Quote:
Originally posted by Diane Dees:
Every serious gardener I know, including myself, enjoys the squirrels.
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Ummm, if you do a google search using the words "squirrels" and "gardening" you get over 2,200,000 hits - and the greater majority of them are not favorable. (In fact, a quick read of the first 3 pages of links are unanimously unfavorable.)
I mean, I LIKE squirrels (especially here in Va. where we have black squirrels, something I've never seen before) but even I, as a squirrel-lover, know that they're hell on gardens - and bird feeders - and sometimes electrical wires if you have any exposed outside. They'll dig and chew anything - and they'll take over a bird feeder like no one's business.
I had two of them climb down my chimney once - ending up in my family room drop ceiling somehow - and I can't even begin to tell you how much damage they did before I managed to entice them up the stairs and out the door more than 24 hours after their arrival. (I actually called a "Pest Control" advertisement in the local telephone directory and two guys with shotguns showed up at my door - but I didn't take advantage of their offer....I chose to make deposits of peanut butter crackers down the hall and up the stairs and through the kitchen and out the back door instead....sort of a Hansel and Gretel solution....I'm sure the dudes with the shot guns could have dispatched them much quicker but I'm also pretty sure that shotgun damage would have occured, as well.)
Anyhow....they aren't too beloved among the gardeners I know - serious ones or not. Nor the bird-lovers, either, for that matter.
But...since I don't garden and I live in a condo without bird feeder access, I'll do my part and buy some peanuts and feed the little black squirrels and the grey squirrels and the brown squirrels and (most especially) the little squirrel with no tail who hangs out around my car at work all day coz no one will play with him.
He's my favorite one of all.