STOP! THIEF!

This morning there was a squirrel barking at me. He was demanding that I leave his territory. The nerve of him! This is my yard, my house, and those are *my* pecan trees. Later this afternoon there was a squirrel throwing shrapnel down upon my head. I look up to find a squirrel has blatantly stolen another one of my precious pecans and he quickly makes short of the green husk.

Yes, I said green husk. The squirrels don’t wait for a fully mature pecan. They start eating them before they are ready to be eaten by humans. That’s their plan you know. Eat the pecan harvest before the humans can get it. I can hardly walk barefoot in my own yard for the pecan trash they have created. The sharp shells stab your feet. You can tell where they have sat in one place with a nut to de-husk it, shell it, and eat it. They leave a significant pile of debris on the ground.

Not only do the squirrels eat my pecans but they dig holes all over my yard and flower beds. Next spring will be spent pulling not only weeds but pecan seedlings too. Plus, the squirrels just don’t dig holes to bury the pecans; they dig holes to find them. So for every pecan that is buried I have two or three holes dug into my turf. And that’s if I have ‘smart’ squirrels that remember where they buried the nuts in the first place.

Now I have to worry about my bulbs. Squirrels eat tulip and crocus bulbs. I have both. I was also planning on planting more bulbs this fall! Will it be an exercise in futility?

It seems that there was a squirrel boom this summer as I am seeing a lot of small young squirrels all over the place. I don’t mind sharing a pecan or two with a squirrel, or maybe two squirrels but it seems that I have a “herd” of squirrels in my yard, and it looks like they are doing a good job of eating my entire pecan crop. How many times have I seen a squirrel running off with a cluster of pecans in their mouth? If there is a cluster of two or three pecans they take the whole shebang with them. Not just one.

Aaaaarrrrrgh!

It appears that other people have expensive squirrel problems and they must have a big problem with squirrels in Colorado too. But these things are minor when compared to a squirrel attack! Do you think I should arm myself?

Hmmmm… There’s got to be a solution here.

later…