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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP again. It’s been the topic of discussion of about 8 other neighbors on the street. They’re clearly breeding.

I was wondering what these black pellets carpeting our deck and driveway were. So I googled it. Squirrel poop.

We’ve lived here for 7 years and never noticed anything. Last spring, neighbor started feeding large quantities of shelled peanuts and bird seed to squirrels in her yard.

We’ve all noticed this issue. So have 2 small hawks who now are often perched on her fence waiting for dinner I guess.

Back to original question. Any tips?
[/quote]

How old is she? You might have to wait this one out. It's her property; there is not much you can do, and you really can't reason with stubborn people, especially old stubborn people.

I was faced with a similar problem; a neighbor/renter, maybe in her late 40s or early 50s, who was from an Eastern European country where apparently there aren't many squirrels, thought these things were so cute, so every morning, she left a pile of about 50-60 peanuts on her front porch for them. Every single day and in such quantities that they started running out of places to hide them, so they started digging up everyone's lawns to hide them. Then they started moving into people's attics so that they could be close to their stashes, and because their population started to outstrip the supply of suitable outdoor housing (trees), but not the food supply, they started moving into people's attics.

There isn't much you can do to deter a cold squirrel from getting into your attic to build a nest when the weather turns cold, and much like a stubborn person who delights in feeding her little squirrel friends, you can't reason with them. They are doing what they need or want to do.

Getting rid of a family of critters, bunking in your attic or walls around here is not a small task, and once the squirrels chew into your home, then it becomes easy access for other animals to get into your home. It becomes a squirrel and wildlife circus in your attic. So you call a service to get rid of them, and that runs you anywhere from $800-2000 to remove and do repairs to your roof. And that is just for the basics; depending on how long they make your house a home, you could be looking at needing rafters, drywall, and electrical repaired/replaced.

Now, if you think she is going to be around for a while, then you need to at least try to reason with her. Show her that what she is doing isn't kind to the squirrels let her know that you will be forced to hire someone (mountain man comes down from WV, or rural VA to do the deed) to trap and dispose of the critters and even though they are supposed to release them, which is somewhat humane, that in the more likely and best case scenario, they will gas them to death, alongside the critters they are allowed to euthanize, the big and juicy ones, fattened by a shelled peanut buffet will be slaughtered, skinned and their meat will be given away to friends, worst case scenario and the most likely scenario is that they just throw them in a bag, tie a rock to one end of it and dump them critters in a creek up in the holler. In my experience country, people don't have the same warm and fuzzy when it comes to nuisance rodents, but hey at least you can eat squirrel meat.

Make it as graphic as you need, spare no details, and tell her you love the squirrels too, but that you love your family more and you simply can't have your home being damaged by the critters, nor can you allow your family to become sicken by living in the disease-carrying filth that accompanies a squirrel infestation. I.e., you really ought to wear a biohazard suit when cleaning up squirrel poop in the quantities you describe. 
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