One Pandemic Pastime

The live trap was delivered to our front porch. We have had enough with the squirrels in our yard. Squirrels are cute critters with fluffy tails, and it can be fun to watch their antics, but enough is enough. We have several in our yard and we don’t want them there anymore. In particular, I like to feed the birds. Several years ago a friend told me to use safflower seeds…the birds like them but the squirrels do not. So I bought safflower seeds and it seemed to work for years – squirrels kept away from the feeder. But recently the squirrels must have developed a taste for the safflower seeds because now I am feeding more squirrels than birds.

The snow was falling this morning…the trap was tripped

So, we bought a trap. It works well and does not harm the animal, Gary says. He puts peanut butter and sunflower seeds in a ball in the trap and we wait for the critter to go in for this tasty treat. We’ve captured four squirrels already. We could get more in one day but each time we have to drive the squirrel at least ten miles away from our house to let it go. That’s what the research says…if you let the squirrel free any closer than ten miles it will find its way back to you. 

It’s so happy to be free!

We look for a nice clump of trees and let the squirrel out of the cage. It’s darts out so fast. I wonder what it’s thinking.

One of the new homes for the squirrels – out in the country.

At first we just took the squirrels away and let them go. With the fourth squirrel we decided to spray a bit of fluorescent paint on it’s tail to monitor the critter…to see if any of the squirrels we take away actually find their way back to our house. We hope not.

A little spray paint on it’s tail to monitor the critter.

During this pandemic is an interesting time to be doing this…our pandemic pastime. We’re taking drives into the country often for “squirrel transfers” and it’s been kind of fun. 

This activity happened last week, before the 6″ of snow came falling down on Easter Sunday, snd stayed on the ground…