On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 20:39:38 +0100, Andy Dingley wrote:

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 13:43:06 +0100, David Chapman
wrote:

I'm looking for ideas on how to eliminate/reduce the number of grey
squirrels that frequent our garden. Fat chance, I hear you say!

Indeed. Leave them to it and squirrel-proof the bird table.

A squirrel can climb or slide _down_ almost anything, then jump off
the food to the floor. They're less good at climbing _up_ though, so
conical "rat funnels" on a vertical post will usually stop them. Make
them big enough, make them smooth (i.e. metal or glass), and dont;
have the table overlooked by a jumping platform.

We only have red squirrels here, and not too many of them, so I leave them
to it.

In an old house we once renovated there was a set up to cause rats to fall
into a barrel of water, took us some time to find out what it was! I'm not
sure that even it's real purpose but old local farmers etc couldn't come up
with anything more likely. Basically it was a wire strung across the roof
with pieces of slate with a hole drilled in the middle threaded onto it.
The rats would apparently cross the wire, be unable to turn, try to climb
onto the slate which would then spin round causing them to fall into the
water. If you were to hang a birdtable, nuts, fat balls etc off a wire
like this, between two largish (so they couldn't jump over it) bits of
spinning slate/board etc, I wonder if it might work for squirrels too??
Just a thought....


--
Holly, in France
Holiday home in Dordogne
http://la-plaine.chez.tiscali.fr