I chose this photo because this ground squirrel looks like he’s reading the paper! Or was, until he looked up to see what the ruckus was about - darn dogs are such duffuses.
Anyway, we start the squirrel talk with these emails…
Hi Cindy,
Caught a copy of H&G and thought I’d share a quick story of my own. My family and I live in Orange (Old Town area) and like you, until just a few weeks ago, had never seen a squirrel in my yard.
My son and I were in the backyard around 10 a.m. picking some ripe avocados from our tree and up runs a squirrel. He stopped to look at us and then preceded to run up the tree out to the end of one of the branches, poked at a hanging avocado then jumped onto the roof of our garage before he jumped down to our fence and on into our neighbor’s yard.
All in the span of about 30 seconds. Squirrelly little guy! We thought it was pretty funny, not to mention rare. - Erik Robbins
Cindy,
We have critters for sure! Writing you from north Fullerton off the Fullerton Muni. Golf Course, there is plenty of local wildlife. We are mostly concerned about the coyotes getting our cats at night (we get
them in by dark). Coyotes cruise the neighborhood sometimes in the morning… not very skittish at all.
I was awakened a few months back by our barking dog to discover a family of raccoons walking along our backyard wall. They know to get into the trash. I smell a skunk every once in a while, luckily not found by our dog! An opossum or two have been seen at night, so I know there are more.
And there are the squirrels. We have quite a few, brown or gray with bushy tails. They are after the acorns now and cause quite a disturbance with our cats and dog.
Apart from the earthbound animals we also have a couple owls in the golf course trees and several red-tail hawks flying about.
Plenty of wildlife here! - Scott Allen
Leave your close encounters with a squirrel by clicking comments below.
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- Who won Free plant Friday?
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Now there’s a subject! Do I have squirrels in HB?
Yes, I do! We live near Seacliff Golf Course and the little buggers love dove eggs!! Spring comes and the doves are cooing and ready to have their families on the beam of our patio and we watch as expectant grandparents.
BUT then comes the devil squirrel! Devours the eggs and messes up the nest. They are bold!!
They will scramble along the edge of the patio while we are having our coffee. Saw one yesterday! Out in our large yard. He LOVES my multiple gardens.
I have used thyme to deter them, it seems to work — a little, But eventually he gets used to the smell and does his dirty deed. Good luck to all who fight the good fight against “Demon Squirrel”.
Pat Pilette
I love squirrels and I loved your article about them!
My mother has fox squirrels in her La Habra neighborhood (she lives on Brookfield Avenue).
She has 2 little trays on her back fence that she (or I when I visit her) fills with sunflower seeds each morning, and a squirrel usually comes to eat them.
Since we rarely see more than one squirrel at a time, we don’t know how many are around.
Sometimes a squirrel will drink from her birdbath or come on the patio to eat sunflower seeds from the birdseed my mother leaves there for birds.
The picture I’ve included is one I took a few years ago of a squirrel on the patio. Over the years, we have found that some of the squirrels are friendly and I can get within one or 2 feet of them while they eat on the fence.
Others run away when I get anywhere near them. They are adorable and fun to watch!
Jeannette Lee
Yeah, squirrels are cute and all, but they are driving me crazy at the moment! They are very destructive in my garden and I am doing all I can to combat them (peacefully). There’s one who is really huge and fearless, he doesn’t even budge until I’m about a foot away from him. I got him on camera yesterday, if anyone’s curious: http://greenwalks.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/my-nemesis/
I have a cabin in the San Bernardino mountains, squirrels are a REAL problem. The first problems came when they ate through all on the Christmas lites we put on the outside of the cabin.
The next problem came when I was up in the mountains for a short weekend, half way down the mountain my car died! After being towed to a dealer in Riverside I was told the squirrels had eaten most of the wiring under my car. I researched how to prevent this from happening a second time and found a product called “Criter Ridder”! I puchased a small amount to sprinkle around the car when it is parked outside the cabin.
I created my own critter ritter by mixing cayenne , black pepper, red pepper , thyme and any other hot spice I could find, this was much cheaper than the store brand “Critter RItter”. Another solution for stopping the squirrels from chewing is fox uriane…….not readily available at your local stores!
B. Rhodes
About six years ago I saw only one family of squirrels as I monitored bluebird boxes in La Mirada and northwest Fullerton. Now there are many everywhere. The increase in population is remarkable. They present a real danger to eggs and chicks in their nests. Please do not feed the squirrels which will only increase their numbers more. It is very unfortunate that the fox squirrels were brought here. The birds will suffer but we will never see what’s happening up high in the trees.
Susan Bulger
Ground squirrels are no longer cute critters at my house. Last year they ate all of our macadamia nuts, and we have a big tree. They have also dug under buildings and are a general nuisance. We live adjacent to one of the horse trails inFullerton and the area is lousy with them. We see several every day, unfortunately.
Hi…I read your article with interest because I think all the squirrels now live in Costa Mesa. I’ve been living here for just over 20 years and until last year…I had never seen a squirrel in my area. I have to admit they are cute little creatures and I welcomed them into my backyard with open arms at the beginning of this year. Who doesn’t like seeing squirrels scampering around the yard and looking so darn cute!
I have a sister-in-law that lives in Santa Clara and is an avid hater of squirrels because she says they destroy her vegetable garden, eat one bite out of every piece of fruit and have actually dragged entire stalks of corn over the fence. I just laughed and she said one day I will understand her anger and frustration.
Well…this past summer I had two squirrel raise their young in one of my backyard trees and all was well and fine and cute for awhile. I was even hand feeding one of the mothers and thinking how could anyone dislike these wonderful furry creatures….then things started going bad. I found they were chewing off branches in one of my other trees and were practicing making nests…not living in them mind you….but just building them for practice. My tree was littered with chewed off branches, the ground littered with dead branches and my tree was beginning to look like a war zone. I didn’t mind too much…just one of the little quirks of having these cute little creatures around. But then I found they had chewed through my drip system…now I was a little upset. Then they started digging into the potted plants and chewing up the plant roots…killing some of my potted plants…and in some cases knocking the plants off tables and stands and breaking the pots.
Then one morning I was awakened to the sound of squirrels chewing on my wood patio cover…obviously trying to wear down their teeth a little. This was not what I wanted happening to my patio cover…so I decided to teach them a lesson and I tried to dissuade them from this destructive behavior by trying to hose them down…I spent day after day trying to hose them but they would just stay out of range…I’m sure they were mocking me at this point! But the day they lost their welcome was the day I saw them starting to chew into my satellite cable…now I was very upset and I spent my time now trying to scare them out of my backyard completely…but to no avail. They would just look at me…out of range… and make barking sounds at me…I’m sure it was their way of laughing.
The final straw was when I caught them digging up my new front yard lawn….the war was on…I needed to get rid of them permanently but I didn’t want to hurt them. Besides..I looked it up and found squirrels are protected by law…but I’m not one to hurt them anyway. I have a neighbor who suggested I relocated them…I found out that Costa Mesa will not remove squirrels from your property…but they will allow the humane capture and relocation of squirrels withing a 5 mile radius of where they were caught. Hooray…I had a solution and the neighbor even had a “catch and release” trap for me to borrow.
It’s been about 4 weeks now since I started setting the trap and so far I have captured and relocated 8 squirrels to Tewinkle Park…I now have maybe 1 or 2 more to go. So if you really like squirrels that much….you can now see plenty of these cute furry creatures scampering and frolicking all over Tewinkle Park. I think they look much cuter at Tewinkle Park than in my own backyard.
I’m rethinking my whole squirrel philosophy….
I didn’t see any mention of squirrels in Irvine. They’ve definitely taken up residence in the Turtle Rock area of Irvine. The fox squirrels are large, acrobatic, entertaining creatures that seem to intentionally tease the dogs as they sit up high in the trees chattering and flicking their tails at the barking dogs. I’ve stopped filling the bird feeder long ago but they’re still chasing each other and leaping in the branches in our backyard.
Cindy,
Where’s this week’s installment of squirrel talk Saturday? Have you given up already?
Please encourage people NOT to feed the squirrels in their yards and environs. Or the birds or any other wildlife. Here in Orange Co. the weather is not bad enough to prevent them from finding their own natural foods all year and it only causes over-population of vermin. I have a neighbor that feeds the birds and because of the birdseed readily available we have a mouse and rat problem in the neighborhood. I have spent thousands on my car from rats chewing the wiring because they like living in my yard and garage because she has dogs and I don’t. I have a vegetable garden that is decimated by the rats and squirrels. She won’t listen to reason and Vector Control says as long as she continues there is little that can be done. Please do not use my name, we have been neighbors for a long time.
Sign me, Fed Up. Thank you.