Do you actually have the squirrel in the cage at this point?

Take it to New Jersey.

ok, fine - just run the hose from the jeep up to the attic and let 'er go. the squirrel will probably be dead when you start feeling lightheaded downstairs.

the jeep is a Hemi. I can't afford that much gas.


i don't know why we ruled out poisoning....

no, glatt, the cage is in the attic propped opened allowing the squirrel to get used to it. i want to be home when i catch it, so that will have to wait until friday night at the earliest. I don't want it in there freaking out for half a day until i can get home to deal with it.

As long as you don't block those entry points, it's no use killing/deporting your guest. :headshake Others are just queueing to move in. :right:

Uh huh.

You drive the Jeep to work?

Why not? You're overthinking this, it's a bushy tailed rat. It's not going to start banging it's tin cup on the bars, it'll probably take a nap until you show up.

Hmm. Hadn't thought of the spreading disease aspect. Or the territorial nature of the other squirrels.

Now, if it were me, I'd drive it down to the nearest vet or animal rescue centre and just dump it on them to deal with :P Say it turned up in my garden/house and seemed injured: barely reacted when i tried to catch it etc etc. And then walk away.

They wouldn't take it. :headshake

That'd depend on the place I'd have thought. I'm pretty sure if I showed up at the local RSPA and said 'here' and dumped the squirrel in its cage on their counter, and then refused to take it away with me, they'd deal with it. Wtf do I know about injured squirrels? They're the animal experts not me. 'T'aint my squirrel. Just found an injured wild thing and took it to someone who might know what to do.

I like squirrels. I did a whole photo series on them years ago. That being said, bruce is right - set the cage, catch the bugger, and put him out in the least messy manner. Hose from the tail pipe is quick and easy and relatively humane.

NEVER


it's jinx's baby

*nods* that does sound a better way to go than poisoned food or drowning.

I remember when we had rats years ago, the pest control guy came and put poison down. I was a little hesitant about the idea. Don;t like the thought of anything going through a slow and painful death. Bastard lied to me and said, it's a pretty quick way for them to go. I being stupid and a little too willing to believe, let him put the stuff down.

There was a juvenile rat in the yard a few days later; clearly in a bad way. Just sitting there and occassionally moving a little, stretching itself out and then curling back into itself. The it started crawling off towards the edge of the yard, slow and painful looking movements. Seemed to be really having to drag itself. Then it was just lying on its side. Still moving a little. twitching every so often. I had to go out, and when I came back it was still there. Still moving a little. Not dead yet.

I killed it in the end with a fuck-off big rock. *slight shudder*

because if there are more than one, i want to minimize the time the squirrel spends trapped alerting others to the danger of the cage.

Poisoning it has the down side of stinking up the joint for weeks or even months if it dies someplace inaccessible like a wall or something. If the squirrel somehow can get the bait without setting off the trap, you might find yourself in a smelly situation.

Gosh that's so humane of you Dana, make it someone else's problem. :rolleyes:

Bruce is right though. They won't take it. I've been this route with the baby squirrels.

Yeah that's what we would have to be careful of. Jim said he had the peanut butter in the cage in a way that it cant get to it from outside though. Not poisoned yet.

An advantage of peanut butter is it can't be carried off whole, like most baits.

good point

*grins* yup. I'm all heart. I was also working on the assumption that they probably have many very humane ways to get rid of such a creature. I have a bit of a soft spot for squirrels. I'm also a bit leary of supposedly humane execution methods, because of the experience with the little rat. Really stuck in my mind.

So far the car exhaust seems the best suggestion.

i took one of those gladware containers that deli meats come in now, and wired it to the back of the cage tilted so even long armed tool using squirrels cant get to it from anywhere but the front.

another point made on that site is that squirrels may not be the only inhabitants. mice can get out of these traps even if they are sprung.

OMFG - Trap it and bring it to my house.

Adopt a large cat and give him a new home in your attic. At least that would keep any mice down and possibly solve your squirrel problem, too.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly....

And a large dog to catch the cat, to catch the bird, to catch the spider... :haha:

edit... too slow:blush:

OK

Just give me a heads-up - I can probably meet you 1/2 way.

Uh, why?

he has a new fryer

I'd use a George Foreman.

I've been mulling over this thread. The idea of the squirrel being killed is something I find mildly upsetting. But I suspect had it been a rat we were discussing; I probably wouldn't have found the idea so upsetting. I have no idea why that'd be the case; because I quite like rats as creatures, as long as they don't make their presence felt in my home.

I guess I just don't think of squirrels as 'vermin'.

I gots me a Cuisinart and a new pie plate.

Perfect that recipe, there's millions of children starving in Africa

There you go, LJ. Ship the squirrel to Arrica. It'll never find its way back from there, and you can write the shipping cost off as a charitable contribution.

Let me know how you feel about it when one starts shitting in your house eh?

I love me some squirrel hunting. Why can I NEVER spell that?

*chuckles* good point. I've never actually come across them indoors before. They're all over the place outdoors. In the woods, in the university campus. My nieces rescued one last year. Called Darwin. Very friendly.

Mainly I think of them as things Pilau likes to chase when we're in the woods:P

Hell, ship it down here, people eat them all the time. On second thought I will just send you a receipe.

Trying to persuade an animal rescue center here to accept a squirrel would be like taking a slug to the RSPCA. There are many, many more squirrels here. You can't go 5 yards in a town without finding one dead on the road. Srsly.

Is squirrel bacon any good?

That's interesting. Would you say your view of squirrels has changed since going to America then?

You probably grew up with Squirrel Nutkin and the squirrel in the road safety vids, like I did. Over here, I think they're viewed less as pests (though there's quite a lot of anomosity towards the grey squirrel, for ousting our beloved British red squirrel).



[eta] Tufty! I've been trying to remember the name of that road safety squirrel. It was Tufty!

Well Birmingham is a little overrun with them, our cats used to catch squirrels in the UK and bring them in through the catflap, and they used to attack us in the park so I wasn't overly fond of them there either. Currently I don't have any in my house and these cats haven't managed to catch one yet, but they're as common as birds, at any given time I can go out in my backyard and see half a dozen, and they're so common squished on the road that notbody says "aw" when they see squirrel corpse. They often cross roads on the overhead cables. and the fuckers dig up my garden and bury nuts in my flower pots. and steal my veggies and eat my sunflowers. bastards. yes i like them less. and the road safety squirrel was an annoying goody-two-shoes iirc

...but I'm real glad we don't step on slugs in the living room anymore. That was nasty.

*shudders*

When I come downstairs in the morning I often find the little silvery trails coming under my front door and going across the kitchen/vestibule and under the cooker.

by the way, the squirrels in Michigan are the size of cats.

How big are the cats ?:P

Dana-sized.

My Dad grew up in Kentucky during the depression. He and his brother would go out and shoot squirrel to put some meat on the family table. He told me that if never tasted a squirrel again, he'd die a happy man.

[Goodies flashback] Are you sure they're not just people in suits pretending to be animals?[/Goodies flashback]

you should see the ones in PA

This video contains content from Channel 4, who has decided to block it in your country....? wtf....CH4 is in my country. Wtf are they doing blocking content from Brits?

well......... search for trigger happy tv squirrels....on UKtube or whatever you got over there

:eek:

That only really separates them from (well trained) dogs, though...

Dogs belong in the barn. [/my (great) granny]

Almost in time -- yesterday was Squirrel Appreciation Day.

We have Youtube...

but you pronounce it differently ;)

How about throwing a couple boxes of Chinese toys up there?

:lol2: