For years, I’d fed squirrels weekly. I had three squirrel feeders, mounted on a long board atop the garage roof, the latter conveniently a view from the dining room windows, I'd spend maybe ten bucks on bulk peanuts I'd put out on Sundays. By Thursday, the peanuts were gone. I was, however, forced to put a chicken-wire enclosure over the feeders after nighttime raids by raccoon families.
When I moved to another house, I wondered about feeding squirrels and one morning saw one single squirrel nimbly scampering atop the thin slats of the backyard fence.
I decided if I put one squirrel feeder on top of the six-foot fence, I'd have at least one customer. I did and found that that one squirrel, a tree squirrel, evidently had many friends, all hungry for peanuts. Soon, I saw squirrels crossing the street, climbing trees, running over the roof, racing along side fences to visit my squirrel feeder.
And soon I was treated to the sight of fierce competition from as many as three other squirrels arriving on the scene, mixing it up with the defender of first-come, first-served.
As months went by, I saw my weekly peanut expense climb past ten bucks, to fifteen, and finally to twenty! I rationalized this squirrel “charity,” noting some squirrels were getting a “well-fed” look, sure to help them through colder weather.
It probably had to happen, but six weeks ago, around seven-thirty p.m--in broad daylight--who arrives on the scene but our neighborhood raccoon.
The way he scaled that six foot fence, how he moved across the tops of slat with a tightrope walker's finesse and how his pianist fingers reached into the squirrel feeder settled for me the question, Why was I buying more and more peanuts?
Noisily, I rushed out the backdoor and he was up and over the fence. I next strapped the lid of the feeder down with a bungee cord.
The next morning the bungee cord was chewed into two pieces, leaving the lid open.
My next strategy was to use two bungee cords to hold down the feeder lid, and wrap a mechanics rag around the bungee cords. And saturate the rag with Tabasco sauce to discourage raccoon nibbling. As an extra measure, I put a metal dustpan flat against the feeder and secured it with a third bungee cord.
Sure, it's an extra chore to bungee-cord the feeder every night at 8 pm and to go out and undo it all at 6 am. But with these new restaurant hours, closed for nighttime visits, consumption of peanuts has plummeted to less than half what I was putting out before.
Image credit: treehugger.com
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