Squirells......what next.......

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adam1

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I know this may sound funny....but i will say it anyway.

I have noticed a few of these little gremlins in our garden....when now the little ****** have decided to climb our house and have decided to take refuge in the loft. Not sure how they get in...but the're out there chipping away at something.

The annoying thing is they wake you up early in the am and on my day off is just unbearable......i mean I have a 0800am start and get up at 6 am 5 days a week....so a 6.30 wake call is not required.

So what is the best method of sorting this.....i don't posses a Gun, and I'm no robin hood, and I'm not going to run after them with a baseball bat.....any sane ideas.......
 
I was just inflating my friends old bicycle inner tube... it had a slow leak so he changed it. Did you know that if youre using a compressor it makes a HELL of a bang?

On a more serious note... If you are willing to clean up (quite a bit) a little corn-flakes and laxative work wonders. Alternatively, I had found a "Animal Lover" thing in PoundLand a while ago, it just buzzes away (ultrasounds luckily) and is meant to scare them away... you could try that...
 
May be stating the obvious, but there is little point in getting rid of the current invaders without proofing the house against the next wave...you can get traps [humane], poisons, or call in a specialist, but you need to find and seal up the entrance they are using.
 
Make sure that the little blighters arnt the Red variety as they are a protected species I think
 
Its worse than I thought, we now have communist squirrels! "come the revolution all grey squirrels will be lined against the wall" well thats what Wolfie would have said.
 
Its worse than I thought, we now have communist squirrels! "come the revolution all grey squirrels will be lined against the wall" well thats what Wolfie would have said.


and he was right. The Grey bunch do lots of damage :D
 
If you want an ultrasonic squirrel scarer you can have it: absolutely bloody useless.

I had an infestation of the buggers a couple of years ago. I made the mistake of ignoring them for a while until in spring it sounded like there were dozens of then scampering around. They had been breeding and the young ones were now playing chase around the loft space and making a terrible mess. In trees they are cute little things. In a domestic setting they are nothing less than disease infested rats with furry tails.

They had to go. I wondered how they got in and the answer is simple. Squirrels can climb vertical tree trunks and do not find brick walls much of a challenge. If there is a gap you can stick your finger through they can get in.

Tried to scare them off with all manner of things but no good.

Professional exterminator made the sharp intake of breath noise usually associated with plumbers and MB Service Managers. Expensive and results not certain.

Tried Rat Poison. Seemed to have no effect. Unless you have absolutely nobody around you letting fly with even a .410 shotgun is always going to cause grief.

So the solution was sitting at night in the loft space with an air rifle and a lot of patience. Wife thought I was nuts and offered to buy me a black balaclava.

Stopped sniggering and telling her friends that "Yes, Man the Hunter is in the loft again, heee, heee, heee...." when I got two of them and message understood within the Squirrel community. Rest vanished soon after.

And I reckon none of that will make you feel any better.
 
Aarrrrrrrrr.......

I need to target practice.....anyone know of a good air gun training centre.

I think they're getting in thru the air circulation holes in brickwork. They climb up the drainage pipes and I can't fiqure out which holes they use....I was thinking of actually creating more air vents to reduce the condensation biuld up in the house.

So Rentokil rat poison no good....that was my main strategy..... Thing is there breeding and its a hide and seek playground up there at times. We can even see then go pass on the window edge and say "hello" as if they've been invited to a house party in the loft.

My patience is running out with these ******
 
Thoughts of Jasper Carrot with a shotgun and a swivel chair are now entering my head. I dont mean to find your problem funny but this picture I now have needs a major chuckle. Maybe you could use a laser sight and that would give them a heart attack, but only if they have been watching the right films.
 
adam1 said:
Aarrrrrrrrr.......

I need to target practice.....anyone know of a good air gun training centre.


My patience is running out with these ******

Just buy yourself one. No restrictions on anything producing under 12ft-lbs energy and a half decent in .22 will do for a rabbit at 30 yards. The chances are that you would not be shooting at more than 10 yards so basic iron sights are ok.

Zap away at a safe target like an old telephone directory as long as you do not discharge it within 50 feet of a public road or right of way. Make absolutely sure the pellets cannot leave you property and you do not upset the neighbours.

Once you can reliably put pellets into a 1 inch circle at say 15 yards Mr Nutkin will soon be history

http://www.airgunbuyer.com/intro_to_airguns.asp
 
I had the same problem - which trust me needs to sorted as they will chew through your electrical lighting cables and also the joists which is v. expensive.

you might try ringing the council - a chap came and fitted a great big Rat trap (like a spring mouse trap only bigger and more vicious) which was secured with a wire to stop them dragging it about - set it with a piece of kitkat - killed two in two days - I thought that was poor value as they charged me £70 and you can get the traps in B&Q for about £10.

my loft was impossible to secure from the outside because of the design of the roof so i spent a very uncomfortable weekend stapling chicken wire inside the loft along the eaves between the roof and the outside wall edges which together with that hard-setting expanding foam (they don't like the taste of chewing it) has solved the problem - although i still need to check every now and then.

My neighbours tried air-rifles but it all got very messy...and I would recommend killing them, but this place does sell live traps :live and dead traps
 
I had the same trouble once. I found being in a dimly lit, non floor boarded loft, crossing from rafter to rafter trying to se where the Squirells are (have you seen the size if the teeth on grey squirrells?) quite scarey.

I look a primative approach of hoping they were out and smashing up their nest they had made in the corner of the eves.

Didn't work. But the problem went away. Ex at the time was a bit wacky and had a semi-ferrell cat. Cat figured the squirrells were coming and going from same place and in the space of a fortnight caught and killed them all. I cleared about 5 from the garden and the elderly couple next door were distressed the "nice squirells we have been feeding" are dead!
 
Ah, all you need is a bit of boarding, a light that clamps under the barrel and strong drink.

Wait till you hear them move, turn the light on and aim between the two evil eyes glinting back at you. Job done

Muwahahahahaha........... :devil:
 
Satch said:
Ah, all you need is a bit of boarding, a light that clamps under the barrel and strong drink.

Wait till you hear them move, turn the light on and aim between the two evil eyes glinting back at you. Job done

Muwahahahahaha........... :devil:

I am trying to think of a new name for Satch the Stalker :)

Satch the Assinator???

These things as has already been stated look very pretty in the garden, or the countryside but in the house they not only do terrible damage, but can spread awful diseases.

Now just look through the telescopic sight. Aim as near to the eye as possible, then when she looks at you, try not to think of the little family she has, and how they will all starve to death when you pull the trigger. Or... how you badly injure the pesky rodent and it crawls into an inacessible corner and slowly dies a terrible death, then rots away, leaving an awful smell!!!!

I am being awful and the long tailed rats have to go!!!!

Good luck, and good shooting.

John
 
Hardly a job title of choice, but I understand that if you obtain a Firearm for the express purpose of pest control, you are then classed as a "Vermin Man"!

Plugging the blighters with an air rifle is a bit drastic but the alternatives were equally grim.

If you do manage to poison them they usually manage to die in the darkest warmest place they can find. If you then cannot get to the corpse it really starts to become nasty.

Even if you take the "humane" option of a live trap and get them, under the Destructive Imported Animals Act 1932, it is illegal to let them go again. So having paid good money for trap and caught the creatures in the first place then have to (i) fish angry, distressed, flea and lice infested rodents out of the trap without getting bitten and (ii) kill them. Great!

(And lest anybody think I go around laying waste to wildlife we have a small number of Pipistrelle Bats roosting under the soffits from time to time. They are perfectly welcome.)
 
If they are grey squirrels, poison them. After all they are only rats with bushy tails :D :D
 
Satch said:
Hardly a job title of choice, but I understand that if you obtain a Firearm for the express purpose of pest control, you are then classed as a "Vermin Man"!

I would not tolerate squirrels in my loft. Poisoning is not a method of choice for me. I would go with Satch's suggestion. A .22 calibre might be slightly overkill and a .177 might be the better option, however that is purely symantic's and if you have a .22 then that is certainly sufficient. I do accept however that not everyone might either approve, or be capable of killing. I would simply say that squirrels do multiply very quickly, try blocking off entrance holes, putting drain covers over pipes, removing overgrown, tree's or bushes etc. Don't forget squirrels can jump huge distances.

John
 
with bushy tails

if you do kill them can you keep the tails for forum members - they may be quite good for hand polishing of paintwork or for alloy wheel spoke cleaning ;)
 
all squirrels are cute n lovely. If they need to be removed it should be done humanely.

Used to have loads in our garden when we lived in Sheffield - was great to watch them tease the cats :D
 
pammy said:
all squirrels are cute n lovely. If they need to be removed it should be done humanely.

Noted. I shall use the 12 bore next time.
 

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