On 21 Jan 2012, croy wrote in
alt.home.repair:

When squrrels (or any other population of critters) has a
robust food supply, their population will increase. When
their population increases, the young ones have to find
somewhere to live. As the neighborhood density increases,
so do the fleas and diseases.

If the squirrels are finding bounty in the garbage cans,
bird-feeders, pet food dishes, etc., it will likely become a
problem, now, or in the future.

If you or your neighbors have fruit and/or nut trees, you
have a permanent problem that will likely require, as one
resoponder here put it, "sending back to their maker". It
is solution that requires constant vigilance and effort.

If your release area is a good place for squirrels to live,
then it will already be at capacity before you start
dropping off your refugees. If it's not a good place for
squirrels, the result will be much the same--they will go,
or try to go someplace else.

Educate yourself and your neighbors first, then go after the
particular situation you have with some 1/2" hardware cloth,
applied from the outside.

Good points, all.

I've been living in this house over 20 years, and while the animals
have been an occasional nuisance, mostly by wrecking my vegetable
garden, this is the first time they've entered my house. They may have
just finally gotten around to investigating the house and found a weak
spot they could exploit, or maybe it's due to my next-door neighbors
having removed several trees from their property. The trees may have
harbored squirrel nests. The trees were taken down almost a year ago,
but this is the first winter since then (I think.) I keep my garbage in
a closed garage until pickup day, and the barrels are snapped closed.
Not sure what most of my neighbors do, but I've never noticed any
significant open garbage. No fruit/nut trees that I know of in the
neighborhood.

I don't know why this has suddenly become a problem, or whether
something in the environment has changed recently, or if the critters
just finally got around to us.

Sounds like it's a better idea to put them down rather than relocate
them. I don't relish doing that, but I can do it if I need to.

What does one do with dead squirrels? Throw them out with the trash?
Bury them?