ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702240039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
There is a poster in the window of For the Birds, a store on the Roanoke City Market, that's apt to catch your eye.
It's not a picture of a missing child or notice of a market festival. It's a color photo of a squirrel, below the simple headline, "Wanted."
Here's the offense: It's the end of winter, and hungry squirrels are busy raiding bird feeders, gobbling up the seed.
"We have complaints every day," said Jessica Ward, who works at For the Birds. "Basically the squirrels take over the feeders and either destroy them or continue to devour all the bird seed until there's nothing left."
The topic may not sound momentous. But the poster got my attention because of a conversation I'd just had with a couple in Southwest Roanoke, who told me of a squirrel infestation they've been fighting year-round.
They don't want me to use their names, for reasons that will become obvious.
Not such a great solution
The trouble goes back about five years. It includes squirrels eating their ornamental flowers and the herbs they grow in pots, planting acorns and gobbling vegetables from their garden, even nipping at their tomatoes.
Two squirrels drowned themselves in the plastic trash containers the man uses to catch rain. Others so pillaged a neighbor's peach tree that he finally cut it down.
Once, the woman said, something fell from the sky and barely missed her head. She looked down and saw a peach pit, looked up and saw a squirrel in an oak tree. It probably was smiling.
Eventually, her husband began to trap them. In something over a year, he has captured 120 squirrels, and taken most of them off to city parks and woodlands and let them go.
Great solution, right?
Life is never that easy.
Trying to reach common ground
Squirrels are game animals in Virginia, subject to state and local regulations. State law allows people to trap and remove squirrels - but not sell them - if they're creating a nuisance on their property.
In the country, landowners can kill them year-round. In cities, it's more complicated.
Killing squirrels is not allowed in Roanoke. Trapping them is OK. Transporting them is forbidden under state law, unless you have a permit from a game warden.
Setting squirrels free in a park or on other property you don't own, without permission of the landowner, is also a violation, said Jim Parkhurst, wildlife extension specialist at Virginia Tech.
Moving squirrels around can spread animal-borne diseases, create territorial conflicts with other squirrels, and even subject the squirrels you release to autos and other hazards if they try to make their way home.
Plus, you might get scratched or bitten.
Squirrels do a lot of damage. They get into houses, where they can gnaw wires and create fire hazards. Roanoke's animal control officers will help you get rid of them, but they don't mess with squirrels outside.
The man who has trapped 120 of them has a serious problem, but it's not his alone. Some neighbors feed the squirrels. In fact, they've complained about his trapping. But their feeding helps the squirrels to multiply.
Wild animals, including birds, don't need to be fed, Parkhurst said.
"It's self-gratification. We do it for ourselves."
It's not humane if, as a side effect, the animals become our enemies - or our neighbors do.
To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Therefore, "There's got to be some common ground," Parkhurst said. "We've got to get neighbors working with neighbors."
Do it for the squirrels.
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256, send e-mail to joek@roanoke.com or write to P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010.
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