FamiLee Life

Squirrel Contraception :: That's Nice!

It's been over a year (knock on wood) since I had squirrel problems in my house. After hundreds of dollars spent on removing them from my attic (and subsequently removing bats and chipmunks too), I should just have gotten some contraception to control the squirrel population in my yard! Hm...I wonder if the same meds work on chipmunks which are basically smaller squirrels (just a smaller dose?).

Here is an actual news article from the UK on efforts to control the gray squirrel population which apparently is overrunning the indigenous red squirrel population. Others, however, believe in just killing them. To quote, "Mr Wales said his group had started killing grey squirrels in 23 priority forests in the south of Scotland by giving them a sharp blow to the head - "cranial dispatch"." OUCH! I guess the gray squirrels are pesky Americans too. "The greys are the more efficient eaters and spread a virulent squirrelpox virus to the reds. The virus does not harm the greys but is often fatal to the reds. This means that the greys, which were imported to the UK from the United States, are taking over the natural habitat of the reds and pushing them further back."

The best lines from this article, written by a comedian, are the following: "The American grey squirrel, like its GI counterparts, is over here, over-cute and over-sexed. It's overrun the native red variety, which has been pushed to the edges of Scotland, like ginger boys in a disco. Am I surprised ? No, frankly, I'm not. Just like everything American, grey squirrels are bigger, tougher and, most importantly, the male grey would appear to have a way with the laydeezz. Scottish reds tend to sit around mumbling about railway timetables and beer mat collections. The threat must be dealt with."