How I Spent my Christmas Vacation: Terrorizing Squirrels
They're delicious and nutritious, and now they're trying to take over our birdfeeder at home. Since my mom was injured over the holidays and I had to cancel most of my plans to stay at home and take care of her, I had to figure out ways to entertain myself while homebound.
We've always had the occasional squirrel problem around our house; they'll get on the birdfeeder and scare off the birds. My dad used to occasionally shoot at them with the BB gun, which I assume is a standard practice, but after a while, they'd hear the door open, then run just far enough away to be out of range or line of sight for the BB gun. Then they'd run back out and you'd have to stand there opening the door every 5 minutes to keep the squirrels away. And the birds would not come back. If we wanted squirrels, we'd have put up a squirrel feeder. We want birds. They're much more interesting.
Well, this Christmas, I was filling up the birdfeeder and noticing the squirrels were more of a problem this year than in years past, likely for two reasons:
1. We moved the birdfeeder and it's now closer to the woods.
2. My dad has been busy at work and unable to shoot the bastards on a semi-regular basis.
I tried shooting at them with the BB gun, but wound up with the same problem: as soon as they hear the window open, they run off just far enough to get out of range, then come back. While an occasional shot would still help, it was a far cry from being a solution.
With nothing but time on my hands, I began devising a method of squirrel removal. I thought that firecrackers would be great, but the problem is that you've got to open the window, light a fuse, throw the cracker, and then hope it's in the vicinity of the squirrel. Of course, that can be remedied by having the firecracker taped to the tree, but then you have to be standing out there to light it. Can't do that, or no animals will get close to the feeder, so you've got to modify the firecracker so that you can ignite it with electric match remotely from the comfort of your house. To that end, I bought a model rocket engine launch kit and some e-match. The launch controller has a button you press to resistively heat an element coated in black powder (the e-match). This ignites the now greatly shortened fuse to the firecracker.
First test: success. The squirrel rocketed to the woods and not a single one came back for 3 days. The second test was just as successful, but we got more fancy and did a double shot: two black cats. Two squirrels were scared shitless. And even better, we caught it on video. The fuses lit, and the squirrels started to move away from the feeder, but then they explode into full flight when the crackers go off.
We have very little squirrel activity on our feeder now.
We've always had the occasional squirrel problem around our house; they'll get on the birdfeeder and scare off the birds. My dad used to occasionally shoot at them with the BB gun, which I assume is a standard practice, but after a while, they'd hear the door open, then run just far enough away to be out of range or line of sight for the BB gun. Then they'd run back out and you'd have to stand there opening the door every 5 minutes to keep the squirrels away. And the birds would not come back. If we wanted squirrels, we'd have put up a squirrel feeder. We want birds. They're much more interesting.
Well, this Christmas, I was filling up the birdfeeder and noticing the squirrels were more of a problem this year than in years past, likely for two reasons:
1. We moved the birdfeeder and it's now closer to the woods.
2. My dad has been busy at work and unable to shoot the bastards on a semi-regular basis.
I tried shooting at them with the BB gun, but wound up with the same problem: as soon as they hear the window open, they run off just far enough to get out of range, then come back. While an occasional shot would still help, it was a far cry from being a solution.
With nothing but time on my hands, I began devising a method of squirrel removal. I thought that firecrackers would be great, but the problem is that you've got to open the window, light a fuse, throw the cracker, and then hope it's in the vicinity of the squirrel. Of course, that can be remedied by having the firecracker taped to the tree, but then you have to be standing out there to light it. Can't do that, or no animals will get close to the feeder, so you've got to modify the firecracker so that you can ignite it with electric match remotely from the comfort of your house. To that end, I bought a model rocket engine launch kit and some e-match. The launch controller has a button you press to resistively heat an element coated in black powder (the e-match). This ignites the now greatly shortened fuse to the firecracker.
First test: success. The squirrel rocketed to the woods and not a single one came back for 3 days. The second test was just as successful, but we got more fancy and did a double shot: two black cats. Two squirrels were scared shitless. And even better, we caught it on video. The fuses lit, and the squirrels started to move away from the feeder, but then they explode into full flight when the crackers go off.
We have very little squirrel activity on our feeder now.
posted by ChemicalJesus at 5:13 PM
1 Comments:
Not to spoil your fun, but if you don't mind the dead squirls, I hear rat poison works pretty well for those times when you need them to stay away and can't be home.
In the same vein, however, is this little news article:
Colorado approves new method to kill prarie dogs
I'm so proud of the Colorado wildlife division right now :-)
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