A little back story: My colleague had an obsession with trapping squirrels this past summer because they are a nuisance in his yard. He trapped over 60 squirrels and filmed it all while at work with the use of his secret cameras (scary!). I was sitting in his office while he brought up video of his backyard and showed me how easy it is to have cameras set on your house. Ok.. he's an engineer, I'll give him that - although a bit strange I just rolled with it. So he trapped these damn squirrels and brought them into work one by one (alive) to let them go loose in a nature preserve in our back boondock yard. We all humored him a bit and had a good laugh. It appears the joke is on us though because lo and behold the little bastards have decided to take revenge on our vehicles. It could be a scene from a movie - 'Monty Python and the Gnawing Squirrels' because they have started chewing the hell out of the rear bumpers of vehicles in the parking lot! Thank goodness Bertha is a hard **** and fights back. She pretty much came out unscathed but the Jeep that parks next to me wasn't so lucky.... I'll post photos next week - I couldn't believe it - it looks like someone took a hacksaw to it! I think the Rover bumper is made of a much harder material..

 

Squirrels = rats with fluffy tails

They look lovely sitting in the park eating the morsels thrown to them ............ but ............ lurking inside they are quite ferocious and destructive. In the UK we had a squirrel eat through 3/4" plastic roof/gutter fascia to access the loft space and then very quickly it devastated the electrical wiring in there. Fortunately it left with a little eeerrr .... persuasion and the hole in the fascia filled with wire wool (they don't like wire wool one little bit I read somewhere). Problem is I also read squirrels can jump/fly 8-10 feet at least from a tree or fence onto a roof so we trimmed all the trees in the proximity. They are inherently destructive and have been known to eat their way through car wiring under the hood etc ................. be warned.

 

Tree Rats

 

Hello...


This squirrel doesn't have a tail - but he has nuts . I couldn't get a photo of him (as much as I tried) but here are two photos of his favorite past time:


First photo is the Jeep:





And now the Ford Ranger:





So apparently I was mistaken and squirrels prefer Ford Rangers over Jeeps. Would anyone know how to fix this?...I'm assuming it's fixable but I seriously wouldn't know how.

 

Yep, sure is fairly easy to fix. Sell it quick as is and don't buy another Ford Ranger (too tasty by half) get an LR with steel bumpers.

Seriously, there must be something in the plastics formulation that is tasty to squirrels as they appears to enjoy destroying plastics from these photos and also my experience of them. It would be pointless replacing these parts until the little bar-stewards are either dealt with (who said that!!!) or they are under control. I bet the guy who brought them in is real popular with his colleagues ................... hmmmm, maybe he'll have a turn of conscience and pay for the damage .................. hmmmm .............. or maybe not

Yep Slabrat .................. tree rats ........... defo

 

Wait till he has to take a dump.
That's gotta hurt!

 

That'll bring tears to his eyes little bar-steward

 

To tell you the truth I have given up even trying to discuss it with him because I get no answer. I feel as if he just tries to instigate the matter only to shoot me down. Last Wednesday as I was sitting in the kitchen enjoying an apple he asked me if I wanted to buy a gray squirrel. Seriously. So I said 'ok, I'll bite. Why would I want to buy a gray squirrel?'

'Because I trapped another one and I saw it all on my camera'

'So I assume that you're bringing it over here?' I asked.

'No.. I get the impression that no one wants me to bring them here anymore so I'm offering you the opportunity to buy this one before I do something to it. It's small game season, you know.'



Not a conversation that I wanted to be having on such a pretty day. As much as I don't like seeing squirrels running rampant all over my vehicle I certainly didn't want to think about what he would do with it once he saw it face to face. Like I've said before, I'm a rose-tinted glasses type of girl and this was no conversation that was going to be rose-tinted. At least in my mind that is.

And the saga continues...I think

Today would be a good day to change out my wiper blades. I STILL haven't done it.. what's wrong with me? Maybe I'll take off the old ones and contemplate putting on the new ones - lol.. that's bad, isn't it. bad, bad, bad.

 

Hi KD, you could have said that personally you don't eat squirrels but you know someone who does.

You know where to stick your used wiper blades at work, don't you, he'll have hell when he goes to sit down or goes to the loo.

 

lol.. good one but like the squirrels he's too quick for me. Within the same conversation he told me that one of our other colleagues at 'headquarters' eats squirrels Now that's PRACTICAL

Yeah, not too motivated to put wiper blades on in the rain. I'm gutting the garage today. It's amazing how much of a mess one person can make in a year - pitiful I guess it's called life, eh? Although I'm 'remodeling' the kitchen this month and there is a refrigerator, dishwasher and freezer taking up most of the space. That and a 10 foot antique workbench with vise from an old ice packing company. Need to figure out where that is going