some Florida morning observations...

Acorns are surprisingly uniform in size.

Oak trees are wonderful shade during the summer months.

Squirrels have NO regard for LBC's parked under oak trees.

Only 10% of fallen acorns fit the bore of my blowgun.

I need a wrist rocket to properly apply the other 90% of the fallen acorns.

Squirrels FALL out of oak trees if whacked by a flying nut.

A squirrel falling FROM an oak tree makes a resounding "THWUP!" noise on impact with Mother Earth.

Most gratifying.

Doc;
Have you been out hunting breakfast?

Dave

Out protecting an aluminum MG bonnet!

I've sussed out an ammo supply, BTW: FROZEN PEAS!!!

EDIT: Of all the choices in mixed frozen vegetables, corn "wobbles" too much for accuracy, green beans have too much mass to go far. Peas work like a frozen turkey fired at a windshield!

EDIT-II: An unexpected side benefit! After the squirrel training session, added a scoop of leftover steamed rice to the "reserved ammo" and nuked for a minnit thirty, drizzle with Kikkoman's and consumed with chopsticks! BREAKFAST indeed!

Hummm..... Could it be SuperDoc?

Somehow I knew I'd open'd mesef up for THAT.


*burp*

Not to worry Doc.... I fit that catagory myself.
If you do manage to catch the offending rodents, you might not want them to go to waste. Try here. Just like grandma use to make

HOT DAM!!!

Noted...

BOOKMARKED!


...now I gotta get denser ammunition and a better delivery system.

Note to all Squirrels: Be afraid, be very afraid

"Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn."

---Ode to love

Be careful, very careful... you don't want to know the sound of one hitting a LBC....

[quote=DrEntropy

Squirrels have NO regard for LBC's parked under oak trees.

Squirrels FALL out of oak trees if whacked by a flying nut.

A squirrel falling FROM an oak tree makes a resounding "THWUP!" noise on impact with Mother Earth.

Most gratifying.

[/quote]


Careful Doc.... they're friends with the birds.......!!!!

I've already picked th' "killing zone" in the tree. As well as trajectory for avoiding neighborly ire.

It's a NARROW zone. But th' beasts seem oblivious to th' danger.

Maples all the way, Dr. No acorns that way.

We've got a few squirrels in the yard at my folks' house. They generally keep themselves to themselves, except for one. He liked to climb on the roof of the house and chatter at you if you dared sit out on the back porch. If ya did that for too long he'd go get a rock or an old crab apple and throw it at you. He also liked to tease the dog-I swear he'd walk up to the back door, wait till he got the dog's attention, then give him the finger and walk off.

He's gone now. I think the other squirrels declined to renew his lease or something.

-Wm.

I've found lima beans to work well. Accurate to about 15 yards. Use the big ones.

You guys are brilliant!! Do you realize the theological/ethical ramifications your discovery of bio-degradable ammo might have???

Bio-degradable ammo! It's BRILLIANT, I tell you!!!

Call the patent office immediately!

Oh, and missed shots even regenerate to make more!!!

They run along the top of my wooden fence until they can get to my pecan trees....litle suckers, crack a good pecan open & pull out most of the meat then throw it away for another.....too bad I've got neighbors or I'd go squirrel hunting for real!

& fried squirrel is pretty good!

that's whut these li'l muthas are doin' with th' acorns.
The discards are boinkin' off the MG lid.

They've apparently figger'd out they can sit over th' car without gettin' goosed when I'm not around.

Plus no evidence if/when the gentlemen in the black and tan automobiles arrive.....!!

(Fla trooper cars are black and tan iirc :))

Doc has proven this old addage beyond ALL reasonable doubt - to catch a squirrel you climb in a tree and act like a nut!!

My SO and I got married in Fla outside in a beautiful park, with a pond in the background, etc. It was a wonderful site. During the ceremony, my bride-to-be and I noticed that the guests were all standing up. We figured it was because they wanted a better view. At the reception, we asked about this and learned that there were the previously named vermin in the trees above the guests and they were knocking/tossing the acorns on our guests heads!! At least the only "droppings" from the trees were acorns!!

Right, Pete. On both counts.

...and I been thinkin' ICE projectiles...

Wedding humor...... a whole new post !!!

The little guys in my yard get in to my engine compartment and eat the wiring........ my 2000 truck acts like my old healey.!!!!

doc, last friday i heard several rather loud bangs eminating fron my ground floor patio door sounded as if someone was trying to break in, armed with a 21 ounce estwing one piece steal shank hammer i ran around back to see what was going on when i find a squirrel flyng through the air and smashing against the glass door, a couple of steps closer and there it goes again a couple of more steps and now i can see under the patio table "tweety" our cat grabs the squirrel as it tries to escape and toses it against the door again, the cat was playing a one sided game of pingpong using the poor squirrel as the ball, the cat has by now noticed me and before i could get any closer and fearing i might remove his toy "tweety" had that poor thing totaly dismemberd in an instant, no ammo required!, it is a rather bloody mess though.

ooh,ooh,ooh, just remembered, how bout one a these? prolly whone kill em, but he might move out da hood. its my original since i was 10 years old.

You'll shoot your eye out with that!

From time to time, I'll hear them scampering about on the roof of my garage & they'll sit on the railing of our sleeping porch & make noises early in the morning.

'Photo-Crashing Squirrel'.
Its been a hot web-craze for a couple of months.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/technology/2774851/Photo-crashing-squirrel-the-latest-web-fad

Doc, I'm warning ya; don't pi$$ these guys off....

gliderman,

My brother has 5 squirrels living in the trees (front and back) of his house. These are three cottonwoods that are pushing over 80 feet easily. We refer to these critters as the "Squirrel Mafia". If you leave them some "protection peanuts" they don't bother you. They never sabotaged any of the British cars, but they used to wreak havoc on my brothers 2001 Dodge truck. They used to climb into the engine bay and eat the wiring. Only on the truck though. When I lived there they used to leave a whole peanut on our 1600GT Cortina, between the drivers side mirror and the vent window. They would occasionally leave a whole peanut on my TR8 as well. If we removed the peanut from the Cortina, it would be back with in a day. When I worked on my TR6 in the garage with the garage door open, some of them would sit outside the garage, just outside the door frame, and watch me. That was a little weird.

Red Ryder... yahoo... we go to the Red Ryder rodeo in Colorado each year.
"You betcha there little beaver"
I remember that old show.
Of course "DOC"... Red Ryder never killed his enemies.... then again squirrels can't be locked up fur long !!!

swift6, i know alot bout these little creatures, i survived off them while bow hunting elk in idaho, they kept me alive, snow stormed in while scouting for three days, climbing up and down those mountains will get you hungry, i think i ate one of my boots as well!, some say "the lord will provide", you just goddah know how to use em,

Can't find it now, but a couple of years go there was a video of the guy who built a LARGE sling shot on his deck, baited the pouch with nuts, and waited for the squirrel to enter. Shot that bad boy way off into the woods.

I gotta give 'em credit. They're amazing problem solvers.

I find if I stuff three to four peas in th' blowgun at a time it gives a "shotgun effect" and they scatter from th' area.

Ant'ny, th' Red Ryder has a downrange implication we needn't invoke... not that I ain't TEMPTED. And th' cats are strictly indoor. Tho they are HIGHLY interested in all this sudden outdoor activity.

And th' photo Elliot posted is about right: these are street smart varmints. I'm lookin' fer red tail hawk eggs now. And a bargain on an incubator.

Maybe the cats want to earn their claws!

Doc- This might be what bgbassplyr was reffering to.
In any case, I'm sure in a flash you too can have your very own.....


Edit: doc, I know you can improve on the launching system. Something with a flame coming out of the exhaust possibly?

Oh yeah........ I like that, Send them to the neighbors 4 houses down....

You guys are mean to these nice critters. While I was camping along the Hungry Horse Resevoir in Mt. I had a squirrel who used to wake me up in the morning. He would sit outside my tent and chatter until I came out and started coffee. While I was drinking the 1st cup of the morning he would sit on a log an watch me intently. If I put some cole coffee in a cup and set on the other side of the fire he would wander over and have a bit. This was the morning ritual for the 2 weeks I stayed on this site.He had become so used to humans he had no fear.


I have to agree though. A mess of fried squirrel would be a tasty treat. I am not a complete tree hugger.

We've had good ones and bad ones here for years. One of the progenitors of this bunch was half trained by my neighbor. He coaxed it from the time it showed up to take a peanut from his hand... then to climb his pantleg and hold on to his belt to receive the nut. When the beast mistook me for the neighbor it got a shock. It became more discriminating with the "trick" after that.

My brother found a very young one on the ground a few years ago and took care of it until it was adult. They bite, are hyperactive indoors and CHEW about anything. He hung a bunch of tree limbs from the ceiling and had a squirrel gymnasium in his house for a while. It drove his Jack Russell absolutely crazy, too. "This place is a ZOO!" was an understatement. I kept tellin' him I could fix his "problem" if he'd just hand me a tennis racket.

He recitivised it by placing the cage outside with door pinned open and off the ground near a tree. Thing would sleep in the cage and forage the trees. It finally forgot th' cage when it found another squirrel.

EDIT: And when the thing was caged for the night indoors, the CAT would sleep in top of the cage. When it was outside the confinement the cat didn't seem to care. She would just sit and watch th' dog go goofy. Weird household menagerie my brother has.

That video is great - wonder what the little sucker thought when he went flying through those trees?

Hey Tony, squirrels can fly... did you ever watch this?

....guess they can talk also....hehehehe

Look Ma.... No hands !!!

Here ya go...
Squirrel Launcher

Hey Guys, watch this.
Fly me to the moon.....
Exceeding my G load tolerance.
Momma tried to raise me better but her pleading I ignored....
OOOOPS!

My aunt and uncle live outside of town, and have a bunch of semi trained squirrels. Not so much that they let them eat out of their hands, but the squirrels know that if they hang about on the back porch, someone will walk into the kitchen and toss out some peanuts. They tend to follow you around when you're outside too-they're quite interested in what you're doing.

Come to think of it the squirrels in my old 'hood in Chicago were used to people, and they'd just sit there and watch you go about your business. Used to scare my sister who is (I recently found out) afraid of squirrels.

-Wm.