Hi Dennis, In addition to plugging all the entrance holes in the building year after year and a regular live trapping/relocating program, we have had some success with Shake-away http://www.shake-away.com/ <blocked::http://www.shake-away.com/> . It is essentially fox or wolf urine cast onto a powder. You shake it out around the foundation for the building as directed. It may not eliminate the squirrels, but it can repel them from your building and make them go to your neighbors' buildings who do not use shake-away. Make sure you follow the directions. If you use too much it does not seem to be as effective for some reason. Read the user feedback on the web site. The other action that was very successful about 10 years ago was introducing a weasel to the area. They eat squirrels. Check Amazon.com for "weasel." (Just kidding). We had one that a local shelter had nursed back to health after it was caught in a trap and they released it in the Beach Lodge area of the Museum where the squirrel population was the highest. No squirrel problem for about 3 years, then they gradually started to come back. We figured that the weasel had either died or found a lady weasel and moved on. Unconventional, but successful and all-natural! Good luck. Rick
________________________________ From: pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net [mailto:pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net] On Behalf Of Dennis Piechota Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 1:45 PM To: pestlist@museumpests.net Subject: [pestlist] Squirrels I hope this is the appropriate place to ask about larger urchins. We have a storage area for archaeological materials (almost all inorganics, typically ceramics, stone and iron) that keeps getting attacked by squirrels. They like to eat the glue in our corrugated boxes, thus destroying our provenience data. Then they will sometimes nest in the boxes! Very disheartening. We keep trapping them and plugging up their outside entry points. We prohibit all bonafide food sources from storage and are now switching over to glueless twin-walled polyethylene cartons with duplicate labelling. Still with all that I've learned not to under-estimate these critters. Is there anything else we can do? Dennis Dennis Piechota Conservator Fiske Center for Archaeological Research UMass Boston Office: 617-287-6829
