Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. There’s some crazy going on here that I’ll just leave there.

For those who wonder what an infestation looks like, it looks like my entire deck covered in squirrel poop. Like every square inch of our deck and our our deck table covered. I googled squirrel poop vs rat poop, and yep it’s squirrel poop. It looks like our shrubs having 8 squirrels nests in them at last count over the weekend when we were wondering what all the racket out there was. It looks like everybody’s yards and gardens dug up with hundreds of little squirrels. It doesn’t look like , hey there’s some squirrels and birds! It used to the entire other 9 years we lived here. But now it is remarkably different.

For those who have a picture of the old lady in mind, it’s not as crazy as some think and not at normal as others think. She’s a nice lady and not dirty or unkempt at all. But she feeds about a 1-pound bag of peanuts with shells to the squirrels every day. Like every single day. She also leaves bird seed out.

For those who wonder why we neighbors don’t say something, it’s not like we have sessions to discuss. It’s just become so obvious over the past 6 months to a year that something has changed. Little mentions here and there. We don’t say anything because we’re wondering if we’re imagining things or if she’ll start to notice the explosive population growth herself. Or maybe ask why there are hawks who sit on her fence every day waiting for their meals. We don’t want to kill this lady’s joy, but if you don’t know what I mean, you just don’t get it.

Wait, one pound of peanuts in the shell daily? According to Wild Birds unlimited that's less than the amount (1.5 lb) a single adult squirrel needs in a week. So she's sustaining the equivalent of 4-5 squirrels on a continuous basis.

And if they're all dining at her place, why are they running around on your deck?

+1
More likely that you’re near somewhere that has some sort of new development going on, and the population of wildlife that was there was run off so they had to find a new home. This isn’t even breeding season for squirrels. And it hasn’t been since last spring.

I also just don’t believe your porch is “covered every single square inch with squirrel poop”.

Is your deck covered or are there trees? Or have brick house? This person was sure all this poop was from squirrels or chipmunks and it sounds like what you’re describing. But consensus is it was actually bats. https://www.reddit.com/r/Home/comments/15lkv8x/photos_are_of_squirrel_or_chipmunk_poop_that_are/

Especially if your deck is covered when you wake up. Squirrels are not nocturnal. And the bats could just be using this as a resting spot. Not even where they sleep during the day.

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. There’s some crazy going on here that I’ll just leave there.

For those who wonder what an infestation looks like, it looks like my entire deck covered in squirrel poop. Like every square inch of our deck and our our deck table covered. I googled squirrel poop vs rat poop, and yep it’s squirrel poop. It looks like our shrubs having 8 squirrels nests in them at last count over the weekend when we were wondering what all the racket out there was. It looks like everybody’s yards and gardens dug up with hundreds of little squirrels. It doesn’t look like , hey there’s some squirrels and birds! It used to the entire other 9 years we lived here. But now it is remarkably different.

For those who have a picture of the old lady in mind, it’s not as crazy as some think and not at normal as others think. She’s a nice lady and not dirty or unkempt at all. But she feeds about a 1-pound bag of peanuts with shells to the squirrels every day. Like every single day. She also leaves bird seed out.

For those who wonder why we neighbors don’t say something, it’s not like we have sessions to discuss. It’s just become so obvious over the past 6 months to a year that something has changed. Little mentions here and there. We don’t say anything because we’re wondering if we’re imagining things or if she’ll start to notice the explosive population growth herself. Or maybe ask why there are hawks who sit on her fence every day waiting for their meals. We don’t want to kill this lady’s joy, but if you don’t know what I mean, you just don’t get it.

You’ve gotten some good suggestions here. But it sounds like you came here to vent and seeking actual advice for what you can do.

So just suck it up and deal with this for the rest of time time you own your home or recognize that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

The elderly at some point start to go cognitively and socially backwards. The old lady or man starts to exhibit behaviors more in line with a 10 year old than and adult.

She might lack the cognitive ability at this stage to tie her actions to the squirrel infestation and how it is affecting her neighbors so just be as direct as it it takes in an attempt to get her to knock it off.

Stop making it so complicated and just do it.

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. There’s some crazy going on here that I’ll just leave there.

For those who wonder what an infestation looks like, it looks like my entire deck covered in squirrel poop. Like every square inch of our deck and our our deck table covered. I googled squirrel poop vs rat poop, and yep it’s squirrel poop. It looks like our shrubs having 8 squirrels nests in them at last count over the weekend when we were wondering what all the racket out there was. It looks like everybody’s yards and gardens dug up with hundreds of little squirrels. It doesn’t look like , hey there’s some squirrels and birds! It used to the entire other 9 years we lived here. But now it is remarkably different.

For those who have a picture of the old lady in mind, it’s not as crazy as some think and not at normal as others think. She’s a nice lady and not dirty or unkempt at all. But she feeds about a 1-pound bag of peanuts with shells to the squirrels every day. Like every single day. She also leaves bird seed out.

For those who wonder why we neighbors don’t say something, it’s not like we have sessions to discuss. It’s just become so obvious over the past 6 months to a year that something has changed. Little mentions here and there. We don’t say anything because we’re wondering if we’re imagining things or if she’ll start to notice the explosive population growth herself. Or maybe ask why there are hawks who sit on her fence every day waiting for their meals. We don’t want to kill this lady’s joy, but if you don’t know what I mean, you just don’t get it.

Wait, one pound of peanuts in the shell daily? According to Wild Birds unlimited that's less than the amount (1.5 lb) a single adult squirrel needs in a week. So she's sustaining the equivalent of 4-5 squirrels on a continuous basis.

And if they're all dining at her place, why are they running around on your deck?

Anonymous wrote:Explain nicely that squirrels should not be fed for the following reasons:

1. They carry ticks and rabies.
2. They are in direct resource competition with birds, and some birds are endangered.

Encourage her to feed the birds, and point out that even if she gets a feeder that's squirrel-proof, squirrels will find ways to eat leftovers anyway. That way, she will prioritize birds, who need winter sustenance, but also help out squirrels (who don't really need it). Also, when it's below freezing, what birds really need is fresh water! That's why some people have heated bird fountains

according to the CDC squirrels almost never carry rabies and have not been known to transmit rabies to humans. (I'd think we'd have heard more about this given the fact that plenty of people try to befriend squirrels and sometimes succeed). They can carry ticks, mites, and fleas, and can transmit a variety of diseases (more often in the SW, think plague and hantavirus).

No opinion on whether OPs situation counts as an infestation, if the poop is from the squirrels vs rats as someone else suggested. The extent to which neighbor is promoting breeding depends I suppose on how much she is feeding.
Population will drop eventually. Hawks will show up, they will get run over by cars, owls will find them. I have noticed where I live you might see young squirrels dashing all over the place in the spring and by fall there aren't very many to be seen.

For years a neighbor would put out stale bread and dried corn and peanuts for squirrels. Didn't make a difference in population when they moved away.

OP here again. There’s some crazy going on here that I’ll just leave there.

For those who wonder what an infestation looks like, it looks like my entire deck covered in squirrel poop. Like every square inch of our deck and our our deck table covered. I googled squirrel poop vs rat poop, and yep it’s squirrel poop. It looks like our shrubs having 8 squirrels nests in them at last count over the weekend when we were wondering what all the racket out there was. It looks like everybody’s yards and gardens dug up with hundreds of little squirrels. It doesn’t look like , hey there’s some squirrels and birds! It used to the entire other 9 years we lived here. But now it is remarkably different.

For those who have a picture of the old lady in mind, it’s not as crazy as some think and not at normal as others think. She’s a nice lady and not dirty or unkempt at all. But she feeds about a 1-pound bag of peanuts with shells to the squirrels every day. Like every single day. She also leaves bird seed out.

For those who wonder why we neighbors don’t say something, it’s not like we have sessions to discuss. It’s just become so obvious over the past 6 months to a year that something has changed. Little mentions here and there. We don’t say anything because we’re wondering if we’re imagining things or if she’ll start to notice the explosive population growth herself. Or maybe ask why there are hawks who sit on her fence every day waiting for their meals. We don’t want to kill this lady’s joy, but if you don’t know what I mean, you just don’t get it.

What does a “squirrel infestation” look like in the dead of winter, OP? How many hardy squirrels are we talking about here?

I can't believe you people are complaining about squirrels. Old people have always fed squirrels around here. Y'all are a bunch of killjoys.

Are y'all from NYC?

There’s nothing you can do.

My mom started feeding the raccoons in her very expensive neighborhood and there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.

You could move…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a loss. There is an elderly lady on our street who is feeding squirrels so much that we now have a squirrel infestation on our street. They have chewed our deck, built nests in our neighbor’s eaves, and poop all over the driveways and outdoor tables.

I like this old lady and am at a loss on how to approach her to ask her to stop. It is one of the highlights of her day I imagine.

Can anyone think of a good way to approach this situation?

Squirrels carry rabies.

False.
https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/other.html#:~:text=Small%20rodents%20(like%20squirrels%2C%20hamsters,to%20transmit%20rabies%20to%20humans.

They do potentially carry plague and spongiform encephalopathies.

I’m just picturing nine houses and households complaining about a neighbor that must live somewhere between them all. One even had damage, and even that one didn’t confront the neighbor? They just shelled out cash to fix their eaves and then said no, I can’t be bothered to confront my neighbor.

Where did OP go?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a loss. There is an elderly lady on our street who is feeding squirrels so much that we now have a squirrel infestation on our street. They have chewed our deck, built nests in our neighbor’s eaves, and poop all over the driveways and outdoor tables.

I like this old lady and am at a loss on how to approach her to ask her to stop. It is one of the highlights of her day I imagine.

Can anyone think of a good way to approach this situation?

Squirrels carry rabies.

False.
https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/other.html#:~:text=Small%20rodents%20(like%20squirrels%2C%20hamsters,to%20transmit%20rabies%20to%20humans.

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a loss. There is an elderly lady on our street who is feeding squirrels so much that we now have a squirrel infestation on our street. They have chewed our deck, built nests in our neighbor’s eaves, and poop all over the driveways and outdoor tables.

I like this old lady and am at a loss on how to approach her to ask her to stop. It is one of the highlights of her day I imagine.

Can anyone think of a good way to approach this situation?

Squirrels carry rabies.

Take in some Tom Lehrer! In particular, start around 1:30.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain nicely that squirrels should not be fed for the following reasons:

1. They carry ticks and rabies.
2. They are in direct resource competition with birds, and some birds are endangered.

Encourage her to feed the birds, and point out that even if she gets a feeder that's squirrel-proof, squirrels will find ways to eat leftovers anyway. That way, she will prioritize birds, who need winter sustenance, but also help out squirrels (who don't really need it). Also, when it's below freezing, what birds really need is fresh water! That's why some people have heated bird fountains

How do you think birds survived before we started feeding them?

By having a large natural habitat of native weeds and plant to feed off of -- which they no longer have.

I would never allow weeds to grow in my lawn. It's a monoculture.

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.