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Originally Posted by fraseyboy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
But I don't get it. Why are they pests?
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Oh boy. Ever since I moved into this fraternity house I have grown to hate squirrels.
Don't get me wrong, I love normal, well-behaved squirrels. But they can learn bad, bad behaviors, and then they're pests. We have an infestation. Over the summer we found a squirrel nest in a closet in our basement, and once we opened the closet door the momma squirrel relocated her babies to someplace up the pipes, inside a wall. For as long as I've lived here they've been sneaking into the house somehow in the early morning, getting into the trash and the food in our kitchen. If you fall asleep in our 3rd floor lounge, you will often wake up to find a squirrel right next to your head. I have personally walked into that room to find someone passed out on a couch... with a squirrel perched one foot away from his head, staring hungrily at him.
And now that it's winter, the squirrels have actually moved into our attic storage space and our walls. You can hear them scritching and scattering around in the walls in the mornings, or when a room is very quiet. And they're getting really big, and much less scared of humans... and I'm tired of living with them.
These are wild animals, and as such, once they've learned a habitual behavior they cannot be changed. We've hired an exterminator to come sometime early this spring, to figure out how they're getting in and to make sure they're gone before they start a nest again.
We bought a live trap, but you can't relocate and release pest squirrels. If you take them less than 15 miles away, and you don't drive in a zig-zag line, they'll follow the road right back to your house. Plus, squirrels are territorial, so they can't just "move in" with other squirrel groups. They'll be chased away instead and will either starve to death or more likely end up infesting someone else's house. If getting into people's homes and living off humans is what they've learned, they won't change. So instead of foisting your problem onto some other poor homeowner, it's morally best to take care of them yourself if caught.
Honestly I think that although the carbon monoxide thing that Marados suggested is probably the most humane way, with an adult squirrel it would be very problematic and probably dangerous for the humans involved. I think that throwing them on a fire, like somebody suggested, is extremely inhumane. But if we catch some of the squirrels before the exterminator comes, I will have no qualms with filling up a large bucket with water and dropping the trap in. I've never killed anything besides insects before and would take no joy doing it, but I'm convinced that in this case, it's not only necessary but that it's the best solution morally and an acceptably humane way to do it.
In the case of the squirrels (or whatever they are) you found, Daggerlee, if you found a nest without any parents around they're probably not going to make it to healthy adulthood, sadly.
