They do a shed load of damage to young trees, you wouldn't want one in your loft chewing your electrics, quite tasty.
There's a start, but while they stay out my loft, they're safe in my garden.
Dave
They do a shed load of damage to young trees, you wouldn't want one in your loft chewing your electrics, quite tasty.
There's a start, but while they stay out my loft, they're safe in my garden.
Dave
Smell my cheese
they take young birds and eggs. atb mick
Squirrels will often take eggs and chicks, cats are just as bad(we have one but luckily it prefers mice and a few voles), and Magpies are the other issue and threat to eggs and chicks. This year around our garden and buildings we have had Great tits nesting, Blue tits, Goldfinch, pied wagtail, a thrush, a wren, Whitethroat, Blackbird, pheasant, and a Robin, that I know of.
Squirrels Rabbits and Magpies are the only things I shoot nowadays, but only to protect the large number of nests on our place, I am lucky enough to have a little bit of land and the trees I have planted(about400) are being targeted by rabbits sometimes, squirrels on the more established trees, although the Deer have nobbled four 2 year old 4 foot birch saplings in the last week.
I like to see a few squirrels but they are a nuisance, and I usually wait till there are more than a couple. The foxes like them as a food supplement.
Last edited by DEAN C.; 11-06-2020 at 10:06 PM.
BASC
One of the invasive species on natural England website that needs eradicating.
,AA , Magtech , Arnie, Sako, Ruger . plus the others .
Presumably they don't normally move into peoples houses do they?
And I'm guessing most people don't have too many young trees in their gardens either.
But even then they seem to populate many woods without detriment to where they live...
They do massive amounts of woodland damage.
Dave
Smell my cheese
Last edited by bighit; 11-06-2020 at 09:13 PM.
About 20 years ago they wreaked havoc in my grandmothers bungalow roof, damaging most of the wiring, and they had started living in an old cottage roof I have just knocked down where I have just built my new house. I picked four off on the roof as they were coming in. If you look closer to the trees around you will start to notice bare branches all over, that is grey squirrel damage. My uncle is a woodland Ranger and very ecological and he advocates eliminating them too. Its a shame as they are lovely to watch.
BASC
Any potted plant is fair game for them. They also seem to love chewing on the woodwork of the house. They also love the wiring under the cars bonnet and will find any way possible to get in the attic. As long as they stay out in the trees and don't start running all over the roof, I'm ok with them. Oh yeah,they are also very fond of lead flashing on the roof. I've replaced more lead vent pipe flashings than I can remember.
I have just dug up my strawberry's because the greys were eating ALL of them before even letting them ripen.
They also like the gooseberry's and are probably about to start on them any day now.
They are little schitts.
Just learn to live with them we have a nice garden and we get foxes, badgers, moles, squirrel ect. But the biggest problem is cats.
Just over a year ago we began getting visits from a badger but they stopped after a couple of weeks. This year he (she?) is back with, at times, a friend. While nice to have (is it?) they have so far taken out about 6ft of beetroot row, produced a few small holes in the lawn and a larger hole maybe a foot deep in a flower border, presumably looking for rats? There was a rat tunnel in the hole and we can only hope the badger was successful and took out a rat nest. We have tried to discover where brock gets into the garden by using trail cameras but have so far failed.
The occasional fox visits but this is quite rare now compared to maybe 10 years ago. Rabbits are most uncommon apart from ones our cat brings back from the fields. The cat is a good ratter but only really for young ones; he seems quite happy to sit and watch adults! Maybe he has learnt not to meddle with big ones. He also just sits and watches grey squirrels and they watch him, at times from only 6ft away.
Happy days.
Cheers, Phil
There is no doubt that some people suffer from grey squirrel damage and I can appreciate that these people want the squirrels gone. So be it, I have no objections with that.
In the garden at our home we have a healthy wild bird population as well as a family (?) of greys. The greys used to live in a large tree at the side of the road but the new neighbours had the tree removed so the squirrels decamped to a large apple tree in their back garden. We enjoy watching them. There seems to be four of them, one with virtually no tail that we refer to as 'Stumpy'. There is a very large ash tree on the border between us and next door .. the squirrels play on it. They also play in our garden and can be most amusing. Yes, they are a pain at times.. planting walnuts all over the place, digging occasional holes in the lawn but generally we co-exist quite happily. They take food from the bird feeders but so do other so termed pests ... magpies, pigeons etc. We like to think that by eating the food provided for them they will not need to go egg hunting.
Rats are another matter; they are eliminated whenever the opportunity arises.
Cheers, Phil
A friend of mine purchased a small wood of about 8 acres a couple of years ago and noticed a few squirrels.
He also noticed how quiet the woods were with hardly any birds and nests and this was June.
An English mixed tree woodland should be alive with life so he asked me if I could reduce the squirrel population and see if this would help!
Well after 18 months the difference is incredible .
His wood is surrounded on 3 sides by larger woods but in 2 years I have taken nearly 300 squirrels
The once silent wood is now alive with song and every nest box he has put up is being used.
We have some bird feeders up at a favoured site and have ticked off over 25 species of bird from that spot alone.
I still spot the occasional squirrel but they are now a rare species in my wood. JOB DONE.