squirrel control

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[oldclaypaws]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-29687013

[Dexter's Shed]

I know some woodland owners are against squirrel culling, but if they are doing damage to the trees then needs must, walking around our plot, we have lots of mighty oaks, but nearly all of them, along with a few ash, have dead branches on the bottom, is this caused by squirrels chewing the bark? we shall never know, but something must be doing it, the trees are healthy apart from that, we have just formed friendships with owners of the woods across the field from us, and it seems that once the leaves have fallen, they all get together and walk through their woods culling squirrels, so it's something that we shall need to do in ours, I have just returned one of my rim fire rifles, and was granted a section 1 shotgun in it's place, so now get 8 shots before needing to reload

if we do a large squirrel cull this year a BBQ will follow

[oldclaypaws]

nearly all of them, along with a few ash, have dead branches on the bottom, is this caused by squirrels chewing the bark?

Don't think so. As trees grow they tend to spread and put the nutrients into the branches on the upper boughs, the lower ones become shaded and as such have fulfilled their purpose, so they wither. Virtually all of my big oaks have lower 'ghost' branches with skeletal stag-oak remains of what were thick branches many years ago when the tree was smaller. You dont tend to see the same on the upper boughs. Squirrels love Oak shoots in the spring and acorns in the autumn, but I'm not aware of them going for oak sapwood- they tend to do that on trees with smooth sweet sapwood and thin bark- beech, sycamore and younger sweet chestnut are favourites. Although they like the nuts, I don't see the squirrels attacking the Hazel either- although deer do rub the lower bark and nibble the shoots extensively.

[Dexter's Shed]

cheers paws, a mine of information, they squirrels are still going to get it though

[Rich]

if we do a large squirrel cull this year a BBQ will follow

I would suggest slow cooking in a casserole rather than a bbq. Boil the whole carcuss until the meat falls away, you can filter out any bones and grissle you don't want to eat then use the liquid as a good stock, add whatever takes your fancy then return the meat to the pot.

I put my 14 year old nephew off squirrel for life by offering him a tough almost inedible bbq'd one ..... shame as he might have made some impact on their population in his lifetime if he'd have found it a bit more palatable!

[Rod Taylor]

[/quote

]Squirrels love Oak shoots in the spring and acorns in the autumn, but I'm not aware of them going for oak sapwood-

Sorry Paws but they had a taste for Oaks in our wood. Totally stripped all the bark off any straight trunk around 4 to 6 inch diameter for anything up to 15 feet. Killed the trees of course, around 3 dozen of them. Took them around a month to do it so an impressive amount of bark removed, and 'caught in the act' so have no doubts what caused the damage.
Started trapping after that and removed around 60 each year, and although still seen regularly around in the wood, numbers seem to be low enough to keep bark damage to a minimum. Happy with that as nice to see them around and share the wood with them, so have reduced the number of traps set. Will continue trapping though, to maintain the population low enough to prevent the assumed stress related urge to strip bark at high population levels.

[oldclaypaws]

Have to confess I can't really see my sapwood, its mainly about 80+ feet up !

There hasn't been any squirrel control in my wood to the best of my knowledge, and I'd say they aren't wrecking it. They do have the Hazelnuts, but damage seems limited, maybe because I have less tasty species and mainly very old established trees. In the spring I see a few oak shoots nibbled on the ground, but having so many oaks the effect seems spread thinly- it would need 200 squirrels to cause significant damage, and they all seem to scarper when they hear me and the dogs. They also are presumably snacked on by my Buzzards, which I have in plenty.

[Rod Taylor]

Most of our damaged Oaks were around 20 years old and growing well, but similar damage to the tops of older trees where the trunk diameter was the same.
Damage in earlier years was mainly to Hornbeam and small patches on Chestnut, but never completely ring barking so the trees survived. The year after the Oaks the target was Birch, with previous old damage to Birch from before we bought the wood. Have very few Sycamore with old damage wounds so not sure if the sacrificial sycamore theory would work for us.
Strange how the target flavour changes each year.

[SimonFisher]

We've oak and beech in similar numbers and age, around 25 years I think. Almost every beech has suffered. I can't recall ever seeing any of our oak damaged. We're in Hampshire.