The squirrels

Squirrels

Yesterday on my drive home, windows down, wind blowing in

my hair a squirrel ran out in front of me and before I knew it

my car took on a mind of its own and started to veer off towards

him. The car did not hit him, those critters are so fast……but

oh how I aimed….I mean how my car aimed at him!

Why would I aim (yes, I will own up to it now) at a small

little critter like a squirrel? I use to think they were cute

and fun to watch as I sat on the deck. But, I did have issues

with them eating all the seed I put out for the birds. Little

did I know that over the years of feeding the birds, I was

probably drawing more of those cute, fun, no good, pest

to my yard!

This winter I found out just how not so cute they can be

when I started to hear a noise in my attic above my bed

one morning. I did not think a lot of it since the squirrels

usually ran across the roof from time to time. A few days

later while making the bed I heard them again, only being

more awake I realized that they sounded more inside and

not out. So…I ran out to look, no squirrels. Within the next

few days the winter decided to turn off a bit colder. A bit

my rear, it got freezing cold and the noise above my head

got worse. I don’t know if one was in heat or if one was fighting

off others from coming in but the noise that they were

making was somewhat like a crying baby. And the running,

oh my gosh, they were partying above my head and had not

invited me to join in.

What had happened was this, where two boards meet at

the corner of my house, access to the eve that jets out over

my bedroom windows, right above the head of my bed, they

chewed a hole. Yep…a perfect round hole. At that time they

began rodents, not cute critters. The running I was hearing

must have been where they were running up and down the

eve over the windows where there was no insulation. Once

they jumped into the attic I never really heard them, but oh

how they loved to run!

This one night was the worse, the night the temp dropped and it

was 11 degrees at 5:30 the next morning as I stood out in my

gown and waited for one of them to pop his head out of the hole.

What was I going to do? I have no clue, throw a rock maybe…I think

I was just so stressed, no sleep, tired, pissed and I wanted to see how

many came out. None showed their heads, my guess was they were

catching up on their sleep.

I called a pest company that morning. They were there by 9am.

It cost me a pretty penny to have the things trapped, relocated

(in the river I hope), a piece of metal screwed over the hole to

prevent return and the attic treated to kill an sent so that no

more made the choice to try and get in. I also paid to have the

trees cut away from the house….All in all $875.00.

The traps are set in the yard so that no damage is done to wires

in the house, apparently they use their paws to grab at anything

when caged. Nine of those demons were relocated (did I stress that

I hope they went in the river). Now, when I go out I do not have

squirrels swinging from limb to limb like monkeys would do.

I might see one here and one there. At first they did manage to

get on the roof, tried to chew their way back in at the metal that

was put up…finally to give up. I will have that repaired this summer.

But thank goodness I don’t have to repair the ceiling in my bedroom,

because if I had a shot gun, I would have blown more then one hole

in that ceiling that cold, freezing night.

So, if you have not gathered, I have no love for these critters anymore.

I have not even been feeding the birds for fear of drawing more back to

the yard again. Sixteen years of living in this house and I would never

have thought I would have to deal with that!

Yes, I think I will continue to aim at the squirrels!

Now to tackle the moles in the yard!

Pam