Comments on: The Squirrels Revenge http://www.bettsace.com/blog/2008/11/the-squirrels-revenge/ Ace is your Helpful Hardware Place Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:29:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Barbara Kent http://www.bettsace.com/blog/2008/11/the-squirrels-revenge/comment-page-1/#comment-491 Barbara Kent Tue, 19 May 2009 23:44:42 +0000 http://www.bettsace.com/blog/?p=13#comment-491 Squirrels do not like safflower seeds either. I will try the HOT variety soon. Thank you for the tip. Seems I have a few weeks of seed to go through first. We love the patio furniture. Thanks for ordering the extra chairs. The basil is growing like wild fire and have used it in salads with the arugula. It is amazing. Squirrels do not like safflower seeds either. I will try the HOT variety soon. Thank you for the tip. Seems I have a few weeks of seed to go through first.
We love the patio furniture. Thanks for ordering the extra chairs.
The basil is growing like wild fire and have used it in salads with the arugula. It is amazing.

]]> By: chris d http://www.bettsace.com/blog/2008/11/the-squirrels-revenge/comment-page-1/#comment-46 chris d Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:54:41 +0000 http://www.bettsace.com/blog/?p=13#comment-46 I feel your pain. It's actually how I found out about this blog. I had come in to get some Great Stuff and explained that it was being use as a desperate, last resort, anti-squirrel measure... I believe I also asked if you had any fishnets or some kind of advice about killing it outright. You explained that you had also had a squirrel battle and told me I could read about it. Well, here I am. My story will only help fuel your hatred: Our house is 30 years old. It's in great shape, but the siding is wood and a couple of knots have popped out with the expanding temperatures/humidity of the decades past. When we moved in a couple of years ago, I got a can of "great stuff" and filled all the ones I could reach. Well, there was one left but it was so high up that I didn't worry about it. A couple of months ago, in the coldest week of the winter, my wife and I heard scratching coming from the exterior wall. I tip-toed over to it and put my ear up to it. Sure enough there was a squirrel hanging out in there. Well, I slapped the wall repeatedly while she looked out the window near it. She laughed and told me the squirrel had come flying out of the hole like a missle on a battleship, belly-flopping onto the ground 15 feet below before scurrying into the forest. I knew I had to plug it up. The next day when it was light out, I propped the ladder up the front of the house and went up there to assess the situation. There was some biting around the hole that had made it big enough for the sucker to fit in. Argh. I traced the hole on some paper, and jigsawed a chunk of hardboard with a tab to screw it into the adjacent siding. After beating on the wall to make sure nothing came out, I put it on and it fit perfectly. That same day I was repairing a dent on my wife's bumper with Bondo, and I had a glob left... I got the crazy idea and climbed the ladder. I just used a bit to really seal around the hardboard and make the hole even less appealing to potential gnawers. I was so confident, I even went so far as to get out the old house paint and paint over the repair. It looked dandy and I was proud of myself. Later that week, as we sat and relaxed after our day, I heard the scratching... it was in the wall?!? I ran outside and saw my brilliant patch had been partially bypassed. There was now a new, bigger hole chewed from scratch where the old one was. Even through the rock-hard Bondo. I'm not quite sure what to do, but I figure the other knotholes with the great stuff foam weren't touched while the one with freakin' bondo was... there must be something about that foam they don't like. I dropped by to buy the great stuff, met you, and went home. The next day I managed to scare it out of the wall, and quickly got the ladder out and went to work. I filled the hole with some steel wool to start with, just for good measure, then proceeded to empty most of the can of foam into the void that bugger had created. I fashioned a catch tray and attached it right uder the hole, ready for what was sure to be a volcano of expanding foam out the front of my house (good thing I did, too.) That was over two and a half weeks ago. Last time, he breached the wall just a couple of days after my attempt to lock him out. This time he hasn't tried. That foam must be terrible to chew on. Sorry this got so long, I just kinda got on a roll (I'm a bit of a blogger myself.) I feel your pain. It’s actually how I found out about this blog. I had come in to get some Great Stuff and explained that it was being use as a desperate, last resort, anti-squirrel measure… I believe I also asked if you had any fishnets or some kind of advice about killing it outright. You explained that you had also had a squirrel battle and told me I could read about it. Well, here I am.

My story will only help fuel your hatred: Our house is 30 years old. It’s in great shape, but the siding is wood and a couple of knots have popped out with the expanding temperatures/humidity of the decades past. When we moved in a couple of years ago, I got a can of “great stuff” and filled all the ones I could reach. Well, there was one left but it was so high up that I didn’t worry about it. A couple of months ago, in the coldest week of the winter, my wife and I heard scratching coming from the exterior wall. I tip-toed over to it and put my ear up to it. Sure enough there was a squirrel hanging out in there. Well, I slapped the wall repeatedly while she looked out the window near it. She laughed and told me the squirrel had come flying out of the hole like a missle on a battleship, belly-flopping onto the ground 15 feet below before scurrying into the forest. I knew I had to plug it up.
The next day when it was light out, I propped the ladder up the front of the house and went up there to assess the situation. There was some biting around the hole that had made it big enough for the sucker to fit in. Argh. I traced the hole on some paper, and jigsawed a chunk of hardboard with a tab to screw it into the adjacent siding. After beating on the wall to make sure nothing came out, I put it on and it fit perfectly. That same day I was repairing a dent on my wife’s bumper with Bondo, and I had a glob left… I got the crazy idea and climbed the ladder. I just used a bit to really seal around the hardboard and make the hole even less appealing to potential gnawers. I was so confident, I even went so far as to get out the old house paint and paint over the repair. It looked dandy and I was proud of myself.
Later that week, as we sat and relaxed after our day, I heard the scratching… it was in the wall?!? I ran outside and saw my brilliant patch had been partially bypassed. There was now a new, bigger hole chewed from scratch where the old one was. Even through the rock-hard Bondo.
I’m not quite sure what to do, but I figure the other knotholes with the great stuff foam weren’t touched while the one with freakin’ bondo was… there must be something about that foam they don’t like. I dropped by to buy the great stuff, met you, and went home. The next day I managed to scare it out of the wall, and quickly got the ladder out and went to work. I filled the hole with some steel wool to start with, just for good measure, then proceeded to empty most of the can of foam into the void that bugger had created. I fashioned a catch tray and attached it right uder the hole, ready for what was sure to be a volcano of expanding foam out the front of my house (good thing I did, too.)

That was over two and a half weeks ago. Last time, he breached the wall just a couple of days after my attempt to lock him out. This time he hasn’t tried. That foam must be terrible to chew on.

Sorry this got so long, I just kinda got on a roll (I’m a bit of a blogger myself.)

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