Hang Man

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wildlife Control

I've been doing a little wildlife management lately. A family of red squirrels decided my newly sided barn was the perfect place to hole up for the winter. I had other ideas. For a week or so I've been hearin a lot of scampering in the barn rafters and gnawing of wood. Tapping on the walls didn't seem to deter them. They kept on gnawing and scampering. The red squirrels are much more rodent like than the regular squirrels and probably more destructive. I put out a live trap and within 2 days I had my first capture. I put him in the back of my truck. I had to go to a house to pick up some items that I bought at auction. The house was on 20 some wooded acres so Bryan and I decided that we would just let him out there. He was happy to be free and scurried away. Two days later I had another squirrel. I figured I'd let him out at the same place so he could find his friend. It was evening and I decided to take Ellie with me for the ride. I had to put the squirrel in the car with me because my truck is broken. That was a big mistake. As soon as Ellie realized there was another animal in the car she went nuts! Ellie was growling and the squirrel was chattering and running back and forth in the cage. I thought for sure the squirrel was going to get out and be running around my car. I had a heck of a time trying to keep Ellie back while I tried to let the squirrel go. One day later I captured my third squirrel and again I took him to the same place to release him. I didn't take Ellie this time. I have the trap set again. We'll see what happens tonight.

1 comment:

Manders24 said...

We had this squirrel that was chewing away at our front porch. He has been at it for a long time considering that it is crumbling so...Brad was a little more less humane about it and shot it in the butt with a bebe gun. It ran away so he is not sure if he actually got it or missed, but maybe he wont come back:)