WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Pesky, Friendly, Tasty Squirrels
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Bob looking into the kitchen before he hops into his nest. © Dominick Barnes
Bob's nest with the reflection of the kitchen in the window. © Lauren Brown
The wisteria outside the living room window with Phyllis' tail peaking out. © Dominick BarnesBy Lauren Brown
Provided by WorldNow
Squirrels are everywhere. They are known to be house pests and can get into attics and other openings, often destroying whatever is in sight. They run in front of cars and can cause accidents and road kill. Most infamously squirrels are bird feeder bandits, taking food out of the mouths of hungry birds that humans love to feed and observe.
Recently, though, I've had the opportunity to be part of an entirely different squirrel experience.
My Squirrels
I live on the top floor of a house in Jersey City, NJ. There is a beautiful garden out back (unusual in Jersey City) and wisteria that grow up the side of the house and cover the kitchen and living room windows that face the backyard.
A couple of weeks ago I heard some rattling outside of the kitchen window. I noticed a gray squirrel with a fluffy tail traversing the network of vines and branches. This alone isn't unusual-but this time there was something different. He was breaking off branches, carrying them in his mouth, and bringing them to an area outside the kitchen window. After a few days he had created a pile of interwoven sticks.
Bob the Builder, as I dubbed him, was at work as early as seven in the morning while I was getting ready for work. I went away for the weekend and returned to find a full blown nest outside my kitchen window, the sticks now filled in with leaves and other outdoor debris. (I would later learn that my squirrel had built himself a drey, a nest that gray squirrels in Central and Eastern states live in, and typically retire to, during winter months.) I checked the nest religiously for the next two days until I finally saw Bob (no longer "the Builder" since construction was complete) sleeping inside with only his tail poking out.
I had a boarder-- a little creature living practically in my home, but not. The next few days were very eventful for our human/squirrel pairing. There was a 24-hour period when Bob was MIA and I felt the first pangs of what it must feel like to be a worrying mother. A hutch-like roof structure was also added to the nest. The following weekend the activity had moved down the living room window.
As I looked outside what did I see? Another squirrel tearing wisteria off of the vine, carrying it in her mouth, and creating a pile on the unused flower box outside of the window.
After a couple of hours there was a mound of flowers, leaves and stems that was quite perplexing. Why is this squirrel destroying these flowers? Is he Bob's interior decorator or the resident woodland florist?
The next day there was a burrow in the flower pile. Word must have spread about the prime real estate in the urban oasis of my back yard. A couple of days later, during a particularly cold and rainy day, I did my daily squirrel check upon returning home from work. Bob was sleeping in his nest. I walked over to the flower pile, peaked in and saw a furry ear, and then a little brown head peaked out, staring back at me. I've named her Phyllis.
Now we are one big happy family. Me and my two squirrels. Bob does not like the noise when I cook (perhaps for fear of being the next one in the pot) but that's something he has to live with if he wants to be outside the kitchen. And I'm not sure either of them is very partial to the continuous photo shoot that has taken place since their arrival. However, our situation is better than most. Not everyone lives in peace with squirrels.
Pesky Squirrels
Squirrels enter houses from the roof level rather than the ground floor. They will build nests in walls or ceilings. Squirrels unfortunately can destroy insulation, chew on beams and bring ticks and fleas into your house, or chew on wires and cause an electrical fire. They usually breed at the end of winter so be careful if you have an entire family staying with you; getting rid of the mother without the babies is a bad idea. Squirrels usually leave during the day to get food, so that is the best time to try and seal up the opening inside the house or set some kind of trap. Flying squirrels, which have a flap of skin attaching their front and hind legs to help them glide, can also be a nuisance since they are nocturnal.
Though your children may think they are cute, you should not keep wild squirrels as pets. The National Wildlife Rehabilitation website says that it is illegal in almost every instance to keep a wild animal captive for any length of time. If you are successful in catching an intruding squirrel and do not know how to deal with it call your local ASPCA.
The best way to deal with squirrels that are overtaking your bird feeder is to try and prevent their access. You can put your bird feeder on a pole that is some distance from any trees or your house. There are also bafflers or deterrents that are specifically made to attach to poles and bird feeders that work at stopping squirrels. There is a squirrel feeder called the Yankee Flipper that rotates and flips the squirrel off of the perch once a squirrel's weight is detected. Or you can make them feel welcome by providing the local squirrels with their own bird feeder, stocked with food especially for squirrels.
Tasty Squirrels?
In some parts of the country, particularly rural areas, squirrels were commonly hunted and eaten as wild game. Apparently, they taste a little bit like rabbit but not at all like chicken. In the original 1931 edition of "The Joy of Cooking," Irma S. Rombauer includes an entire section on how to skin and prepare squirrels as well as raccoons and opossum. According to Sarah Hood Salomon who wrote "Politics & Pot Roast: An Unofficial, Unauthorized & Completely Unclassified Cookbook," President Dwight D. Eisenhower caught squirrels and made squirrel stew on a camping trip with friends when they had run out of food.
In Cornwall England, you can find a butcher selling squirrel meat for sale at the Kingsley Village shop. Squirrels can be hunted all year round and the meat is brought in by local hunters. They sold out in a matter of hours, according to the store's director, because people are looking for something natural in contrast to all of the processed foods for sale these days.
If trying squirrel meat sounds like an appetizing endeavor, taste with caution. In 2007, The New Jersey Department of Health issued a warning to lower the consumption of squirrel meat due to lead found in squirrels. And back in 1997, neurologists made a link between a variant of Mad Cow Disease and squirrel brains, long considered a delicacy.
Squirrely Facts
