OT - why are the squirrels gnawing on my deck?

minerals

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I have a mineral block out for deer and the squirrels visit it daily in the spring. The deer and squirrels seek minerals when they are pregnant. If my theory is correct putting out a mineral block will solve the problem. You can get a small one at Tractor Supply or a Coop. Small mineral blocks (5# I think) are made for sheep, goats, rabbits etc. The big ones for cows are 50# and cost $7.

Re: OT - why are the squirrels gnawing on my deck?

If you can get some chicken manure to spread aroun

If you can get some chicken manure to spread around, it will keep the squirrels away.

Because you ain't shooting them.

Re: OT - why are the squirrels gnawing on my deck?

John McGaw

Nature of the beast: rodents gonna chew.

But why now, after 30 years?????

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

I've had squirrels for years, but have never seen the kind that liked to chew on CCA pressure treated lumber. I also have squirrels at my river cottage that have never been and issue, although there we have an abundance of acorns and walnuts to keep them occupied.

Chickens and squirrels

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

I never realized that chickens and squirrels are mortal enemies.

But, having lived with chickens in the (far side of) the backyard, I'm not sure that will improve the ambience of Tim's backyard.

Re: But why now, after 30 years?????

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

Perhaps there was some environmental shift that limited their existing chew toy sources.

We've lived here (small town on the edge of the city/rural line on California's North Coast) since 1973. Our house is maybe a quarter mile into the city limits, with an undeveloped area up the hill, the same rough distance. We knew we had deer in the area, but until California had a multi-year major drought six or seven years back, we hardly ever saw evidence of them in town.

The drought apparently hit their natural forage hard, and one or more of their scouts came back, reporting on these fabulously green areas with big boxes sitting on them. So we wound up with deer in our backyard. They were living somewhere close by - they spent most or all of the day in our yard, because we have lots of roses and had (when they showed up) lots of tomato plants, both of which they love. My bride had just about given up on vegetable gardening until I put up a deer fence around the area in the backyard with the roses and the vegetable beds. We've now got flourishing tomato plants, and the roses are setting blooms for the first time in some years, because the buds aren't getting eaten.

We know they're still around: we see the little piles of "coffee beans" in other parts of the yard, and I had to put big cages around some new trees we planted this Spring, to keep them from getting eaten. But the roses and veggies seem to be safe, as long as we remember to shut the gate every night.

The deer arrived in force about the same year the next-door neighbor* put 40 marijuana plants in his backyard, a major violation of the city ordinance, which allowed medicinal dope, but not in that quantity, not close to a school, and not without a board fence around the yard or plants. We had heard that deer like marijuana plants, so we were keeping our fingers crossed that we'd come out just before harvest and find a bunch of deer sitting around, grooving on the color of the sky. Alas, this particular herd are apparently not stoners, so they left the plants alone.

But I digress. Perhaps your squirrels just needed something new to chew on.

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*Now, thankfully, moved to some other location.

Re: But why now, after 30 years?????

John McGaw

Rodents are unpredictable. Maybe they were waiting for the wood to season sufficiently to taste just right? Or they ran out of whatever it was they were chewing before?

I don't have a lot of rodent chewing except for whoever it was that ate the wiring on my little trailer last year or the injector wiring on my old Dodge pickup some years back. I've got squirrels out the wazoo right now but they don't seem to be causing much mayhem except for digging into the mulch and potted plants, either digging up or burying whatever it is they eat.

I do have bees burrowing into some CCA lumber outside but they aren't bothering me so I don't bother them.

well documented with herbivores

David Weaver

this thing with herbivores eating small animals or remnants of others is well documented.

I read a satire article this week about someone chancing upon a deer with a human rib in its mouth, and then google referenced me a smithsonian article talking about the same thing where a deer was seen eating a human rib in a body park (one of those places where they put dead bodies to study them forensically).

In neither article did they make the very well known point that herbivores have trouble getting some minerals and will do seemingly uncharacteristic things to get them. I was surprised this didn't show up in the smithsonian mag articles, as theirs ended with the comment about deer sometimes eating birds out of nests.

I felt like leaving a comment, but didn't. I guess the real answer sometimes isn't interesting enough because it takes the "they're midnight stalkers!!" angle away from the story. They're just trying to survive.