Squirrels

[hammerman]

I look after a lovely 2 acre rock garden in Brighton. Every year we look to improve the garden and this year, we've planted 55,000 spring flowering bulbs which include winter aconites, crocus, snowdrops, species tulips, larger tulips, narcissi, anemones etc etc.

However, it seems that as fast as im planting them, the pesky little rats with fluffy tails are digging them up and eating them. It's getting quite demoralising.

Ive phoned our local authority pest control up and they don't deal with squirrels as they're not classed as vermin (???)

As it's a public park, i can't go round shooting them, i can't put poison down eitheir so that leaves some kind of deterrant or trapping them.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas that might help

Thanks

HM

[hammerman]

GO AWAY AND GROW UP.

[mazie]

Hi hammerman. I have a lot of sympathy! You could try planting the bulbs a little deep, squirrels don't like digging too deep.

dorromay, I think you would be hard pushed to find many red squirrels in Brighton. And, there's no need to be abusive to hammerman

[paddywak]

Hammerman, unless the law has changed recently Grey squirrels ARE classed as vermin so much so that if you use a humane trap to catch them you must kill them as it is against the law to release them back into the wild. Reds however are a protected species, not to be harmed or interfered with. In fact if I was lucky enough to have some reds visit me I would do everything I could to encourage them to stay. I don't really know how you'll deal with the problem as the option I'd use i.e. a .410 seems to be ruled out by the position of your plot.

[paddywak]

Just a thought hammerman but see if you can contact ratter. if I remember correctly pest control was his line of work so he might have a few ideas.

[lslowry]

they are just tree rats with a furry tail, a 22 air rifle should sort them out.

[Graham-W]

Are they actually eating them or moving them and burying somewhere else for winter.
I wonder if you spread peanuts on the surface behind you as you go whether these would be eaten/ put into storage in preference to the bulbs.

[Baldric]

Interesting Law section

http://www.greysquirr...ntrol.co.uk/index.php

[Ratty2E]

My grandad used to put twiggy sticks over the areas he planted bulbs to deter the squirrels. I don't know if that would be a practical solution in a public park. Btw these red squirrels, are they swimming along the coast from Brownsea or hitching down from Scotland ;0)

[ChuckFickens]

I think they are on a day trip from the Isle of Wight.

[JonnyBoy12]

I would recommend the use of either Jack Russell terriers or Westie dogs as they hate rats. They should be able to kill the rats quite well.

[RATTER15]

Hi, I used to deal with squirrels a lot, in the situation you are describing I think your only option would be to trap them and then kill them humanely, they are very easy to trap, just remember to check traps regularly and its a good idea to keep the traps covered in case it rains, I hate the thought of trapped animals being left out in the rain with no protection. bait the traps with cut up apples, any fruit will do but apples are usually easier to obtain and cheap.

[Baldric]

But can they climb trees to catch the little beggers?

[EcclesCake]

I haven't experienced on quite your level Hammerman but planting deeper does seem to make a difference. It also helps to protect the bulbs for future years giving an overall longer life span from the bulb.

[Baldric]

^^^^^^^ Question for JB12 ^^^^^^^

[RATTER15]

You could possibly poison them in areas not accessible to the public but the squirrel poison is not cheap and you need to buy special squirrel poison hoppers, not very successful in my experience.