North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>]

In my area there are a great many owls, redtail hawks and a variety of large snakes, most commonly the cottonmouth. Every day on my own street there are four or five fresh roadkills of squirrel, yet they are still incredibly abundant. They simply breed faster than their depletion rate. Only active, focused predation by humans seems to manage to keep them in check.
As to snakes for insect control, the rough green snake is available in the trades if you look hard enough. I don't believe they are native to california. You might try some carnivorous lizards. There are many of those native to the Bay Area. All you need is a rock pile or something where they can establish themselves. Ducks, especially the egg breeds are good at keeping insects under control in the garden, but you may have issues with the local municipality. (You could always claim they were pets.)

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From: Spidra Webster <spidra@speakeasy.net>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 1:29:42 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Squirrel control with Peanut Butter

The way I look at it is that since humans have gotten rid of so many of the predators that might otherwise keep the squirrel population in check, we have to step up to the plate.  The Eastern Grey Squirrel has displaced our own native Western Squirrel here (as it has in many locations). It's an incredibly successful species. We have hardly any raptors here (I never see any but heard there was a Cooper's Hawk sighted a couple blocks away a couple years ago). No snakes. (Even though I'm scared of snakes, I've even gone so far as to research possibly introducing snakes to my garden to control slugs, snails, and rodents. Unfortunately, the reptile trade seems focused on exotics. I can't find local native species for purchase.)

I bought the peanut butter and Plaster of Paris today.

On May 20, 2009, at 3:28 PM, William C. Garthright wrote:

The soft-hearted bunny-hugger types typically rail against the thought of these vermin 'suffering',

Yeah, I'm too tender-hearted to poison the little tree rats. 

Megan Lynch

Berkeley, CA

CRFG, NAFEX: I'm in USDA Zone 9b

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