@lovendures I am not expecting any blizzards to descend on North FL but we are going to get the first hard freeze of the winter. YAY. Freezes help keep the population of roaches, mosquitoes, termites, exotic weeds, and exotic invasive critters in check. The downside is having to cover and/or take inside cold-sensitive plants. ( One can gauge the coldness of winters here by how many times the porch plants have to be brought inside.) I will do some home decluttering this weekend as well.
It's just like that in Portland OR when even with just one inch of snow. The stores are crowded with people stocking up, the gas stations same and the roads are crowded like an apocalypse is coming. We are just Not accustomed to snow. Thinking of all you and some family in its path and sending good vibes your way.
Hi guys, I am having a minor forum glitch of my own. Had my first cataract done on friday and I can see for miles and its so colourful and bright out there. The minor glitch I cant see to read well now, will have to wait for the next op in 4 weeks then see how it all is, may still need glasses for reading. The downside I might have to, gulp, stop posting and reading until it all settles. Is that cheering I can hear, thank god say they.
Being the stubborn little bugger I be I will probably persist, so there, take that.
It will be wonderful if I don't have to wear glasses at all, have been since I was about 10.
Regards to all and ain't medical science wonderful
@matildagirl I got my first pair of glasses when I was 5, then wore contacts for 50 years. Had my cataracts done about 4 years ago and was so thrilled that I could open my eyes in the morning and see the time on the clock. Now I have reading glasses in every room, my purse, and my car. I hang my readers on the lamp shades in the rooms so that my dog can’t get them ( she chewed two pairs so far) and I can find them. Sometimes, the readers sneak out of other rooms and I will find 4 pairs hanging on the family room lamp! I, too, can see a mile away but not a foot in front of me. And yes, science is wonderful.
Is a squirrel in your house a metaphor of your mind?
No sooner than this website came back on line than I came down this morning as the blizzard was raging to surprise. I heard a clatter in our living room and went to look, and zipping past me at the speed of light was a little squirrel. She hid under the couch and we opened the door to let her out but instead she flew down the basement stairs under a door and disappeared into our basement.
We barricaded the basement door so we'd know where to find her while we figured out what the heck to do. Has she been living here? Did she accidentally slip in when we were loading firewood yesterday?
Or does she, God forbid, have a family somewhere in the house? Or did she slip in during the night when I took the dog out twice during the night?
The plan: She's down there now and we will open the bulkhead in the morning and hope she leaves.
Anyone got any tips on squirrels in the house? Been here 28 years and never happened before. I can't stop thinking about her down there.
Also, can Mercury Retrograde bring a squirrel into your house?
I can only imagine what a sight that squirrel was to you this morning Jeanne. Hahaha!
While you contemplate a way to eventually get the squirrel out of your basement, you might ponder the meaning of seeing the squirrel.
Ted Andrews who is the authority on spirit animals and what messages animals may be sending us had this to say about squirrels. ( He actually have a lot more to say but this will do.)
@lovendures This is perfect. And made me laugh. I love that little squirrel, but I want him to leave and be free.
I really love this thread.
We have 2 squirrels who play in the back yard. My kitty cats love to sit in the doorway and watch.
Yesterday the snow began to fall. The house is surrounded by old growth trees and it is a beautiful winter wonderland.
Grateful for a snow day off of work, a full fridge and pantry. Baked cookies and banana bread and made hot chocolate
Love to all
Anyone got any tips on squirrels in the house?
Q: How do you catch a squirrel?
A: Climb up a tree, and act like a nut.
@jeanne-mayell Maybe the squirrel wanted to get away from the bad weather?
Speaking of which I hope you're doing OK with the weather up there.
We had a novelty down here! Icicles ! (I doubt you're impressed, but... they're unusual here )
They formed from water dripping into some plants from the end of a garden hose. (Whenever there's a hard freeze predicted we let some water drip to keep the hoses and pipes from freezing up.)
Anyone got any tips on squirrels in the house?
I don't know if it will work for squirrels, but I evicted raccoons from the attic by tuning a radio to a "classic rock" station, turning the volume on high, and leaving for work. The raccoons, apparently, were not metal-heads because they left.
Thank you @iridium @unk-p (ha ha) @lovendures and all for squirrel advice.
Update: Went down to the basement this morning and no surprise that there wasn't a peep. I opened the bulkhead and left it open for several hours. If he was down there, he would have left because it created a flood of light into the basement, and he would have seen it.
According to various authorities, they don't usually nest in basements; they prefer attics, and they don't run around inside people's homes unless they accidentally got trapped inside. All advice is to give them an exit and if that fails, then trap them with a havaheart trap and release them outside.
I learned something I had not known while researching havahart traps. The old wisdom when you catch an animal with one of those traps is to release them a few miles away so they can't come back. Well, turns out 97% of them die from being discharged to an unfamiliar territory, and that would be worse in the dead of winter. And I don't think it's a good way to die. So if I end out trapping him, he's going right into the back yard where he came from. :-)
@jeanne-mayell This winter a family of red squirrels moved into our house. (It's a 157 year old farm house so there are plenty of places we can't easily see) - we bought a live animal trap from Amazon and put peanut butter on it. I have captured two of the three now. We take the traps and drive out to the woods where we've let them go, but it's the most humane way to get rid of them.
@jeanne-mayell And now I've read your other post (should have continued down the thread) and feel bad about the catch and release. I can tell you though that it's a very wooded area and I'm confident they'll find a place to hunker down for the rest of the winter (that isn't the floorboard between the first and second stories.)
@dannyboy Well, I don't know what I'd do if the critter had come in willingly and was nesting in my house. I wouldn't just release them to my yard because they'd just come right back in. You'd need to search the roof and find the entry spot and seal it.
In researching my squirrel situation, I saw reviews of local companies that are expert in finding the places where they get in. They come out and know where to look and what to look for and they seal it up. (And you pay through the nose). You can do that, but it's daunting in winter. My squirrel, I'm almost certain, got in accidentally through an open door. That's different from a bunch of nesting squirrels.
Hi, we don’t have squirrels but we do have possums which get into homes. My story is a mouse. He was living in my kitchen behind a cupboard, didn’t want to kill him so I bought a special mouse trap baited it with peanut butter and we caught him and released him down the end of the street into bush. He was home the next day. So repeated the exercise and this time I drove a couple kilometres away to the start of a national park we have and released him there. There were houses nearby if he didn’t fancy the rustic life. He didn’t come back home.
Regards to all
My squirrel story involves my father in law. The darn things would eat all the bird food my MIL put out so she had him get a safe animal trap and take the squirrels to a park which was about 3 miles away. My MIL had quite a few bird feeders so squirrels were unwelcome but constant visitors. Before he passed away, I remember him telling me that, at last count, he had made over 300 trips taking the critters to the park.
I feel like I’m poised to become your father in law.
I also feel like this is my most poorly worded post ever.
from the standpoint of Squirrel Relocation, I feel a kinship with your father in law 🤣