Wanted - Squirrels

Wanted – Squirrels

Squirrels are smart. They are inventive. They are pesky. Especially when it comes to planting time. They jump on flowerpots, skitter between newly transplanted bushes, and worse, they eat everything we put in the ground. We have never have peaches mature on the tree before those little creatures get to them. I find semi-ripened fruit lying on the ground with one bite taken from the still-hard flesh. I tried placing a covering around the tree but when I saw the holes bitten through the material, I gave up.

We had to put screening around our vegetables in our handmade greenhouse to keep the squirrels away, not that they don’t try to get in. Occasionally we’ll find a tomato just outside the enclosure with the usual single bite taken out of it. Then we tighten all the edges that might have allowed the invasion and hope for the best.

I have no problem co-existing with the local animals – chipmunks, rabbits, groundhogs - but squirrels seem to have trouble coexisting with us. They want it all. I am not the only one who complains about them. One of my friends who had the most beautiful vegetable garden gave up planting because of the work it took to keep the squirrels at bay. Someone else offered peanuts in the shell to the local critter but when she was late with the offering, the squirrel actually knocked on her back door!

They are brazen garden thieves who need rehabbing. But considering that most housing developments exist on land that was originally theirs, perhaps it is people who need to learn to live with them. They are kind of cute, don’t you think?