Every boomer with a bird feeder hates squirrels. I don’t understand.
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The squirells empty the bird feeders much faster than the birds would so the boomer then has to refill it sooner. Rinse and repeat until they constantly talk about the squirrels.
My parents bought my grandfather a slingshot for his squirrel problem/hatred and the dude took off part of his own thumbnail and had to go to an urgent care.I admit I laughed at the end.
My grandpa took issue with the seagulls harassing everything else in his backyard, so he bought a slingshot and shot them with grapes “They don’t get hurt by a squishy grape, they get scared and the pigeons are happy about the grapes”
I’m in my 30s and now also hate squirrels because of this very reason. They will empty an entire bird feeder in a single afternoon and the shit’s expensive. We like to keep it stocked so our cats have some excitement to watch out the window.
Also, a bird built a nest in the tree right next to the feeder and squirrels came and ate through the bottom of the nest so they could eat the baby birds which was pretty horrific to discover.
They eat hella fruit off my fruits trees. And when I say eat, I mean take 3 bites and drop it on the ground to grab a new one and take 3 bites.
They waste 50 apricots to eat 3 apricots.
Until I started taking all the ground fruit and boiling it in a pot to make fruit juice for brandy distilling, it was a complete waste. Now it’s still wasteful, because I’d rather eat the fruit, but at least I recover something from it.
Fuck squirrels.
Maybe because ‘bird feeder’ implies they are trying to feed birds?
I really hated the possums in my old neighborhood because they would always crawl into the soffit and have babies, destroy things I could not afford to fix, and poop stinky poop in my attic. But in my new slightly bougier neighborhood the possums are so cute and just run around eating bugs. Rats I can’t bring myself to hate, and squirrels just seem like cute fluffy rats. So I can’t hate them but goddam it I have never harvested even one fully ripe tomato because they destroy them. I do hate that.
A lot of boomers are really particular about well-manicured yards, pristine gardens, etc. Squirrels do not help with this.
I love seeing little divots where our squirrels bury nuts. If they eat some of our plants, then I put a cage around it or plant new ones. Seeing the little guys play and eat the food we put out for them far outweighs any minor landscaping problems they cause.
My dog hates squirrels, so I do too.
My momma is 62 and loves her squirrels as well as her birds
Not a boomer, but as a Brit - the grey squirrel is an invasive species which has pretty much driven out the native red squirrel from most of the country. They also cause damage to trees through bark stripping.
I’ve known this for a while, however I do not wish harm to grey squirrels. This is their war, I don’t even know the first thing about squirrel warfare, although I do hope the red squirrels find an alliance to support their freedoms.
Squirrels eat the bird food meant for the birds and are extremely hard to stop
Why are the squirrels second class citizens to the birds? Is there a bird food shortage?
Birds are super good for the environment, take a quick google!
Squirrels on the other hand, are an invasive species in much of the world.
In my home province squirrels make it pretty hard for some of our local trees etc.
A particular species of squirrels. I think people in this thread fail to make clear that this is exclusively about the North American grey squirrel. The Eurasian red squirrel is not invasive anywhere, And I strongly doubt anyone have any problem with having them in their bird feeder, since they are solitary and relatively shy creatures.
Squirrels in my area don’t share. And will do whatever they can to get to the feeder, even if that means breaking shit. I currently use a seed that has some spillage and that’s kept the squirrels satisfied. I don’t mind them, but they end up making it sl I won’t get any birds.
Squirrels can clean out a feeder pretty quickly. Not as fast as deer can, but much faster than the birds.
So it’s a pain in the ass to go fill it back up, and it costs money. A person gets a bird feeder because they want to watch birds. There are cheaper ways to feed squirrels, if you like squirrels.
Both squirrels and birds can build nests in your home. Squirrels can chew their way into your attic, then you risk them chewing through wires. Birds nest in your dryer vent or bathroom vent. A nest in the dryer vent is a fire hazard. And they can introduce bird mites into your home. It’s like having a bed bug infestation except you can’t see them, their bites are hella itchy, and at least they can be dealt with by multiple rounds of thorough vacuuming. Ask me how I know.
I used to love to keep a bird feeder and watch the bird party on a snowy day. But I wasn’t out to feed the deer, and the mite problem erased any lingering feelings about feeding birds.
How do you know?
No, it’s just a bird feeder not a squirrel feeder. At least until the squirrels manage to change the signage, which they probably could if they tried hard enough.
Squirrels are an invasive species, they chew wires and mess with stuff.
Birds are pretty, sound nice, and eat bugs. They also poop on everyone’s stuff, but somehow it’s good luck if you get shit on.
Squirrels are an invasive species, they’re not native to North America.
Just how many tens of millions of years do a species need to exist in a place before you consider it native to that land?
“The earliest known North American squirrel fossil dates back to the late Eocene epoch, about 34 million years ago.” source
North American grey squirrels are an invasive species… in Europe. They seem to be able to outcompete the native red squirrels here
@Shadow@lemmy.ca said “they’re not native to North America.” which is incorrect. North America squirrels may be invasive on other continents but certainly not in North America.
Oh, I’m not disagreeing with you by any means. I just thought it was kinda funny that they had the direction of the invasiveness of that particular animal backwards
Yeah I caught that and edited it before I thought anyone saw it.
Don’t forget the obviously non-invasive european starling and european house sparrow common at feeders. /s
Only about 300 years, from your own link you kindly provided:
When European settlers first arrived in North America, they brought with them a number of animals that were not native to the continent. One of these animals was the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), which was introduced to England in the early 1600s as a curiosity.
The eastern gray squirrel quickly became popular in England, where it was kept as a pet and admired for its agility and intelligence. In the late 1700s, a group of eastern gray squirrels was introduced to New York City’s Central Park, where they quickly established a population.
Over the next few decades, the eastern gray squirrel spread rapidly across North America, aided by its adaptability and ability to thrive in a variety of habitats. Today, the eastern gray squirrel is one of the most common squirrels in North America, and it can be found in every state except for Alaska and Hawaii.
Only about 300 years, from your own link you kindly provided:
I think you need to read that carefully again. Squirrels have been in North America for millions of years before Europeans arrived. The part you quoted was where Europeans took a specific species of squirrel found in North America, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), back with them to England.
The rest of that quoted piece talks about that specific species of North American squirrel’s spread around other parts of North American.
Yeah you’re right, I totally read it backwards. 🤦
For us, they are invasive though: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/plants-animals-and-ecosystems/invasive-species/alerts/easterngreysquirrel_alert.pdf
No worries!
deleted by creator
They have managed to invade my heart.
Humans are an invasive species, especially if you are a descendant of an English settler and not a native american indian
Truthfully they were also invasive. We’re only native to Africa
But when they arrived in the lands of North America, those lands were not inhabited by other human tribes
We’ve not talking about colonizing though, we’re discussing invasive species.
Given humanity (Homo Sapiens) is currently thought to have evolved in Africa, that is the natural human habitat. All other habitats we’ve created we can be thought of as an invasive species.
Please don’t virtue signal when it’s off topic like this, it’s really annoying.
They make a bird feeder called ‘Squirrel Buster’ which is fairly squirrel proof. I still put out food for them though, squirrels gotta eat too.
This. I found the squirrels to leave the bird feeders and the garden alone if you leave them a danegeld of raw peanuts and maybe strap an ear of corn to the tree.
You sometimes have to be careful with corn… I picked up some cheap bird food with corn in it, the squirrels got into it and buried kernels all around the yard. My wife just about went crazy yanking corn sprouts out of our and the neighbors yard! 😄
Free corn tho
I do this, but I’ve got a wood chip yard except for where plants are.
Guess where the little bastards bury their peanuts?
In your corn-hole?
I buy in shell peanuts for wildlife and the squirrels love them. They bury them all round the property which is fun to watch. On Nextdoor I occasionally find posts from people trying to figure out where all these peanut shells are coming from in my neighborhood.
My neighbor does this and I hate them. I have peanut shells all over my property. I can’t walk barefoot because there’s so fucking many shells.
They’re in my drains. They’re in my flower and veggie beds. Birds pick them up and take them to my roof and try to crack them at 6am and wake us up.
I HATE HATE HATE my peanut throwing neighbors.
Hi neighbor
Hey there
Now kith
And then you go put more peanuts out, I assume
I buy peanuts 50 pounds at a time, same with black oil sunflower weeds. Nature loves them both. Our backyard is full of natural weeds, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and many varieties of birds
🎵 Oh strap an ear of corn, to the old oak tree… 🎵
I just watched “o brother where art thou”. Soggy bottom boys got a new hit
🎵 I-he-yahi am an ear, of corn and sorrow. I’ve seen squirrels, all my days…🎶
Skill issue
Not a boomer but the little bastards chewed through the propane line on my grill so now I throw rocks at em when I see them. They’re formally vermin in my eyes.
Squirrels were very popular pets in the 1800s. These answers are fascinating though.
37y/o here. Fuck Squirrels, grey and red, as well as chipmunks. They’re all just different textured rats. Destroy shit to make nests, destroy shit to get at food or store food, disease spreading, fuckem all.
Anyone needs advice for bird feeders: 4x4 post in ground, thin walled metal rust resistant metal tubing covered in environment friendly lube. I’ve gone extreme with lard - looked like shit after a week, now I just buy vegetable oil spray and coat it. As long as there are no trees close enough for Squirrels to jump to the feeder you shouldn’t have an issue. Every post I put in gets a 4 way cross on top to hang 4 individual feeders from. I do this for any feeder that isn’t humming bird/oriole cuz they don’t seem to get fucked with.
That fourth sentence is people 110%
We are the skaven. Respect our furrier tree brethren.
You’d fit in nicely in the subreddit that is something like I’m 14 and this is deep.
They’re destructive and difficult to deter. If squirrel hate is more common among Boomers, it’s probably because they’ve lived long enough to find this out firsthand.
Well said. Not a boomer, but I’ve come to hate the destructive little fuckers and periodically go on an extermination binge. Chewing wires off, making holes in the siding and soffits to store their stuff, they have earned my undying hatred.
Besides, red squirrels are the largest predator of baby rabbits.
Some boomer have gardens.
Not a boomer, but squirrels are pretty much just tree rats that make loud noises, could be the cause.
They are of the order rodentia, but so are capybara and everyone loves those. So I think you’re incorrect.
I love squirrels but Capybaras are the most different thing possible. I’ve played with some and they’re so mega chill, I can pet em and feed em by handing things to them… squirrels won’t even be on the same side of the tree as me.
They’re related, and blood doesn’t run.
They can be as related as they want, but squirrels run from me and capybaras let me love them. So that’s why capybaras are superior.
I still love squirrels.
Loud noises? The only noise I’ve heard a squirrel make is the “Tsk, tsk, tsk” -sound while agressively staring me down and whipping their tail and it’s not by any means loud.
The squirrels where I live are noisy as hell, they chirp nonstop
Their mating call in the fall when they lookin for that squssy is a WILD sound
They destroy whatever they can. They chew cables, rip siding and nest in insulation. Make wherever they can smell of piss. If you try to grew anything edible they eat the sprouting fruit, nuts, and leaves then start eating the bark and kill the tree.
