I saw a hawk on the fence yesterday, so with a little luck the wildlife problem may solve itself.
I also found out something kind of interesting: the squirrels are eating the seedy part of the iceplant that forms after the flowers dry up. There’s not much to it, so I was kind of surprised that it has any nutritional value.
Yeah, ground squirrels can carry some nasty diseases! I’m still amazed that my brother didn’t get the plague or something after he carried home a sick baby squirrel in his shirt pocket when we were kids. It was dead by the time he got home with it, and it was also covered with fleas.
Speaking of “tree rats”, we actually do get rats in the trees here. A few years ago I would hear a tremendous stampede in our hedge and up into the neighbor’s juniper tree, everytime I went outsite after dark. Thought it was just one large animal. Then I stood still out there for a long time with the lights off, and pretty soon our patio looked like a remake of “Williard” – rats everywhere!
I started putting out traps at night, for a while I was catching 2-3 every night, until eventually I got them all. The only problem was I had to remember to bring the traps inside before going to bed. I forgot a couple times, and found dead birds in them the next day.
My brother in law was visiting a friend in ritzy La Jolla and somehow the topic of rats came up. They were standing under a palm tree and he mentioned that rats lived in the palms. She insisted that, “there are no rats in La Jolla!” At that very moment, a rat fell out of the tree right a few feet away! True story!