We just let Blinky keep watch.
{{gwi:165351}}

I'm sorry, I'm new posting here, and was browsing...but what in the world is that (Blinky that is)???? LOL

Blinky is a cyclops kitten.

OK, that pic is freaking horrible...I mean it actually makes me feel a little naseous.

Okay don't be dissin' chick3.

I still really, really appreciate your advice last summer when my dog was DX with lymphoma. Since it came out of the blue, I still really miss her, but, as they say, some things are just meant to be (very true, retrospectively, in the case of this dog). However, I can't believe my becoming a cat owner was one of them (no lie, never owned a cat until last November, I'm 45). But, as I always had 2 dogs....

It is ironic in a way that after lurking for these many months on this forum and gaining so much great info by browsing and searching the forums for help with my expanding orchid collection that my first post would land here under squirrel under a picture of a Cyclops kitten.
I live in Northern Wisconsin and am familiar with both these mammals, squirrels of all colors and fishers. My favorite by far is the fisher, though I would be reluctant to stand close to one lest I be thought of as a menu item. Think of a fisher as 12-14 lbs of teeth, claws and muscle with 800 lbs of attitude. The "Terminator" of the weasel family if you will. Any woodland critter that routinely dines on "porkies" (porcupines) has my respect. I have seen 2 in my "neighborhood" in the 10 years I have lived here. The most recent and memorable was a juvenile fisher carrying/dragging the body of an adult gray squirrel easily twice its size into the woods from across a road.
After being trapped to the brink of extinction the fisher population in Wisconsin has recovered remarkably well, though both the porkie and squirrel populations have plenty of room for predation. Interestingly, I think the fisher are now working for the songbird population as rumor has it that the fisher has realized it need not suffer a face full of quills when a nice fluffy overfed house cat makes a much easier main dish.
Well, I had been meaning to write in on the threads discussing favorite orchid on line vendors, and to thank everyone for contributing so much invaluable information to this forum, but alas, you can find my first post here under "Squirrels - the final solution" with the picture of Polyphemus the cat  which by the way looks strikingly like a great cat as opposed to a house cat.

My name is Richard, and I am an orchid collectorÂ

Richard,

Welcome to non-lurking status. Too bad about pet cats getting offed by fishers. I love, love, love the picture of a young fisher dragging the body of an adult gray squirrel. Take that, you orchid-killers!

If you've got experience with vendors - good or bad - please add it to the posts.

How many orchids do you have? What types, mostly? How long have you been growing orchids? Are you going to the Chicagoland Festival in late September?

Whitecat8

Ya know? Some of the orchid people here are 100% childish with their continuous posts about terminating squirrels in one way or another and taking absolute glee in the idea.

I *DO* have photographs of maggot infested gunshot wounds of squirrels and other animals that I can and will post if you wish to delight in the suffering of animals. Full glorious color too! Some people think it is a joke and there are no consequences.

I see the consequences of the poisoning, shooting and trappings that have gone wrong and rather than causing a fast semi-humane death there is unbelievable suffering for an animal who did not target anyone's plants but was just being a squirrel or a Blue jay or a Raccoon....

I respect you right to enjoy your planty things but I also respect my patients that may have become my patients because of ..... well... you know.

By now everyone orchidy knows how despised squirrels are in this forum so why don't we just leave it at that and call a truce? Stick a fork in the squirrel killing threads and call them done.

Hi Tuezday. Glad I helped at least a little.

I'll remove the photo of Blinky. He was a real kitten who was born alive!

Chickadeedeedee

"Ya know? Some of the orchid people here are 100% childish with their continuous posts......."

You know, if you don't like a thread or don't find it interesting or up to your moral standards, don't look at it. You do have that option. Name calling and pointing fingers at others on this forum is not going to win you points in anyones book.

Not looking for bonus points.

I still like squirrels.
They're cute. They like me and I like them. I feed them peanuts and they don`t eat my orchids. They come right up on my lap. I even named one.

I do have a problem with raccoons. I dislike them intensly; coming into my yard and eating all my straberries. I have nearly a dozen strawberry plants and I haven`t had a single strawberry from them....

I rather liked the picture of Blinky and my hat is off to him for tenacity. I am rather astounded to learn he was viable given his rather bad luck in gene-roulette. He honestly looked like a premie or newborn African lion to me for some reason.

Squirrels will suffer no matter what. Hawks above, cats and dogs below. A never-ending hunt for food and water. A constant battle at every tree by their fellow vermin seeking more territory. Gnawing on electric wires and electrocuting themselves. Dashing out in front of cars and getting partially run over where they die a slow and miserable death in the street. Fighting the bitter freezing cold in the winter (they don't hibernate), and the sweltering misery of the summer. Flea and mosquito and tick borne diseases. Venemous snakes. Everything dies and most critters do not die happily I think.

Is a well-aimed bb to the head really so bad? Isn't it a blessing?

To me the only thing that is really sad about killing them, is that it only creates more territory for the ones that live, so they breed more.

They are destructive and make very very poor choices. As I've said before, Darwin will sort them out. The smart ones will learn not to come into places like my backyard. They should breed more smart squirrels that can actually learn from their mistakes. Eventually I guess they shall rule the world. :( I just hope they don't bring the plague to Oklahoma before I get to see some of my Angs bloom.
-MB

Hola- Everything is welcome into my backyard!! If they can make it in after the dogs and the cats see them enter, I have no problem!
Luis

This spring I've been plagued by ground hogs chewing off my cucumber vines, biting into the tomatoes, and chopping off the tips of the orchids. I tried everything. A friend in Missouri suggested sprinkling the ground with hydrated lime. He says they get it on their paws and they lick their paws, and they don't like it. My neighbor says she can't put lime down as it burns her dogs' paws. I put the lime down around my plants and so far it's worked. The ground hogs haven't bothered my tomatoes or cucumbers or the orchids. I figure if lime is disliked by ground hogs and dogs, maybe the squirrels won't like it either, as they lick their paws, too. So I'm going to give it a try to rout out the squirrels!

My mother calls squirrels rats with tails -obviously you haven't had them ear your trees - your roof and anything else- she used to give her grandsons a bounty for each dead one they brought in -- I was at a local museum this morning which is famous for its gardens and there were two cats -- obviously litter mates and well cared for-- they belonged to the museum!!! there job -- keep the vermin down including squirels.

Here is a montage of squirrels from "Mark Trail"

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:191914}}

Why kill them?
Just toss em over to the neighbor's yard:

Here is a link that might be useful: Squirrel Toss

Oh, oh. Folks are venturing into dangerous territory again.

Oh, Kevin, isn't it delightful?!

Well, considering grey squirrels are just rats with long bushy tails, I don't see any problem there. However, if it was red squirrels that'd be another issue.

RP1

RP1 - Are you saying that red squirrels always leave orchids alone? Is there another reason they're not rats w/ tails?

Here's a thought to make you bang your head against the wall - according to a news item a couple of days ago, squirrels can thrive where there are no trees. Ack

WC8

Red squirrels aren't nearly as unpleasant and certainly not disease ridden like grey squirrels. Not to mention, they're a protected species. They're also a lot more attractive.

RP1

I like the all-black ones. I remember visiting a park in Toronto and noticing something just didn't seem right. Then I realized all the squirrels were black. Very odd for someone used to the grey monsters.

K

Wetfeet - The Squirrel Toss video seems to have been removed. Bummer.

Richardol - Oh, you meant the real Mark Trail. Cool.

Interesting info - Squirrels that are black are grey squirrels w/ a different gene in play.* I first saw black squirrels in N. MN and thought they were pretty. They probably eat orchids, too.

RP, red squirrels in the U.S. aren't endangered, but I just ran across info on Wikipedia about grey squirrels taking over in England, partially because they have no natural predators. That's too bad.

"On some occasions, during the fall, large numbers of gray squirrels will search for new places to live. It is thought that this behavior, known as emigration, results when squirrel numbers are high and food is scarce. When mature forests covered most of eastern North America, this mass movement of squirrels was quite spectacular."
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/greysquirrel.html

Can you imagine a "mass movement of squirrels"? It'd be like the Hitchcock movie "The Birds" or the attack of the killer tomatoes.

"Hunters have to be quick and accurate to shoot the swift and elusive eastern grey squirrel. It is interesting to note that naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton credited these qualities of marksmanship, developed to a high degree by early American squirrel hunters, with helping to defeat the British during the American revolution."
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=89

Wow. My grandfather, who grew up in rural Arkansas, often shot squirrel, which we ate. Wild turkey, too. I didn't realize what a good shot he must have been. Any of you who can shoot a squirrel - amazing.

The fact that squirrels travel through their territory in the same sequence each day suggests loads of possibilities. If you knew the little darling was going to hit your back yard around 5:30 every afternoon...
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sciurus_carolinensis.html

"Are There Squirrels in Heaven?" This and other topics are discussed on another anti-squirrel site: http://www.scarysquirrel.org/page1.html.

WC8

*"Eastern grey squirrels Sciurus carolinensis commonly occur in two colour phases, grey and black, which leads people to thinkÂmistakenlyÂthat there are two different species. Black is often the dominant colour in Ontario and Quebec, toward the northern limits of the species range. Farther south the black phase is less common and is not found at all in the southern United States. This may indicate that the gene responsible for black coloration has some cold-weather adaptation associated with it."
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=89

Maybe red squirrels aren't endangered in the us, but they are over here. Used to see a lot of them a looong time ago, won't see any these days.

RP1

WC - That's really cool critter info. Thanks.

RP - Did I hear somewhere that the greys have made it over to your part of the world and are causing major problems?

I agree about the squirrels hitting the same area each day. Every morning, there they are, perched on top of my orchid cage.

I have not tasted it myself but many people in these parts swear that red squirrel is the best eating too.

Loved the Mark Trail montage.

Wisconsin Richard

Mmmm grey squirrels are evil little things and I wouldn't say a major problem over here, but they certainly outcompete the red ones.

Red squirrels never seemed to be unpleasant.

Pigeons are the nearest equivalent for being a problem over here, just rats with wings.

RP1

Came across this about Grey Squirrels in Great Britain:

From Animal Diversity Web:

"In Great Britain, Sciurus carolinensis is considered very destructive to property and is ranked second in negative impact only to the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus)."

um, errr ok

I learned as a kid from a neighbor how to train squirrels. till this day, I can always get the critters to run up my leg and sit on my shoulder. I also had two cats who used to have the cutest, and longest conversations with squirrles; one used to even knock at the window to ask for my cat Freeway to come and chat.

my experience, Kim

Hey, Kim,

It'd be cool to have a squirrel sit on my shoulder, esp. because they've left my orchids alone... so far. How did you do it? We've got 3 cats for them to talk to.

As for the grey squirrel displacing the Red Squirrel in W. Europe, here's some info from Wikipedia:

"A prolific and adaptable species, it (the grey squirrel) has been introduced to and thrives in several regions of the western United States. The Eastern Gray Squirrel has also been introduced to the United Kingdom where it has successfully spread across the country and displaced the native Red Squirrel. There are concerns the same will happen in Italy....

"Displacement of red squirrels
"In the UK, the animal is known simply as the grey squirrel and has no natural predators. This has added to their rapid population growth and has led to the species being classed as a pest. Measures are being devised to reduce their numbers, including one plan for famous television chefs to promote the idea of eating gray squirrels.[1] In areas where isolated populations of red squirrels survive, such as the island of Anglesey, eradication programmes for gray squirrels are in progress to allow red squirrel populations to recover [1].
Although the matter is controversial and complex, the main factor in the displacement of red squirrels by gray squirrels is thought to be competition for resources, leading to a decrease in fitness of the red squirrels on all measures (e.g. Wauters, Gurnell, Martinoli & Tosi, 2002).

"Gray squirrels tend to be larger and stronger than red squirrels and have been shown to have a greater ability to put on fat before the winter. These factors are thought to result in gray squirrels competing effectively for a larger share of the available food, resulting in lower survival and breeding rates in red squirrels. Parapox virus may also be a strongly contributing factor. Red squirrels are fatally affected by this disease, while gray squirrels are unaffected but thought to be carriers. Red squirrels are also more affected by habitat destruction and fragmentation than the more adaptable gray squirrel, which has also contributed to a decrease in their numbers and a linked increase in the numbers of gray squirrels.

"This has also been the case in the Pacific region of North America, where the native red squirrels have been largely displaced by gray squirrels in parks and forests throughout the region."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_squirrel

RP, here's hoping you & loads of others learn to love grey squirrel for lunch, dinner, and snacks. They're tasty.

WC8