SQUIRRELS

[mossy835]

do they bread all year round, iv been shooting a wood all year and shooting lots, but they dont seem to be going down.just come back now and shot another 13.there seems to be more and more.not that im complaning.

[tigger got stichs]

I have the same problem , it seams the more I shoot the more reappear I have heard people say that by shooting to many you can create a vacuum effect witch can draw them in from other areas as space becomes vacant in the woods you shoot them from. I think they bread from over winter

[Longstrider]

I used to do the pest control on a large private estate shoot that consisted of mainly sweet chestnut and beech woodland. On my arrival to the job the place was literally crawling with squirrels. I took all I could with the air rifle over the first year and sold the tails at 11p per tail (to a fly tying materials company). By the following spring I had enough from tails alone to buy a scope that was a little over £170. Over 1500 squirrels .. and THEN I got a decent scope

 

After 6 years or so at it, it got the stage where you really had to work hard and cover a lot of ground in a day to get much more than a dozen of them.

 

All that was a good 20 or so years back, and with no organised shoot on the estate these days I bet no-one is doing any real pest control. I'd wager that the squirrel numbers are back up to their old levels again.

 

Oh to have that permission again ! It's not going to happen though as the shooting came as an aside to my job on the estate at the time, and getting back in there now simply isn't going to happen.

[stubby]

by shooting them in large numbers, then as already stated, your creating a void for others to move into, far better to control numbers rather than trying to eradicate, as that can sometimes make things worse

 

and they BREED, not bread as in eating a sandwich

[mossy835]

thats good then lots more to shoot.

[Longbower]

They do re-colonise 'empty 'area's , and they breed, as often as any other small mammal does, survival rate is down to food availability, or predator/accident

numbers. Drawing them into created 'empty areas' tends to thin down the wider population,which can boost food availability, and therefore survival rates.

Only sustained 'area' eradication impacts numbers to any great degree. Good sport,though, and lovely cooked over an open flame.

[madstuffuk]

hi guys

 

I'm desperately looking for a regular supplier or good fresh 'dispatched' greys, will happily pay £1.50 a piece. Can anyone help me out?

 

Thanks

[Bewsher500]

I think you are over simplifying the vacuum effect vs the natural pressure causing population spread.

 

if you shoot them faster than they bred you will always keep the numbers lower regardless of vacuum effect.

 

Greys will spread faster than you think just through territorial pressure

 

IMO you can't afford to allow any colonisation.

I am about to hammer one wood that I am now seeing them it

can't abide them