| Issue #31, October 27, 2006 |
The Garden At Rock Cottage by Lance Brilliantine
Those Dreaded Squirrels
If you are like me, you have a love/hate relationship with squirrels. Living in New York and East Hampton, I marvel that these critters can survive in the City. As much as I marvel at them there, I view them as pests in my East Hampton garden, where they continuously dig up flowerbeds and rob the bird feeders.
East Hampton squirrels, I believe, are much smarter than those in the rest of the country. Whereas a friend of mine from Arkansas testifies to the success of her squirrel-proof bird feeder, the squirrels in East Hampton have cleverly learned to foil all my squirrel-proof feeders. On any weekend morning, I witness squirrels suspending themselves, spread-eagle across the top of feeders and undermining the squirrel-proofing mechanisms to get at nuts and seeds. Since I won’t stop feeding birds, I guess I will have to erect a tall, electrified pole in the middle of a field to keep the squirrels away!
It unnerves me to have these creatures rob my bird feeders and dig up my flowers and bulbs. And I have been researching ways to prevent their intrusion. In the process, I have discovered some interesting facts that shed light on squirrel behaviors.
Did you know, for example, that squirrels occupy a range of niches worldwide, anywhere there is vegetation? There are about 50 genera and 365 species of squirrels. About ten of these live in North America. The Gray squirrel, most common in East Hampton, is called Sciurus Carolinensis. All squirrels have a common root name (Sciurus) coming from the Greek word skiouros, which means “shade tail.”
Gray squirrels are living fossils. According to the scientific community, they have not changed much in the last 37-million years. They can run at up to 20 miles perhour when frightened. While they are granivores (animals that eat grains and nuts), they are opportunistic and will eat almost anything: eggs, mushrooms, oak-leaf buds, bird hatchlings, dog food, candy, etc. They are particularly fond of nuts, acorns, wheat, and fruit.
Squirrels eat different things at different times of the year. Nuts and acorns are typically eaten in fall. A squirrel needs about two pounds of food weekly to survive, or it will relocate. There is a clue here for reducing squirrels: if you do not provide adequate food, they will move.
Squirrels gather and save nuts, acorns and seeds during autumn. Then they hunt for them when they get hungry. So, if they smell food buried in nice, soft soil in a garden, they just naturally dig there. You can prevent some of this digging in special places by covering areas with hardware cloth, a heavy metal screen with half-inch grids. This can even be used in flowerpots.
Squirrels require a high degree of calcium in their diets to keep their perpetually-growing teeth healthy. Without adequate calcium, a squirrel’s teeth degrade and it will starve. To prevent them foraging in and among spring bulbs, never plant bulbs using a bone-meal fertilizer. It is simply an enticement to foraging squirrels
In the spring, squirrels love to eat the blooms and buds of wildflowers. This is one reason that the buds on my tulips often disappear each spring. Since squirrels are wary of death by swooping hawks, positioning a fake owl or hawk decoy, via a string, in a garden tree reduces squirrel activity. Squirrels also hate the taste of soap, so a detergent/water mixture sometimes fends off these pests.
Squirrels start to mate when they are about a year old. It only takes six weeks from the time a squirrel mates until the babies, called kittens, are born. Squirrels have two litters each year (spring and fall) with two to five kittens in each litter. They can live as long as twelve years (most only survive half that time).
With these statistics, it is unlikely that squirrels will disappear from the landscape in East Hampton, especially if they have survived here for 37 million years! However, their instinct when frightened is to dart back and forth to confuse a predator, which does not work well with cars, which is why we see so many dead squirrels on the roadways. Of course, I am not suggesting this as a means of control, though the thought has passed my mind once or twice!
You can contact Lance Brilliantine with any questions or comments at GardenLance@yahoo.com.
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