DEAR JOAN: I’m a nature lover and environmentalist but a realist as well, and I’ve just about had it with the squirrels in my yard.
I care all year for a garden and different fruit trees, and the squirrels just ravage them, leaving nothing. I’ve tried it all — nets, hot spray, fake predators — and nothing deters these suburban vermin.
My question is why are we not allowed to deal with squirrels in the same way we deal with the local rats? They are both rodents that carry plenty of diseases — Yosemite has had a number of plague cases recently.
The local squirrels serve no purpose in the local ecosystem and are out of control with no predators. I wish I had hawks and owls all around, but I don’t and the local cats will have nothing to do with them.
They are overrunning our suburban ecosystem, and I just don’t understand why we allow it.
Jason
Bay Area
DEAR JASON: I know this won’t ease your pain and frustration, but let me first say a few words in praise and in defense of squirrels. They do have an important role in nature, whether that’s “out there” in what most of us consider nature, or in developed areas, which also are nature even though we don’t think of it as such.
Squirrels bury nuts and seeds, often forgetting where they’ve stored them. The end result is that trees and plants grow from those forgotten food supplies. Some plants are reliant on squirrels to perform this service.
As for the plague, it is transmitted by fleas, which can infest any mammal.
It’s hard to blame the squirrels for being squirrels. Humans have so altered the landscape that the squirrels are just trying to survive.
While we’ve created places for squirrels to live, we’ve made it difficult for their natural predators to operate. Thus, we tend to get populations of squirrels that are not healthy in the long run.
That said, you can kill squirrels if you so desire. There are rules, however.
Ground squirrels are native to California, but they have no protections. The state classifies them as nongame animals, which means you can trap and kill as you wish.
Tree squirrels are different. The native Western gray squirrel is classified as a game animal and can be taken only during hunting season, and with a hunting license.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife also can issue out-of-season hunting permits if you can provide evidence of actual or potential damage to property. The permit may carry special provisions concerning what should be done with the squirrel after it is trapped, which may require releasing the squirrels in designated areas.
The Eastern fox squirrel can be trapped and killed at any time and without a permit. The Eastern fox was introduced into California — some originally were released in Golden Gate Park — from the East, and experts believe that of the four species of tree squirrels in California, the Eastern fox is the most harmful to homes and gardens.
You can identify the Eastern fox, also known as the red fox squirrel, by its brownish red, sometimes orange looking, fur.
There are a variety of lethal traps on the market, but you must use care not to accidentally kill other animals.
Poisons, never a good idea, are illegal to use on squirrels.
Contact Joan Morris at jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/AskJoanMorris.
