Square Foot Gardening?

I live in the city near a park and battle squirrels all the time to keep them from eating all my birdseed.  I have 30 years battle experience with squirrels, and the scars to show for it!  I have always used havahart traps (havahart.com) for squirrels and raccoons with great success.  The havahart traps catch the squirrels live and you have to release them far away from your property or they will find their way back.  I've heard some amazing stories of people marking captured squirrels and then releasing them, only to have them return days or weeks later after what must've been an incredible little squirrel exodus!  I take mine across a busy bridge over a river 1/2 mile from my house.  So far none have crossed back over the bridge or swum the river to return.  They  are reportedly very territorial and will try to get back, and defend their territory from other squirrels.  (Of course, you can just kill them by drowning, or whatever, instead of releasing them).  Once I got rid of all my resident squirrels (and you'll be surprised how many there are once you start catching them), all I had to do was keep up with the new ones that come exploring in my squirrel-free zone.  I'll go weeks without catching any and then usually catch two on the same day or over two days.  Then it's quiet again for a while.  In the past I've baited mine with peanut butter on crackers but I have found, by accident, that I now catch them without bait in 9/10 cases.  My trap is in the same place near the bird feeders it's been for almost 2 years and I'm thinking the scent puts them at ease.  Their curiosity takes them in.  Occasionally, they ignore the trap and gorge on bird seed.  Then I bring the feeders inside, bait the trap with peanut butter on a cracker and wait (usually less than 8 hours). If you have a mischievous, engineering kind of personality, you might get inspiration from You Tube.  Watch the videos on "Squirrel catapults".  Even if you don't build a squirrel catapult (which is for entertainment purposes only because they just come back repeatedly to get launched), it's worth a good laugh at the archenemy's expense.  My wife promises to try to cook them if we get desperate, but I hear it's hard to clean them adequately and easy to get some serious diseases from them.

Err, thc0655, 

While I was reading your post about taking your squirrels across the river, I was just picturing someone else living across the bridge. He also has a squirrel problem, and solves it the same way as you, by taking his squirrels over the bridge.

Net result of course is, despite a lot of effort, just as many squirrels for you both!

I think you are all using the wrong approach for squirrels. When TSHTF you might appreciate them more.

http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zsquir.html

I find head shots are very humane.  They die instantly.  I get target practice to sharpen the eye for firearm use when TSHTF.  Their meat sustains the creature at the top of the food chain ... me.  Their remains get buried to enrich the soil.  The squirrel overcrowding problem is eliminated allowing the surviving squirrels to happily thrive and avoid the diseases which come with overcrowding.  Darwinian selection gets rid of the tomato eaters in favor of the acorn eaters.  They get fat and sassy off the acorns for the next "harvest".  All very sustainable and ecologically sound.  What's not to like?

Although IME chipmunks will chow down on young tender shoots, dangit.  I cover my herb pots/planters with chicken wire until the plants are big enough that the chipmunks don't find them good eating...

We are on the radio with our seminar ... say a little prayer for us please !      That we have a good turn out  plus  we have had rain  and  cold weather.

http://www.bepreparedradio.com/2011/04/13/family-garden-doctor-04-15-2011/       The Book is  More food from your Garden .

FM

I am new here, I have been gardening for years, however I don't know what BT is?  Can someone please explain?

The squirrels and chipmunks seemed to have stopped carving up my garden and yard. Not sure if it my automatic sprinkler worked(it's still set just in case) or the mouse traps I set which may have left a bruise or 2 and gotten the word out to the tree rat community, or if it's a seasonal thing where they have given up finding last fall's nuts. But I can garden in peace, for now.

I was thinking, maybe Dogs can come up with some type of squirrel repellent with his nuclear habanero peppers?

Don't forget the Trinidad Scorpion Tail peppers that make habaneros taste like a Krispy Kreme donut......

Anyway, my recipe involves rendering the aforementioned peppers into salsa and sitting on your back porch with a bag of tortillas, a couple of .22 LRs, and a box of Remington Yellowjackets. 

They're high sub-sonic and the only thing the neighbors will hear is a thud when the little varmint finishes spinning and lands on the ground.

Does your grandfather have any recipes for salsiccia dello scoiattolo?

ao -

Just to yank this thread off in another direction, Cat and I were out on our morning trip through the gardens and I was very pleasantly surprised to find buds on all of my habaneros - orange, chocolate and white.  I was ecstatic to find buds on my Trinidad Scorpion Tail pepper.  This was my first year growing the Scorpion Tails and just getting the seeds to germinate was a hard won victory. 

Take a picture of your fat squirrel and mail it to Joe Biden.  He'll probably cite it as an example of how well food stamps stimulate the economy.

I am an SFG gardener, too. Water the tomaotoes only when the leaves wilt. Any more often and the tomatoes will crack open.

To clarify my preceeding post.

These are the peppers I have grown and eaten so far this year - with the head to head scoring.  With the notable exception of the ghost pepper - a friend grew those and she gave me one.  I lack the courage to take a small piece and eat it, much less take a bite out of the thing.  It is evil organic.

The Chinese 5 colors have a great citrusy taste and bite a fair bit harder than a jalapeno, but nowhere near habanero level.  The tabascos taste like, well, tabasco and have a nasty way of sneaking up on you.  Being a pulpy, wet pepper there is very little time between biting into one and the onset of heat.

The White habs have an amazing flavor.  The heat takes about a minute to set in and is pretty intense but fades noticeably after 5 minutes or so.

The orange habs have the same taste as the white, although a little more pungent, and are definitely hotter than a white hab.  The heat doesn't build slowly - it assails you in about 10 seconds and lasts a good 20 minutes.  Yogurt doesn't knock it back.  Neither does cream cheese.  Water makes it worse.  Milk only cuts the heat while drinking.  The hiccups are borderline painful.  I will try them again as soon as the next batch ripens...........

Waiting on the chocolate habs and the Trinidad Scorpion tail peppers to ripen before I consider adding them to the mix.  Right now all I have is blooms on both.  Not expecting pepper pods until mid-August for those guys.

I also figure if I tell myself I enjoy eating them enough I'll actually believe it.  The endorphin rush is pretty cool.

I am at a loss for words.......but I'll recover.

I wonder if he's a banker by day and does this for fun on the side?

Pass the ghost peppers please.

His name is Gordo Gamsby. He was clowning it up in that video.  He does sword swallowing and other sideshow acts.  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gordo+Gamsby&aq=f  That's enough thread jacking for now.

Travlin

JO2 -

I'm not growing these this year but may try some next year.  I have a friend who is growing them here in Virginia and she said they were pretty easy to grow.  She calls them "Willy Chilis".

I haven't tried them yet but am looking forward to it.  They fall between jalapenos and tabascos on the Scoville scale but apparently the range is pretty wide.  My luck I'd get the 5 CEP outlier that pushes 100,000 SHU!!