We are at War!

We have a lot of squirrels in our yard and they have been ignoring our new deck and furniture until NOW!

These are just a few of the squirrels we spotted out on our deck.

I saw something white on one of the chairs and from a distance it looked like bird do do. I went out with a wet paper towel to clean it off and found that it was bare metal.....the aluminum was shiny! Then I thought maybe the big tree limb that fell on the deck did it, but Jim said it didn't fall near this particular chair. Finally, we decided the squirrels were to blame. I can't believe they could do this!
I have heard squirrels are destructive, but I have always thought we had enough acorns around here to keep them busy and from doing damage. This is evidence of them trying to sharpen their teeth. I googled aluminum +squirrels and sure enough a lady had written a letter about squirrels chewing on her aluminum patio furniture. The "expert" she wrote to said he didn't think they would do such a thing, but if it was from squirrels they must be trying to sharpen their teeth and also wear them down. Their teeth, like hamsters and other rodents, will keep growing and if not attended to will grow through their skull...ouch! Surely there are better places to whittle down your teeth than on my new deck furniture. Jim, a true Reaganite is a proactive defender...the best defense is a strong offense so he ran to get Josh's BB Gun.

We also looked up home remedies so he mixed red pepper, Tabasco and soap together and sprayed that around. He won't spray it directly on the furniture cuz he is afraid it will eat off the paint. That Tabasco is strong stuff. Fox urine is suppose to keep them away. If you have a supply of that handy let me know and I will take some of it off your hands. Maybe we just need a pet fox and keep him on the deck all the time. There is a pretty red one around here, but we rarely see him and he is obviously falling down on his job cuz the squirrel population is growing (literally) by leaps and bounds.

We will keep you posted on this new war of ours. If you have any recommendations we are all ears! We are not willing to do what one guy wrote about ....getting a large plastic garbage can half filled with water with a skinny board across and sun flower seeds floating in the water. I am not crazy about the varmits, but drowning them seems a bit extreme. Experts say that catching them and relocating them is just as fatal. They usually don't live long if you move them. I guess they are little home bodies. We probably have had this family or families in our yard for generations.