The word of the day is “drey“, which means a nest of twigs and dry leaves built by a squirrel, usually in the fork of a tree. And where do the twigs come from? One of our local tree rats has taken a liking to the Cleyera japonica shrubs growing on the north side of our house.
This is what they should look like:
To add insult to injury, the squirrel doesn’t use the branches to build a proper drey in a tree. Instead, it climbs up on the roof and shoves them under the solar hot water panels. So, every couple of days, I have to haul out the ladder and scramble up to the peak of the roof to remove a new nest. The C. japonica branches are usually mixed with twigs sheared off my beloved Tamukeyama lace-leaf Japanese maple.
The local hawks really need to start pulling their weight. They seem to prefer picking off birds at our feeder instead of hunting squirrels on the roof.
Effing tree rats.
My neighborhood is aswarm with squirrels.
I’d love to alleviate the situation, but various regulations favor the squirrels over destroyed storm doors, chewed-through auto gasoline lines (fact), half-eaten-car mirrors, and even multiple gnawed holes in downspout extensions. All my gardening is necessarily indoors.
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That’s terrible. I’m glad we haven’t suffered that level of damage yet.
I checked NC regulations at one point, and a permit is not required for shooting squirrels that are doing damage to property. I suppose the HOA or town regulations are more strict?
The state regs are kind of weird. If I remember correctly, you need a depredation permit to trap squirrels, but you can shoot them without a permit as long as you don’t plan to eat them. If you want to eat them, you require a hunting license.
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I second the suggestion about “harvesting” some squirrels. I think they may be too big for the Cooper’s hawks that pick off feeder birds. A nest box for Barred owls might be helpful.
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Good idea. We do have barred owls in the woods, so a nest box would be fun. I put up a smaller box for screech owls, but there haven’t been any takers yet.
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Goodness, those squirrels a making a mess. Yes, your local raptors need to get with the program.
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I think squirrels are rather cute, but then we don’t have them here! I can understand that they would be a serious problem.
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If you think of them as big rats with fancy tails, you get some idea of their capabilities, both destructive and reproductive.
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I never knew squirrels built nests until last year when they built one in our hawthorne tree. I don’t know where they got the twigs. That’s really bad manners, to ruin your shrub and then build a nest on your solar panels. The worst they’ve done here is to dig up tulip bulbs and then plant them elsewhere. Knock on wood.
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You must have lots of patience. I would be past the boiling point, for sure.
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It took a shotgun to get rid the the thirty squirrels that had taken up residence in our old stone house in Maryland. They were going in through a small hole in the eves and then into the crawl space behind the plastered attic walls. We couldn’t find an exterminator who would take on the job, so my husband became the exterminator. We had tried trapping to no avail. Got the neighbors cat a couple of times but never a squirrel. People only think they’re cute if they’ve never had a problem with them.
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I have not heard of a drey, but I see them quite often in my work. I saw one in a Norfolk Island pine, but could not identify it at first. It was just a bit white puffy thing like cotton candy. The client explained that the squirrel made it from the stuffing of a pillow on a patio lounge chair.
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You might try soaking rags in ammonia and putting them in cups around the outside of the house, replenishing as needed when it evaporates. It works for those other dreaded rodents: woodchucks.
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Thanks, that’s a great idea! How long does the ammonia usually last when you use it?
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Usually a few days if in the shade. The sun burns it up faster.
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