Evil Ground Squirrels!

My Vet came to the ranch at least 3 times a week during breeding season with his Jack Russell terrier . He runs right over to the nearest hole and proceeds to dig and dig some more . He manages to make quite a hole but never once reached a ground squirrel. Guess who has to shovel the dirt back ? A friend who lives about 18 miles from us, has 3 Jack Russell terriers, 6 horses, and countless ground squirrels ... they dig and dig some more all over the pastures, corrals , and fence posts, and said friend spends hours every weekend in refilling the holes with the former flying dirt that is now mixed in and over the pasture grasses to level the minefield areas. They have yet to kill more than a single squirrel ! Over rated ya think ? Young coyotes see a squirrel go down a hole and start to dig them out. They fail and fail again, then as they grow older , if they see a squirrel go down their hole, they just trot on.
 
Carol Dee said:
How to tell ground squirrels and chipmunks apart
http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/facts/chipmunk_vs_squirrel.html
Click to expand...
Thank you for the information. I have always called the rodents chipmunks as do most everyone around here that I know. From the photos, what I have ARE ground squirrels.

Perhaps ours are a smaller version because the cats find them easy to catch. Not quite as delicious as they were when feed was a bit more restricted in the shed, though. I am finding bodies throughout the yard as I mow.
 
The California ground squirrel lives large in that state. U of Michigan says 10 to 20 ounces. (Link)

By comparison, the 13-lined ground squirrel, common in WI and elsewhere in the Midwest, is 9 1/2 ounces tops. (Link)

Steve
 
Steve, When I first started on the extermination trail 17 years ago, out of curiosity I weighed a large FAT male at just under 2 1/2 lbs. most of the larger ones were at or just below 2 lbs.. ( I used a balance scale [ 1-15 lbs. capacity to weigh rabbits and chickens] ).
 
My biggest problem is that I can't use any chemicals to kill them, so the grain with warfarin & blue dye wouldn't be acceptable in this case (it's a 100% organic farm-to-fork garden). However, I have discovered that the population seems to have gone down since I started invading their little tunnels with my shovel and with basil and onions. They do NOT like the onions! They have stopped stealing tomatoes & haven't touched the melons in about a week, which is one of the tell-tales that there are less of them now. Another friend suggested making a garlic/hot pepper "tea" and pouring it down into their tunnels. I'll have to get pictures of this garden and show you guys... it was really a quite spectacular garden until the stupid ground squirrels moved in.
 
We love pictures on TEG!

I don't like imagining your garden as a "moonscape" if you can't find the effective way to keep those critters out, out, out!

:\

Steve
 
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