Thursday, August 16, 2012

Can You Believe This?

We knew there was one of our little red pine squirrels who had gotten into our feed room. Papa Pea set a live trap in there, but we've had no luck catching him.

This is what hubby just discovered. That dang little rodent chewed this hole in the solid wood frame of the window to make his escape. (I hope he got splinters in his gums.)

That may be a bit of a challenge to patch.

I think open season on squirrels has just begun on this little homestead.

30 comments:

Sparkless said...

Oh those squirrels can be a huge problem. My dad had some squirrels chew their way into his garage. They chewed up the bottom of the door to get in! He had to put a metal plate on the bottom of the door so they couldn't do it again.

I hope you can find a way to get rid of your little invader.

Lisa said...

Wow! I hope he got splinters in his gums too. That is terrible damage. Window replacement? Squirrels are such destructive creatures. We've been having a time with them here too, though ours are the gray squirrels. Good luck with your aim.

Susan said...

It's ALWAYS open season on red rodents (and grey rodents, and brown rodents) on this little homestead....

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - I'm not overly fond of them because they eat so darn much of the sunflower seeds we put out year 'round for the birds. Now the fact that he ruined this window frame really has me steamed. I do have to admit that having them ruin a garage door would be worse though!

Mama Pea said...

Lisa - Yup. Hubby just declared that our squirrel population needs to be "thinned" a bit!

Tombstone Livestock said...

hmmm, maybe some wood dough, put some finishing nails in crumple up some chicken wire, fill with wood dough, may not look pretty but should keep him out. Hope he doesn't show the rest of his family his new entrance/exit.

Mama Pea said...

Susan - I do realize all these little creatures need to eat and have some kind of shelter but when they get destructive as they often do . . . well, sometimes drastic measures are called for. By the way, how's your rodent (r-a-t) situation?

Mama Pea said...

Tombstone Livestock - Good, good idea for a patch job. He got in when the door was open for a bit, but apparently couldn't wait to make his exit via the same route!

Anonymous said...

oh i hate squirrels at times, i had one chew a new car bra up on my car :(

Carolyn said...

We had squirrels that would sit on one of the end logs of the house, then chew on the one just above it. WTF is with that? There are PLENTY of acorns and hickory & walnuts around, why do you have to chew on my frekking HOUSE you stupid tree rat?!?!

And to think, long ago, in my suburbia days, I rescued a baby orphaned squirrel, nursed it to health and then released it back into the "wilderness" of our back yard.

Now I kill any one that is within range.

Judy T said...

In our old house, we found a mummified squirrel that had chewed a hole through an old window frame in the basement and tried to hibernate in the insulation that had been placed over it (the window had been boarded up). He didn't survive the winter (I wonder if chewing through all that insulation messed up his guts!). I'm just glad I didn't live there when he was freshly dead. Eeew...
Our squirrels rarely come up to the house. It's those *%&! chipmunks that I want to exterminate!!
Judy

Lisa said...

...pink is for girls...?! :)

Mama Pea said...

Huh? "Pink is for girls . . . ?" I don't get it.

Mama Pea said...

Renee - Hi, welcome and thanks for commenting! A squirrel chewed your new car bra?? Ouch. That was NOT nice. Maybe not as bad as our Bouvier dog who chewed a CAR FENDER trying to get at a squirrel who was sitting on top of the tire taunting him though. (Yes, Max did actually tear parts of the fender off. He was a very big dog. Dumb, but big.)

Mama Pea said...

CR - Obviously, there was something in the wood of your house that was lacking in the diet of that tree rat! I mean squirrel.

Since you rescued that baby squirrel way back in your (unknowing) early days, you'd think karma would bring only good, well-behaved squirrels into your life now.

The minute I see two squirrels in the yard at one time, I start yapping that it's time for a thinning of the population. I tell Papa Pea those two are just the tip of the iceberg and we all know what two squirrels can quickly become! (Well, I mean if they're each of a different sex, of course.)

Mama Pea said...

Judy - Yeah, we have our share of those little buggers, too. Before our wonder dog, Zoey, died, she would kill any chipmunk she could which helped keep the population down. Now I suppose they'll be on the rise again.

Lisa said...

Sorry.... did a post a little while ago on target shooting and my shots were circled in 'pink', Tom's circled in 'blue'... post was titled "Pink is for girls" because I hit the bullseye of the bullseye..... Thought I remembered that maybe your shots were more in line like that too....? Oh well. Trying to be funny. *sigh*

2 Tramps said...

Makes me glad we don't have squirrels here... But we did have a small invasion of chipmunks that we thought were so cute - until they made their way into the walls of our house and had babies in our attic. We live trapped them after the babies were out and about, then relocated them many miles away. We do have issues with squirrels and pack rats at the cabin. The squirrels aren't bad but the pack rats are terrible - hard to catch and they make an awful mess fo things very quickly. We tried throwing moth balls under the cabin to deter them but the smell just about did us in! Your fella is probably so scared that he will never return!

Erin said...

Are you kidding me???? Wow! My mom is waging war right now with squirrels and she's also pet-sittling my brothers dog while he's in Ireland, she had high hopes for the dog but he just sleeps all day LOL... I can't wait to tell her about this craziness, she probably won't be able to sleep hahaha!

Mama Pea said...

Lisa - Well, duh! (Picture me slapping forehead.) Of course I remember that post but just didn't connect it as I should have. Could be senility setting in on my part but I have a theory that we have so many things to keep filed away in our brains these days that there's not room for everything. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

P.S. I AM (almost) a better shot than Papa Pea, but I wouldn't want to publish that fact and embarrass him. ;o]

Mama Pea said...

2 Tramps - Every fall we have mice that crawl into (somehow!) our vehicles and try to set up housekeeping for the winter. Hubby tried mothballs on the floor of the vehicles but we, too, nearly expired from the smell. Now we set mouse traps and catch them as they weasel their way in!

Mama Pea said...

Erin - I have to tell ya my jaw dropped open when Papa Pea took me out to the feed room to show me that hole in the wood framing. Who woulda thunk it?

Sue said...

It's always open season around here on those nasty critters. They'll chew up anything on their quest for food or a warm place to sleep.
Bad part is, they're so quick (hyper!!!!) that it's hard to get em. Good luck.

judy said...

dang squirrels,get out your gun Annie--lol

Wendy said...

My goodness! He did do some damage! Who would have thought that they could chew through that hard wood like that.

Mama Pea said...

Sue - We've caught one in a live trap in the past couple of days. The greedy little buggers usually go right for the mound of sunflowers seeds in the trap. Hoping to get a couple more . . . at least.

Mama Pea said...

judy - Want any sent to your house? We have extra.

Mama Pea said...

Wendy - I know! What I can't figure out is why he chewed through the window frame which must have been difficult when the walls of the feed room aren't finished so they might have been easier to get through. Are squirrels intelligent enough that he saw through the window and knew the "outside" was out there so that was his quickest way of escape?

judy said...

no

Mama Pea said...

judy - 'Tis true!