Topic: Squirrels

[flowerlady]

Have spent the day moving all my treasures into an old cold frame.   It was going up to the lottie.

Doesn't lok very glamerous but it will certainly fix the whole b****y family that has just moved into the garden  >:

Haven't had time go buy any amonia.

Do you think the stuff will harm my little bulbs? 

Chicken pellets smell of amonia, perhaps I could use that?   I'd certainly get good foilage!  and flowers?

What do you think?

[doc steve]

Doc Steve:

Great ! Love it ! Brilliant idea!

One problem with that (othe than the obvious) is that i am a poor shot and miss - even if the litle blighter walked up a nd tapped me on the shoulder! ;D :D

   lol thats ok it has  a  twin eight shot capacity   so you have loads of  goes  ;D

[Garden Manager]

Just replaced our peanut feeder in an attempt to stop the blighters pinching all the nuts. After trying to break open the bottom of the old feeder, they learnt to knock it on the ground and open and empty it there. The new feeder is of similar design, but is a tighter fit on its support and has a better fitting lid. No doubt though it wont be long before they work out how to get the nuts out of this one too!

Did anyone see the article in todays Daily Mail? Whilst not exactly in support of the greys, it argued that the planned red squirel areas in the north combined with a grey cull was a bad idea and theat things should be left to nature.

I have to admit they are fun to watch (and quite handsome creatures in their own way) but a pain when they dig things up in the garden!

[Rosa_Mundi]

The problem with leaving things to nature is that the reds will not survive - the grays are bigger, more aggressive and more successful. The time when things should have been left to nature was before the grays were introduced as a curiosity.

[Garden Manager]

The article i read seemed to suggest that if the reds were going to be wiped out then it wouldve hapened already. Greys have been here for nearly 150 years, plenty of time IMO.  Apparently the habitats where the reds still thrive are places the greys dont like so much. 

I also read that the reds themselved had been reintroduced to britain not long before the greys arrived, and were in decline for other (natural) reasons when the greys arrived.

[redimp]

I am all for leaving well alone - that is what I believe in.  But if all had been left well alone, we wouldn't have grey squirrels, mink etc.  These do need dealing with.

PS I will restate that both rabbits and hares (and yes ground elder) have been here long enough to be exempt from said pronouncements.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I think you meant grey squirrels. Trouble is, with so many of us crammed into these islands, and such a history of introducing and wiping out flora and fauna, I don't think there's much of a future to 'let well alone'.

[Wickham]

We discussed the problems of grey squirrels a short while ago. Check at:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/yabbse/index.php/topic,11727.20.html

A recurrent menace!!