I am at war with a squirrel. He has been winning, but I developed a new strategy aimed at defeating this furry rodent.
It all started with a Christmas gift from an irritating sister that I love with all my heart. She is the middle sister and has been trying to bug me since 1964.
Last Christmas she gave me a bird feeder. It came complete with bird seed, and the best part of the gift is that the feeder attaches to a window. You can sit in your home and watch the birds come to the buffet and pig out. This sounded wonderful!
I confess that we had a feeder many years ago and routinely fed the birds safflower seed since it gives squirrels a bellyache. We had previously tried every birdfeeder known to the Ace Hardware world, as well as trying every trick in the book to thwart the little beasts, but to no avail. Finally, we gave up and left the birds on their own.
But here I was now with this awesome feeder. So after Christmas, I attached it to my window. Within days, birds came and began to eat…and so did the squirrel.
Frustrated, I moved the feeder high up near the top of the window. This of course meant that I had to refill the feed tray using a ladle. Nothing else could reach that high. But nothing was too good for my birds.
The next day, I sat in my chair and just happened to look up. There, sitting in the feeder, was the squirrel.
Yelling, I jumped up, and running to the window, I furiously banged on it and scared that squirrel half to death. He jumped a foot high, flew out of the feeder and took off across the yard with my little chihuahua chasing right behind him.
Satisfied, I rubbed my hands together with glee. He wouldn’t be back. After all, I had scared him so badly, he had left poop in his wake. He had also knocked the feeder tray down into the yard.
Sighing, I went outside, retrieved the tray, washed it, refilled it, and put it back on the feeder. The next day I happened to look up and watch the aggravating critter slowly climb up the side of my brick house, jump onto the windowsill, then jump onto the feeder. I banged on the window and out went the dog, toenails scrambling across the wood floor and through the doggy door. The chase was on, but my dog lost the race.
That afternoon, my husband said that he read somewhere that squirrels hated marigold flowers. So I went to the store, but an entire pallet of marigolds and planted them under the window. The next day, the squirrel was back in the feeder. He had walked through the marigolds to get to the window.
So next, I ordered spikes that stuck to my windowsill so the squirrel wouldn’t attempt to climb up there and jump.
“Ha, ha, ha! I’ve got you now and I hope your feet hurt!” I laughed maniacally. My husband said that I was sounding more and more like a crazy person.
The next day the squirrel was back and actually used the spikes to stand on. I pulled them back off.
Fine. I was going to find safflower and put it in the feeder. I knew that deterred them; I just hated the cost. But I was resigned. The squirrel was going to meet his match. I was going to give him a belly ache from the safflower. Then he probably wouldn’t be back.
But then I started thinking. He was really cute. I mean, I got a kick out of watching him climb up and jump off. Maybe I would just keep feeding him and the birds.
So the next day I decided to dig up the marigolds and replant them somewhere else so that I could enjoy their beauty. Two days later, I went to water them and found dozens and dozens of tiny greet shoots all around the marigolds.
What in the world?
Googling, I discovered that when that stinking squirrel had knocked the bird seed out of the feeder, seed had been knocked into the soil and when I replanted the marigolds, the seeds germinated with a vengeance. I was now gifted with a nice batch of weeds growing throughout my garden. I had to sit and yank every single one of them up, and daily I find more.
Okay, so far the squirrel is winning, and he’s not so cute anymore. As for me, I am off to find safflower. He needs a bellyache to match my headache! And I hate my Christmas gift!
