Thread: Those damn squirrels!

Surely that's a turnip?

You're spoiling her again!

Originally Posted by Mendip

Surely that's a turnip?

I know my onions mate


She'll get another week out of that

Originally Posted by Mendip

To be honest I've often wondered what the difference between a turnip and a swede is, and which one is neeps?

I wonder f Lom knows?

Those are English names for some root vegetables so why would I know?

Google knew:

White flesh = turnip
Yellow flesh = swede

neep is short for turnip

Originally Posted by lom

Those are English names for some root vegetables so why would I know?

neep is short for turnip

I believe that neep is a Scottish name. I have heard of 'Neeps and Tatties' without ever knowing what neeps were, or caring enough to find out.

Originally Posted by Dillinger

How many teeth marks are in it, I shall let her know, although she's been managing with these European Papayas now...

Originally Posted by lom

Those are English names for some root vegetables so why would I know?

Google knew:

White flesh = turnip
Yellow flesh = swede

neep is short for turnip

And there it is. Explained.

Originally Posted by Shutree

I believe that neep is a Scottish name. I have heard of 'Neeps and Tatties' without ever knowing what neeps were, or caring enough to find out.

^ Yes!

Well now you know Shutree, brought to you by this fine thread.

I checked our few remaining papayas today and found this... it may have been there a while but hadn't registered before.

I just fukkin despair at times... I'm paying for this. Looks like the wife and gardener are conspiring to keep the squirrels out.

^ (Scratches head) How does that work?


Maybe a baffle made of a big flexible plastic bowl from your local cheap plastic goods store. Slice it to the middle and make a hole big enough for the papaya trunk. Slip it around the trunk.

Originally Posted by Shutree

I believe that neep is a Scottish name. I have heard of 'Neeps and Tatties' without ever knowing what neeps were, or caring enough to find out.

turnips and taters

Originally Posted by misskit

(Scratches head) How does that work?

Yeah not seeing how that'd work either, from what I've seen the metal work needs more fabrication before it'll catch squirrels.

Originally Posted by misskit

^ (Scratches head) How does that work?

Plug it into the 220V mains?

^ But then there would surely be the risk of taking out any other unsuspecting creatures, including the wife.

Aahhhh....

Originally Posted by Mendip

I don't want to harm the buggers, just keep my wife happy. I've suggested to leave a couple of bananas out each night to fill them up so they can leave the limes alone. But Mrs Mendip's response wasn't really that polite.

Brilliant idea.

The little bugger have to eat something.

Be happy you aren't hosting a family of raccoons.

I was sitting with the dogs having an evening Leo tonight in the workshop because it was raining.

As I looked out, our lam yai tree just leaned over and fell down. There was no wind... it must just have been the extra weight of the rain. I guess it could have gone any time.

I checked that all six dogs were around me and then went to have a look. The root system doesn't look much at all.



I debated whether to disturb the wife's soap opera viewing to tell her about her favourite tree collapsing, but of course it was too good an opportunity, so I ventured inside and told her.

She came out and gave the gardener a right earful, which I must admit seemed a bit unwarranted but I've long learnt to keep out of these things. He's not the greatest gardener in the world but I don't see how he could have predicted this.

And the relevance to squirrels... the absence of this tree has broken the 'squirrel tree bridge' to our mango trees... they will now have to walk across the ground to access our trees. I reckon this problem will disappear pretty soon.

Originally Posted by Mendip

And the relevance to squirrels... the absence of this tree has broken the 'squirrel tree bridge' to our mango trees... they will now have to walk across the ground to access our trees. I reckon this problem will disappear pretty soon.

Send them over here. Wife feeds them every morning LOL

A few days ago I moved the gardener's strange papaya protection cage shown a few posts up, to protect a newly planted small lychee sapling from getting trampled or dug up by the dogs.



Yesterday I noticed that something has now nailed 30% of our papayas from the now unprotected tree. Surely just a coincidence?



I wonder if Pragmatic is on to something here... he's always insisted that the papayas were getting eaten by birds, not squirrels. It would be a brave squirrel to climb and risk getting trapped up a solitary papaya tree with six dogs running around. I'm sure Yogi would love to supplement his pigeon diet.

Are these nibble marks or peck marks? It also seems suspicious that all the seeds have gone... that doesn't seem like squirrel behaviour.



At the moment the squirrels seem to be concentrating on our mangoes... they run along the top of our perimeter wall and dine at will and there's nothing the dogs can do about it apart from bark and howl. It drives them to distraction. But to be fair we have hundreds of mangoes this year so I don't begrudge losing a few. We lost around 150 in just one storm last week.



We often find part-eaten mangoes on the ground. The squirrel's MO seems to be to take a few nibbles out of a fruit and then chuck it on the ground. This could get frustrating towards the end of the mango season.

I've done a lot of investigating today... yeah there's not much going on at the moment. I really need a break in Bangkok.

The papaya had been revisited some time since yesterday afternoon and now looked like this. Definite peck marks I would say and my suspicions are on a pair of mynah birds I see quite often.



The good news is we haven't lost 33% of our papayas, only 25%. There was a small stubby green one at the top of the bunch that I'd missed.



Overnight mango losses are ongoing... these from just one tree and all had only a small nibble removed.



And a close-up of the nibble marks... completely different to the peck marks in the papaya. Despite our abundance of mangoes this will get annoying... why can't these squirrels finish up a complete mango before starting on the next?



And underneath our chompoo tree, or rose apple, or bell fruit?

Many part nibbled fruits discarded on the ground.



And here's the nibble marks... just a couple of bites out of each one. To be honest I don't mind this so much because I've always thought these chompoos are just rubbish.

Fake snake

Originally Posted by lom

Those are English names for some root vegetables so why would I know?

Google knew:

White flesh = turnip
Yellow flesh = swede

neep is short for turnip

In Scotland, neeps are what other parts of UK call swede. In Scotland think they are known as yellow turnip or neeps.

So, anywhere else, neeps and tatties would be mashed swede and potatoes.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Despite our abundance of mangoes this will get annoying... why can't these squirrels finish up a complete mango before starting on the next?


And here's the nibble marks... just a couple of bites out of each one. To be honest I don't mind this so much because I've always thought these chompoos are just rubbish.

I don't know as fact, I guess it isn't deliberate spoiling. My working hypothesis is that squirrels are smart enough to hang on to the branch above the fruit, rather than the fruit itself. After a bit of nibbling the ripe fruit falls from the tree. This leaves the squirrel with two choices; either walk the long way down to the ground and risk being set upon by dogs or make a short hop across to a nearby twig and start a new mango. Easy decision.

Chompoo are okay to eat from the market, while our local trees do indeed produce rubbish fruit. The gf has one in front of her house, it is continually dropping leaves or fruit or both. The fallen fruit are barely edible, only attract wasps and other insects, then get squashed by vehicles and are a complete pain to brush away. Worse than a waste of space.

Originally Posted by Shutree

This leaves the squirrel with two choices; either walk the long way down to the ground and risk being set upon by dogs or make a short hop across to a nearby twig and start a new mango. Easy decision.

I don't think choice is involved at all, it is prolly as simple as:
My mango disappeared.
Oh there's another one.

Originally Posted by lom

I don't think choice is involved at all

I am sure you are right. This being the squirrel thread, I was bigging up the squirrel.

^ I don't want these squirrels 'bigged' up... they're turning into right little b@stards.

There must have been 50 or 60 chompoos on the round under the tree this morning, and virtually every single one had just a little nibble taken out of it.



Even some of the live ones had been nibbled. Why couldn't the damn squirrel have finished that one off before going to the next?



I guess on the plus side I don't mind losing these chompoos which are hard and tasteless... and maybe this will divert the squirrels away from my mangoes?

Still, I hate waste so these went to the chickens... who don't like them much either. I have to crush them up to even tempt a chicken to take a couple of pecks.

Now that I've stopped the habitual Leo drinking I'm rarely outside in the evening but tonight I sat with the dogs a short while to have a small nip of Hong Thong while waiting for my spaghetti to boil.

Something caught my eye... and I think it was Troy who just recently mentioned he saw a white squirrel? I couldn't fond the post.

Anyway, I like to think I have balls of steel but I have nothing on this guy... we have a garden with seven marauding dogs...



Up the papaya tree he went...



So this is where our papayas have been going...



I take my Fez off to him... he deserved that snack. There were 7 murderous dogs scouting about.