn down, they’ll make it impossible to close their mouths. Dogs aren’t really the way to go in keeping them in check, however. Owls and hawks are. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/33 "2017-10-18T21:45:15Z")
We do have Cooper’s Hawks hanging out in our condo complex. But get a dachshund or two. They live to chase squirrels. I used to work for an electric company, and they used to circulate the “flashover” report. Squirrels, cats, raptors…any creature big enough to span the wires. My mom retired to AZ, and when she didn’t trust herself to live alone anymore, we moved her back to CA. While we were checking out her car for the trip, we found a jack rabbit living in the engine area. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/34 "2017-10-18T21:59:55Z")
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MziwbQv9zQ0) is why you don’t fuck with squirrels. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/35 "2017-10-18T23:16:26Z")
As you may know, grey squirrels are a horrible invasive pest in England. They’ve shouldered out the little native red squirrels, and are tremendously destructive to farms and peoples’ homes, just like here. I’ve been watching a lot of Squirrel Hunter on youtube. He’s an English fellow who has a Ph.D. in shooting squirrels with an air rifle. His M.O.: set up a specially-designed squirrel feeder on a target property, and when the local squirrel population gets used to feeding there, set up a blind and spend a morning shooting a couple of dozen squirrels. If squirrels enrage you, it’s a satisfying thing to see. In addition, he has a soothing quality to his voice as he narrates the videos. Here’s [one of his squirrel-shooting videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjfo_CH3RDE). Don’t watch it if pest control with a rifle offends you. Anyone wishing to take pest control into their own hands should imitate his method; it looks pretty effective. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/36 "2017-10-18T23:59:11Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’ve always wanted to see a flying squirrel… I have a small catapult, if you want to borrow it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/37 "2017-10-19T00:32:13Z")
Meh, like you and I, they are just trying to make a living. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/38 "2017-10-19T00:45:23Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > As you may know, grey squirrels are a horrible invasive pest in England. They’ve shouldered out the little native red squirrels, and are tremendously destructive to farms and peoples’ homes, just like here. > > I’ve been watching a lot of Squirrel Hunter on youtube. He’s an English fellow who has a Ph.D. in shooting squirrels with an air rifle. His M.O.: set up a specially-designed squirrel feeder on a target property, and when the local squirrel population gets used to feeding there, set up a blind and spend a morning shooting a couple of dozen squirrels. If squirrels enrage you, it’s a satisfying thing to see. In addition, he has a soothing quality to his voice as he narrates the videos. > > Here’s [one of his squirrel-shooting videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjfo_CH3RDE). Don’t watch it if pest control with a rifle offends you. Anyone wishing to take pest control into their own hands should imitate his method; it looks pretty effective. Oddly cathartic. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/39 "2017-10-19T01:29:25Z")
I’ve got one that seems to like to chew on the bottom of my front door frame. 20+ years in this house and this is the first time this has happened. (Our neighborhood is “changing over” from brown squirrels to black and this is a black one.) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185/40 "2017-10-19T01:54:10Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Oddly cathartic. > [@teela\_brown](#): > > As you may know, grey squirrels are a horrible invasive pest in England. They’ve shouldered out the little native red squirrels, and are tremendously destructive to farms and peoples’ homes, just like here. > > I’ve been watching a lot of Squirrel Hunter on youtube. He’s an English fellow who has a Ph.D. in shooting squirrels with an air rifle. His M.O.: set up a specially-designed squirrel feeder on a target property, and when the local squirrel population gets used to feeding there, set up a blind and spend a morning shooting a couple of dozen squirrels. If squirrels enrage you, it’s a satisfying thing to see. In addition, he has a soothing quality to his voice as he narrates the videos. > > Here’s [one of his squirrel-shooting videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjfo_CH3RDE). Don’t watch it if pest control with a rifle offends you. Anyone wishing to take pest control into their own hands should imitate his method; it looks pretty effective. isn’t this illegal like “bear baiting” is in most places ? I mean I have no problem shooting the little rodents but feeding them only to pick them off like that… 'tis unsportsman like 'tis [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-a-bit-since-anyone-has-ranted-about-goddamned-squirrels/799185.md?page=3)