Sunday, January 13, 2013

The war escalates

Last year I ranted on about the deer - how they either ate everything in bloom, stripped plants and shrubs before they could bloom, or otherwise trampled things down as they went after things just out of reach.  I will never have anything nice to say about deer unless it's whether to serve them with red wine or a nice rose!  Even now, as winter crawls by,  they roam every night, gnawing down my yews, etc. 

I was glad of one thing - deer can't climb trees.  Tall stuff was safe.

Until now.

Now another species has made it to my hit-list: squirrels.  I've never, ever had a beef with squirrels, until this winter.

For the past 5 weeks I've watched from the windows as they systematically stripped my shrubs of bark and ate next year's tree blossom.  It's not like it's 20 below and deep snow.  No.  The winter is mild.  The ground is friable.  The buried nuts are everywhere.  But I've never seen them dig them up.  Instead ....


The top:  more than half of all magnolia buds have been eaten by squirrels.

The middle:  there are only one or two flower buds left on the entire dogwood tree.

The bottom:  I hold out no hope for the mock orange shrubs.  Most of the mature limbs have been stripped of all bark - which will kill the plant.

As I type they are now in the magnolia.  Sure.  There's not much left anywhere else for them to destroy.

Yep, things are going to get a little more hard-line around here.  Relatives living in Louisiana don't have this particular problem, though.  But then, they enjoy squirrel stew - a lot.  (Note to self - email cousin for recipe.)

Just remember, they started it. :-(

7 comments:

  1. You need dogs in your neighborhood!

    I didn't know squirrels could do so much damage. I would go after them any way I could. I would skip on the squirrel stew though. Been there; done that....fried and with dumplings!

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  2. Squirrels! Don't get me started on squirrels, the blasted little buggers. Do pass on the recipe for squirrel stew. I have two in my freezer waiting to be turned into ... something.

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    1. Sorry, Leigh. Lost your comment in the spam pile. Tell me, how did you entice the little buggers to get INTO your freezer in the first place? ;-D

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  3. I don't think shooting a BB gun falls under city gun ordinances. You can also try an air rifle, which shoots out little balls. They might discourage the squirrels enough that they eat someone else's trees. Believe it or not, I actually hate guns. But you're at war so let 'em have it!

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    1. Ah, we are on such a wavelength, you and I. To keep things alive and thriving for the rest of the wildlife, some must be *persuaded* to forage elsewhere. POW

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  4. That last photo is just a tad creepy

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    1. Hmmm. Does look rather gothic. Needs a little ominous organ music in the background to top it off. Thanks for visiting. :-D

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