# Squirrels...what would you do?



## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Grey and Red squirrels are in my bird feeders all day long. Sometimes up to 8 at a time.

My dilema is this:

Now I can't decide if I should shoot some of them or leave them be because after all its winter. Would I not be the world's biggest hypocrite if I killed some squirrels who are doing nothing more than exactly what the birds are doing...trying to make the best of winter eating the food I put out.

.What say you?

Larry


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## Deadshotjonny (Jan 20, 2013)

I'd have to shoot the red squirrels because the tend to wreck things. I might leave the greys alone, depends on if they are breaking the feeder or not


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Put collars above the feeders if possible and set up a separate feeding area for the squirrels.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Grain fed squirrel ! Made right squirrel is goooood eatin' ! Them grain fed ones might be even better.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Surely you jest Don! Trust me when I say this, the only difference between the a rat and a squirrel is the hair on its tail. Now I might think different if I was starving.


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

I love squirrels, but they have to be par-boiled first.

I took out over 2 dozen red squirrels this year and fed them to the vultures on our varmint pile out back - right with the raccoons. Makes a good focal point when coyote hunting. I've had too many issues with the reds chewing things up. Trouble is, there's no keeping them out. If you plug a hole, they'll chew a new one. Take 'em out. All of them. In Michigan, there are good reasons why there is no closed season and no limit on the buggers.

Now gray squirrels, on the other hand, have a bit more meat on them, but are not nearly as destructive as reds. Wouldn't shoot 'em 'less I was hungry. Plus, there's a season on them, so the rulebook matters.

As far as the difference between squirrels and rats...I'd say it's what they eat. But, they look the same skinned.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Glen, send me your address Ill send you some fresh ones!



glenway said:


> ""I love squirrels, but they have to be par-boiled first. ....""


 Glen send me your snail mail address 'Ill send you some real fresh ones. They will be in container marked "Omaha Steaks"


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Careful Glen. He's not in Nebraska 1


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## 4Cody4 (Dec 24, 2012)

Squirrels are good eating, you guys sound narrow minded.

If you feel bad shooting them, I'd feed them corn or something cheaper than bird food away from your feeders.

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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

4Cody4 said:


> Squirrels are good eating, you guys sound narrow minded.
> 
> If you feel bad shooting them, I'd feed them corn or something cheaper than bird food away from your feeders.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I agree squirrels taste just fine. But then so does dog and monkey if you add enough spices.

I live in Iowa, the reason the squirrels are on the feeder is because bird seed taste better than corn!


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

There was a guy on here some time ago, who couldn't stand the notion of eating a squirrel; said it made him feel uneasy. I suggested he fast for a few days to see if that feeling subsided.

I had an old-timer farmer friend, Charley Coston, who liked squirrel more than any other meat. No kidding. He wasn't much of a shot, so I always took a few just for him. Cooked them perfectly with some rice on the side and ran it down the road one mile to his farm on a hot plate covered with foil. Did it many times.

And, it was a squirrel dinner I offered him, if he could only get well enough to leave the hospital, but he never made it home.

Perception can be downright thought provoking.


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## 22magnum (Feb 10, 2013)

I love squirrel

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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Glen you like deer also. Remember my saying: " If deer was such a great food we would have deer in pens and not cattle"

Okay Ill end this on eating squirrel as I want advice on how to keep the "rats" out of my feeder!. I grew up eating squirrel, raccoon, coots, mink, beaver, muskrat, rabbits, pheasants and all that roamed outside a pen. The exception we had few deer and I could not afford a licence even if I could see one. I had it boiled, with mushroom soup and rice and even ate BBQ'd raccoon in summer.

My family had nothing so we had too eat what we could and manage a garden from spring melt to the fall frost. For many of those reasons I went overboard on college degrees and later obtained some fantastic paying jobs. There lies my prejudice in eating wild things.

I am neither of narrow mind nor thought, I just prefer my comfort food which is steak, seafood and potatoes.

My condolences to your friend and you Glen and I admire what you did.

4Cody4...take no ill will from me young man as I mean none! For what its worth I am narrow minded, but only when I think!


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## pokeyjeeper (Sep 5, 2013)

Larry rap tin around your bird feeder post and that should keep those tree rats out of your feeder or make a cone out of tin and put it under the feeder like young don said or you could run 220 out to the feeder and keep them out and the ones that don't stay out will get BBQ and you'll have fresh BBQ tree rat


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Dang, Pokey. Did you get that idea from the IBEW handbook or what? Maybe you could donate some of that tin foil or your entire hat!


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## prairiewolf (Feb 19, 2012)

"If deer was such a great food we would have deer in pens and not cattle"

I will probably offend a lot on here but I must state my opinion on this, I think this is happening with all the deer feeding year round and then sit and wait for them to come to supper !!

Sorry guys, I am just an old cantankerous man but even though I think this way it is still a way of hunting and I will always support our rights to hunting, no matter the method.


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## kiyote (Jun 15, 2014)

TheDuckMaster said:


> Surely you jest Don! Trust me when I say this, the only difference between the a rat and a squirrel is the hair on its tail. Now I might think different if I was starving.


I agree. but if I WERE STARVIN ,I WOULD GLADLY EAT THE SOUTH END OUT OF A NORTH BOUND SQUIRREL.


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## kiyote (Jun 15, 2014)

prairiewolf said:


> "If deer was such a great food we would have deer in pens and not cattle"
> 
> I will probably offend a lot on here but I must state my opinion on this, I think this is happening with all the deer feeding year round and then sit and wait for them to come to supper !!
> 
> Sorry guys, I am just an old cantankerous man but even though I think this way it is still a way of hunting and I will always support our rights to hunting, no matter the method.


NO HARM NO FOUL. being cantakerous is how one gets to be an old man.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

I used to get cantankerous sores on my inner lips as a kid. I have heard some men get them in other places. Guess I learned something as I never knew they were a sign you were getting old. :roflmao:

Here's the issue pokey, I can run tin on the one in ground and that might help. But that means I might also have to prune a big branch as they dive bomb from above also.

The second one is on a piece of number 9 wire hung over the gutter lip. Now here in Iowa we have the brainiacs of squirrels. Not to mention olympic gold medal gymnast. You see they have figured out how to climb up the honeysuckle vine planted for the hummingbirds. Then they jump on the greenhouse, run along the ridge , jump to the house and here's the best one. They carefully back up, holding on to the gutter with their front paws, reach and reach until the find the number nine wire with their back paws and then just roll backwards until their front paws land on the feeder.

Mind you this feeder is 6 inches from the patio doors. I can literally walk right up to galls doors and the feeder carrying a squirrel and it will juts look at me. Grab some more food and eat it right there in front of me. The minute it here's me grab the door handle zoom its gone. When it heres the door go shut its at the base of the honeysuckle starting its move.

Maybe I need to get an electric fencer from the farm.


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## pokeyjeeper (Sep 5, 2013)

Yeah sounds like you need to run a hot wire and give them a little poke that will be some good entertainment


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Ill be setting traps and calling in the AM. Ill grab the fencer and rig me up one of these.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

You need to video the acrobatic squirrels Larry.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Don, I am still having issues posting videos on PT. Ill video anyway and maybe later someone can post it for me.


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## Mo Mo (Sep 16, 2016)

Have some fun, use a blow gun and cook them up! Squirrel is tasty.


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## prairiewolf (Feb 19, 2012)

Use a 460 S&W, then you wont have to worry about what to do with them, they will be gone !! but maybe the feeder also


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## 22magnum (Feb 10, 2013)

thought of this thread

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## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

:roflmao: Those must be Colorado squirrels.

awprint:


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## Mo Mo (Sep 16, 2016)

catcapper said:


> :roflmao: Those must be Colorado squirrels.
> 
> awprint:


That's weird, first thing I thought of too....


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

It won't be long and those squirrels could be in any one of a large number of states. They voted for TRUMP and Pot !


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## murphyranch (Dec 9, 2015)

You won't feel too bad taking them out after they happen to find a way into your attic and start chewing up wires, nesting and dropping more unos and deuces than you can keep up with. The only kudos I can think of to give a squirrel would be to all the males for being blessed with such a large man bag of nuts.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

murphyranch said:


> ............ squirrel would be to all the males for being blessed with such a large man bag of nuts.


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## murphyranch (Dec 9, 2015)

That would be worse than having them in a vise


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## kiyote (Jun 15, 2014)

that is one brutal way to die


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Makes me clench and grimace just looking at it.


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## pokeyjeeper (Sep 5, 2013)

Lol that picture brings a whole new meaning to got ya by the short ones


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

A Cooper's hawk that has been resident around here for three years is now eating the birds, eating the seed at my feeders. Mr. Coopers last grab,,5 mins prior! Left red cardinal feathers along the ground after a crash by both into the patio doors!

*BUT THE SQUIRRELS ARE GONE!*


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## pokeyjeeper (Sep 5, 2013)

Man your having quite the time keeping those birds fed and safe those hawks taste like chicken I've been told


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

My local Cooper's hawk favorite fast food is mourning dove. They don't bother with lesser birds. I can't recall seeing anything else. After the first snow, I found dove remnants 3 days in a row. The piles of feathers are usually deposited under my white pines.

That's one unintended consequence of putting feed out.

Had one hit me in the back of the head a couple years ago, while leaning against an oak tree squirrel hunting. Dang thing came back for a second look close up on a branch before figuring my gray hair poking out from my hat was gonna be a tough meal.


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## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

TheDuckMaster said:


>


This is truly where the term "Nut Job" came from. In a sentence....that squirrel was a nut job. :roflmao: :roflmao:


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## akiceman25 (Dec 28, 2015)

How bout a Slinky!?


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