Every boomer with a bird feeder hates squirrels. I don’t understand.

  • lovely_reader@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They’re destructive and difficult to deter. If squirrel hate is more common among Boomers, it’s probably because they’ve lived long enough to find this out firsthand.

  • Smeagol666@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Gen-Xer here, and I used to hate those furry-tailed rats. In one of my old apartments, one lived in the eaves of my building near my window and used to wake me up chewing on shit all the time. I’ve worked 2nd and 3rd shift jobs most of my adult life, and have found it hard enough to get other humans to respect my sleep time, let alone some rabid rodents that everyone else thinks are cute. I’m pretty much indifferent to them now, not being a property owner, but I can definitely understand why people hate them.

    There used to be a clip on Fu Kung (remember that?) where a dude set up a trap on his back porch with a basket and some bungie cords, and when the squirrel took the bait, the guy cut the tether and flings the unsuspecting little bugger like 30 or 40 yards.

  • Hugin@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They destroy whatever they can. They chew cables, rip siding and nest in insulation. Make wherever they can smell of piss. If you try to grew anything edible they eat the sprouting fruit, nuts, and leaves then start eating the bark and kill the tree.

      • Shadow@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Squirrels are an invasive species, they chew wires and mess with stuff.

        Birds are pretty, sound nice, and eat bugs. They also poop on everyone’s stuff, but somehow it’s good luck if you get shit on.

              • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                We’ve not talking about colonizing though, we’re discussing invasive species.

                Given humanity (Homo Sapiens) is currently thought to have evolved in Africa, that is the natural human habitat. All other habitats we’ve created we can be thought of as an invasive species.

                Please don’t virtue signal when it’s off topic like this, it’s really annoying.

    • Anissem@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      They make a bird feeder called ‘Squirrel Buster’ which is fairly squirrel proof. I still put out food for them though, squirrels gotta eat too.

      • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
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        2 months ago

        This. I found the squirrels to leave the bird feeders and the garden alone if you leave them a danegeld of raw peanuts and maybe strap an ear of corn to the tree.

        • Anissem@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          I buy in shell peanuts for wildlife and the squirrels love them. They bury them all round the property which is fun to watch. On Nextdoor I occasionally find posts from people trying to figure out where all these peanut shells are coming from in my neighborhood.

  • caboose2006@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    My bird feeder is for cat entertainment purposes anyway. Cats seem equally happy with birds or squirrels. Not a boomer but I guess I’d understand if I wanted to see birds.

  • Asidonhopo@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not a boomer but the little bastards chewed through the propane line on my grill so now I throw rocks at em when I see them. They’re formally vermin in my eyes.

  • Hikermick@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It doesn’t matter your age, put up a bird feeder and you’ll soon hate squirrels. You spend $40 on a bag of seed and they’ll scoop out all the stuff that they don’t want to get to the stuff they do want. Seed on the ground attracts animals you don’t want like rodents or Canadian geese that shit all over. I found it easier to pay the squirrels off like the mafia. Buy a bag of corn or cheap peanuts and sprinkle some around to appease the bastards. It sucks but it’s worth it in the long run.

  • 11111one11111@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    37y/o here. Fuck Squirrels, grey and red, as well as chipmunks. They’re all just different textured rats. Destroy shit to make nests, destroy shit to get at food or store food, disease spreading, fuckem all.

    Anyone needs advice for bird feeders: 4x4 post in ground, thin walled metal rust resistant metal tubing covered in environment friendly lube. I’ve gone extreme with lard - looked like shit after a week, now I just buy vegetable oil spray and coat it. As long as there are no trees close enough for Squirrels to jump to the feeder you shouldn’t have an issue. Every post I put in gets a 4 way cross on top to hang 4 individual feeders from. I do this for any feeder that isn’t humming bird/oriole cuz they don’t seem to get fucked with.

    • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      That fourth sentence is people 110%

      We are the skaven. Respect our furrier tree brethren.

  • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
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    2 months ago

    Every since one of them tore out half the insulation from my car hood and stuffed it in every corner of the engine compartment, I’ve had it out for them. Furry little obsessive compulsive weirdos.

  • itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    The squirells empty the bird feeders much faster than the birds would so the boomer then has to refill it sooner. Rinse and repeat until they constantly talk about the squirrels.
    My parents bought my grandfather a slingshot for his squirrel problem/hatred and the dude took off part of his own thumbnail and had to go to an urgent care.

    • Lupus@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      My grandpa took issue with the seagulls harassing everything else in his backyard, so he bought a slingshot and shot them with grapes “They don’t get hurt by a squishy grape, they get scared and the pigeons are happy about the grapes”

  • InSamsara@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not a boomer, but squirrels are pretty much just tree rats that make loud noises, could be the cause.

    • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      2 months ago

      They are of the order rodentia, but so are capybara and everyone loves those. So I think you’re incorrect.

  • then_three_more@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not a boomer, but as a Brit - the grey squirrel is an invasive species which has pretty much driven out the native red squirrel from most of the country. They also cause damage to trees through bark stripping.

    • JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      I’ve known this for a while, however I do not wish harm to grey squirrels. This is their war, I don’t even know the first thing about squirrel warfare, although I do hope the red squirrels find an alliance to support their freedoms.

  • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I disagree with the premise. Not every boomer hates squirrels. Not even every boomer with a bird feeder.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I normally don’t care for broad strokes like this either, but his statement was that every boomer with a bird feeder hated them, so it wasn’t all boomers. (So I’d say still broad, but a bit better than what you responded as them saying)

      That said, squirrels where I was from are much more scarce than they once were. The acorns are still around, but the animals… Slowly disappearing.

      • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        The title talks about boomers in general. Only in the subtext is it specified to mean the ones with birdfeeders.

          • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            And I think you don’t like admiting it’s bit of an clickbait title.

            My comment was very clear; I disagree with both, the assumption made in the title and I equally disagree with it after reading the subtext. Implying all boomers with birdfeeders hate squirrels is over-generalization.

            • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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              2 months ago

              It’s a quick title that leads into more detail in the body, as titles often do. I think you’re just regarded AF.

  • uienia@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    A lot of US defaultism going on in this thread. Americans (and perhaps British) talking about the North American grey squirrel as the incarnation of all squirrels, when people elsewhere in the world would have very different experiences with their local native squirrels, who act quite differently to those.

    • 24_at_the_withers@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      How DARE people answer a vague question with their own experiences!! Who’d guess that a question asked in English gets answers from people in predominantly English-speaking areas?! Fuck all these people for not discussing the habits of the Layards’s Palm Squirrel and why Sri Lankan boomers love/hate it!