Actually, I doubt it's the urban squirels who are in danger of starvation. As noted, their terroristic tactics of 'feed us or we will eat your homes' has been very successful. They even negotiated a settlement with the avian population, in which the birds agrees to spill 25% of their feed on the ground - in exchange, the squirrels leave their nests unnibbled.

Speaking of Rocky - he was hit particularly hard by the acorn shortage, and was subpoenaed into domestic court for missing palimony payments to both Bullwinkle and Natasha. He's still residing in Fresno with Boris, following a short fling on the dark side with Fearless Leader. Michael was quite right in not mentioning Rocky as a good representative of squirreldom. He really let himself go to pot.

Seriously, if we can manage serious, the effects on the squirrel population will probably be more noted in areas not inhabited by people. So take your nuts out to the National Forests and get back to nature!

Lo None of your images(?) came up on my browser, so I'm having trouble deciding if that should be The Fermented-Pumpkin Eating Squirrel or the Fremented Pumpkin-Eating Squirrel?

There's a squirrel on Spongebob Squarepants, too, or so I hear. (I'd never admit to knowing.)

Kevin, like you, living in northern California, ants are my battle this time of year. I will be buying peppermint oil tomorrow, Diana. Thanks for that tip. We have ants this year living in electrical wall sockets, crawling about, in and out of them...now that's a first.

Squirrels are more squirrely here for sure than they were in Missouri, they scold me and the cats daily, make a mess of the yard biting off tender branches of shore pine but they don't bother my garden much...gophers, deer and turkeys leave them little left to bother. Alas. I have a feeder for squirrels that I bought years ago...they can sit down, relax, eat a whole ear of corn and entertain us while they're doing it. : )

Pat

The beauty of this time of year is that we have a Hachiya persimmon tree outside our kitchen window and the squirrels perform all kinds of risky acrobatics to savor the last fruits of the season. They dangle by one foot, and sway as they reach. I've never seen one drop to the ground, but I often expect it. Persimmon trees are gorgeous at this time. All the leaves have dropped and the orange globes hang and seduce the birds and rodents. How cool to be an urban farmer.

The secret for keeping squirrels off bird-feeders is rubber suction cups. You stick the seed troughs to a large window pane so the squirrel can gain no traction. When we first put ours up, an intrepid squirrel would dive from the roof beam and either miss or bounce off the feeder. After the squirrel experienced about a dozen bad trips it quit. It must have passed the word because none of its tribe have tried it.

However, we also tried hanging suet from a tree branch with monofilament. That was Cirque de Soleil.

Bob

Bob, your squirrels are not like ours. Ours loved suction cups--they just knocked the feeders straight to the ground and dined away.

Wow. I think that our diving squirrel may have yearned for that result, but needed a better bomb sight.

Bob

Welcome Trese, oops - I mean Carol! LOL! Your last
name is close to trees, how cool.

Your post got my curiosity up enough to go looking for photographs of Persimmon trees. Wow, they sure are gorgeous! I checked out ordering one online -- $84.00 potted. So I guess I won't be ordering one. I want to be a tree farmer in my next life.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...e_close-up.jpg

[This message has been edited by Anne Bryant-Hamon (edited December 04, 2008).]