J. Clarke wrote:
Dan Musicant wrote:

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:31:22 -0400, Pat Kiewicz
wrote:


said:


However, yesterday I went outside and found 3 squirrels feeding on
the remains of what I had left there of the attacked pumpkins.
This
made me think: Was it squirrels or were they just scavenging on
what was left by another animal? One of the squirrels repeatedly
looked longingly at one of the suspended pumpkins but didn't try
to
climb the trellis system, which is pretty flimsy, evidently too
flimsy for it to attempt to climb. This makes me further suspect
that the squirrels may have been the original attackers. There are
a LOT of squirrels around here (Berkeley, CA). I wonder if
squirrels could have eaten THAT much of the

pumpkins,

though. Two pounds or more of pumpkin were evidently consumed.

My concern is for next year. I don't know if these animals are
smart
enough to "remember" and come back for next year's harvest.

Pumpkin eaters I have known:

Squirrels (especially to go after the seeds in the fall): small
gnaw
marks

Groundhogs (will eat them at any stage): large gnaw marks

Mice (rarely, and without much damage): tiny, tiny gnaw marks

Deer will go after pumpkins, but are likely to break them apart
with
their hooves as they are mainly after the seeds and soft pulp.

I'd probably finger the squirrels for this one, especially
considering the day-time damage.

You may be at the peak of a population cycle. Live trapping
squirrels isn't too hard.

Thanks, Pat!

OK, so your take is that the brazen eating of maybe a third of two
2-lb kabochas in mid-day (it was probably between noon and 3 PM)
suggests squirrels rather than opposum! There were also one or two
small ones attacked at the same time. It's hard to believe that one
possum would do all that. Do they go in packs or are they always
solitary?

I guess I'm going to have to try squirrel repellent strategies.
Possibilities seem to be:

Live Trapping (I'd need traps and a decision what to do with them)
Tinsel scarecrows
mouse traps (to scare them away)
sling shot

There are a LOT of squirrels around here!

I even thought of throwing a wire cube (with one side open) over
each
squash. That would require a lot of handiwork.


The proper choice of cat will do the job just fine. There used to be
a semi-feral black cat that hung around my parents' house that loved
squirrel. If we'd been away for a while we'd often find a half a
dozen squirrel tails lined up in a neat row on the front porch.

The trouble is finding the right cat--most can't figure out how to
catch squirrels and the ones who can usually get beat up enough the
first time that they decide that squirrels aren't worth the effort.

Mine brings in squirrels frequently. A couple weeds ago he brought in a
full sized seagull, quite a step up from finches and starlings.