Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Ms. Griswold has found herself displaced

Well, after a few weeks of P trying to find ways to rid our ceiling of the god-awful scratching, ripping up of insulation, and ceiling panels being knocked out we broke down and purchased this nifty little cage.

A borrowed .22 didn't do the trick because of course it seemed the second P had possession of this the squirrels became scarce...except for the destruction they were causing in the ceiling. But thanks to our friends for their effort to help us rid our home of this critter.
























It was then we decided we best research on the internet other ways in which to get rid of this creature. I was sitting here one day doing my homework and just above my head I heard the scratching and could just imagine the destruction in progress...that was pretty much the last straw.

Messing with an unused room is one thing but moving throughout the main living area...egads! I certainly didn't want to run around the house all day banging on the ceiling with the broom which is what I've been doing the last couple weeks.

So we bought this cage and made a tasty treat of apples with peanut butter and bird seed sprinkled on top and within 2 days we had our first little critter. P drove that thing 15 miles away to ensure it would never return.

Well...insulation was still falling from the ceiling and scratching was occurring in the living room--we had not solved the problem and figured that little critter was just an offspring since it wasn't nearly as big as those we'd been seeing scurrying all over the back yard. So trap number two was set two days ago.

Again, that tasty treat of apple, peanut butter and seed. P went up to check on it and one half of the apple was gone and the door to the trap was shut, but no squirrel. So he reset it with the remaining apple. A few hours later the apple went missing and the trap never triggered. So then, he made another treat but only half this time....the next morning, the apple was still there but the cage was tipped on it's front end with the door still open. After two more attempts we learned that this smarty pants must have been reaching in through the cage and attempting to get that apple because the trap was tripped but there were marks on that apple suggesting this crafty critter was attempting to eat the bait through the cage... somehow it seemed to know the game.

On a side note, when we had that .22 here we noticed how the squirrels would act as if they were in a war zone...they would scurry behind a tree or the pole to the bird feeder and peek out at us and make a bee-line to their next cover. One even had a hole dug next to the bird feeder that it jumped into and peeked it's head out at me as I stood there wishing I had a gun. Why? Because once it pulled itself from the hole it ran immediately to it's access point to the roof.

Ms. Griswold is her given name. We've lovingly named this squirrel after the Christmas Vacation movie because...well, just because. So anyway, it got to the point the P was not going to reward this menace with more juicy treats for nothing so he resorted to just dumping birdseed in the cage, surrounding it with snow so Ms. Griswold had to physically enter...oh, and he filled a milk jug with water to place on top so that sneaky little thing wouldn't tip the cage.

This morning? Success! There she was in all her frantic fear scratching, struggling to free herself, trapped. So we took the kids and we set her free 15 miles away in a different direction and she gave us a look and quickly but casually scurried away into a pine tree. As she jumped onto the trunk of the tree she stopped and looked back at us.

Now, we have one left we think, one of Ms. Griswold's offspring that was caught up by the cage when P went to check this morning. We really hope that will end this adventure. Next spring will be a busy one fixing up the damage and cursing these animals.

4 comments:

Boz said...

Great story L! Jeez I cant even imagine that! Dont want to think about the damage they've caused. I hope you get them all.

Louie said...

Thanks Boz...we hope so too. There's still that one little one somewhere out there. Nothing today but hopefully within the next couple days we'll get it.

Hopefully we got them before they ruined too much in the living area and above the laundry area...but B's old room is another story! Just gotta love living out here! Never seems to be a dull moment!

redrajesh said...

maybe you should train your cats to do the squirrel catching. They are pretty good at it

louie said...

We lost our two grown cats and only have a kitten now who's still learning how to kill mice. =( She plays catch with them.

One of our cats was hit by a car and the other just never came home--we think a coyote got him and he was one hell of a cat...both were great cats and really the losses have been really tough on the emotions the last few months.