Angie put solar powered lights on the trees in our backyard, think Christmas
lights with little solar panels. The squirrels are plastic deficient and love
to eat the wires so we've got these lights with sections that work and some
that don't. Last fall I went through and spliced a bunch of them back together.
Apparently shrink wrap is tastier than the insulation as they ate almost all of
my splices...
-Curt
On Monday, March 18, 2019, 12:06:21 PM EDT, Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes
<mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
Curt already knows about this.
NEW ENGLANDSquirrel boom does a number on maple syrup operationsPublished:
Friday, March 15, 2019
Maple syrup producers have more than the weather to worry about. Frenetic
squirrels are chomping on equipment, crimping the flow of sap at some
operations.
Damage from wildlife — deer, bear woodpeckers and squirrels — is not
unusual for maple producers, but this year an abundant population of
squirrels is disrupting plastic sap tubing and spouts at some sugaring
operations in New England.
That means producers must go out into sometimes deep snow to find and
replace the damaged lines that transport the sap from the maple trees or
other chewed or missing equipment, which producers say can be
time-consuming and expensive.
"Occasionally they declare war. And it seems like they have this year,"
said Ruth Goodrich of Goodrich's Maple Farm in Danville, Vt., the largest
maple-producing state.
The boom in the squirrel population is mostly tied to an increase in food
source, such as acorns and other mast from trees, said Mark Isselhardt,
maple specialist with the University of Vermont Extension. But the
squirrels aren't causing problems for all producers, he said.
The varmints haven't been any worse than normal this year for Bascom Maple
Farms in Alstead, N.H.
"We haven't had a lot of snow cover," said Bruce Bascom. "We've only got
about a foot of snow here. I think the squirrels are not having that hard a
winter."
But Lyle Merrifield of Gorham, Maine, said he's had to fix about 60 spots
in his operation damaged by the chomping critters.
The trouble is the squirrels could take one bite of tubing and move another
100 feet, where they could take another bite, making the damage hard to
find, said Merrifield, who is president of the Maine Maple Producers
Association.
"I've heard a lot of people talk about squirrel damage, so it's probably
the worst we've seen, combined with the deep snow, just that combination,"
he said.
There's no way to completely control the squirrels, Isselhardt said. *—
Lisa Rathke, Associated Press*
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