The Night Chewer And Day Scamperer Was Finally Behind Bars...

Our story begins where we are totally a sleep. I awoke to the not so distant sound of chewing. The EXACT second I was awake the sound stopped. By this I mean it took one second to awake, and at that second it stopped. What ever was chewing, some how knew I woke up. I waited for at least an hour and it did not seem to chew. To every degree I fell a sleep, it would chew that softly. The chewing got louder, slowly louder as I fell a sleep. I could not hear it. But remembering I was trying to hear, I would serge awake every now and then. Then and only then, I could hear the chewing. The absolute precision was amazing to behold. It would stop for each serge. I was careful not to change my breathing as that might be a give-away. I had absolutely no time to turn my head, to help get a 3D sound perception of where the sound was coming from. What ever was chewing, was winning for sure.

I could not help but think, is that wires, my favorite sweater, the bed that I am sleeping in being demolished? The next day I saw the night chewer. The chewer had landed, all four feet down, on the bird feeder from the roof. By the size I would have guessed a chipmunk but the Wikipedia would say it had to have stripes to be that, so it must be a small squirrel.

"We hoped the live trap would catch our chewer and it did."

Turns out this little animal had been trying to chew into the attic of the utility room and had made it. Once inside, there was more chewing and a lot of scampering by day. Turns out we had no access to that attic. We had to catch the chewer soon before wires got damaged or the squirrel made a big mess. We tried to scare the squirrel off by throwing some water from a cup, but that failed. Then, after chasing the squirrel around the house a few times it when in the garage. I said we should shut the garage doors and trap our friend inside. We did, but now what? After a failed attempt to catch the squirrel in a card board box we knew we needed a better live trap. Amazon had the trap we needed for nearly half the cost of the one in town even with next day shipping. It arrived the next day!

We put some of the sunflower seeds from the feeder into the trap and left. After a few hours we went for a walk. Upon arriving back to the house we figured we would peek in the window at the trap. Before we got there we heard it snap shut! We looked in the window and sure enough we had caught our chewer!

After covering the trap with an old towel to calm the little beast we took ride a to a beautiful spot a few miles away and unlocked the trap. It took less then a minute for the squirrel to get out. WHOOSH across the lawn and off to the bushes.

At the edge of the bushes it stopped and turned to look at us. Then disappeared...

I reminisced about a job I did once, that cost the guy at least $1200. I fixed squirrel damage to wires behind the fascia/eaves that had been chewed. In some places, you could see the bare copper of all three wires for a foot or so! Fire hazard, yes. Not all of the squirrels survived chewing wires, as the skeletons showed. The eves were so stuffed with chewed and gathered materials, that I thought someone had insulated it at first. Not so.

I think it was that same job that I nearly injured myself in part or in whole. I was way up on an extension ladder pulling on the fascia board trying to get it off. The board was perhaps 20 feet long. As I pulled, not one set of fasteners released but three sets, and that released enough force to send me flying backwards off the ladder. Tool in hand and wearing a full (heavy) tool belt I back flipped and headed towards the ground head first. To my surprise I saw the aluminum top of a fiberglass Werner two sided 6 foot ladder about 4 feet below. I aimed my hands towards the ladder top and landed on my hands on the top of the ladder. For one timeless moment I realized I was doing hand stand on the top of a ladder! I then did a hand stand/hand spring off the top of the ladder, back flipped again and landed feet first, tool belt and all, on the ground and did not even fall over! My partner/girl friend, with mouth wide open was watching this all happen from the ground. I said "man, I wish we could have caught that on video!" and held up my hand up in mock victory, and we both nervously laughed. A few minutes later I figured "I had survived, which was totally amazing" and took the rest of the day off. Thinking back I was amazing I did a back flips with my over stuffed tool belt on and did not even drop any tools! I laughed when I wondered if the guys neighbors saw and what they might have thought.

Links:

1Check out Squirrel for more info...

2Check out Havahart 1025 Two-Door 18 x 5 x 5-Inch Cage Trap for Squirrels for more info...

3Check out Werner T7406 375-Pound Duty Rating Fiberglass Multi-Use Twin Ladder, 6-Foot on Amazon for more info...