Forum Topic

RHS on ‘testosterone-fulled squirrels’

Guy Barter, chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society, believes ‘testosterone-fuelled squirrels’ could be to blame for spring mayhem in our flower beds.“'Young male squirrels, when trying to find a mate, are quite happy to engage in acts of random violence, causing substantial damage,' he told me. 'They don't eat the tulips, just leave the heads on the ground.'”What can be done to discourage reckless local ‘Tufty’ types, causing so much mischief?https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9580889/Road-rage-battles-Covid-bike-lanes-dividing-Britain.html

Russell Pearson ● 1991d13 Comments

Having read Karen Liebreich's side of things in the newsletter this morning, I think we can assume the the Daily Mail reporter never told the man from the RHS the specific reason why they were asking for the quote.If Guy Barter had been aware that a respected horticulturalist felt the damage to her flowers was by vandals and not squirrels and he had been given more details of the incident he would have made a more qualified comment.Myself, I regret the comments I have made in other threads. Although there is an element of comedy in this story, on balance it looks likely that a woman has had her home vandalised and that will have been very distressing.I remain of the opinion that the case was exploited by Jeremy Vine and Karen Liebreich has become a civilian casuality of his culture war.

Francis Rowe ● 1990d

This is quite frankly balderdash.  I spent 3 years living in my bedroom due to building works in my flat and I was adopted by a group of squirrels one in particular who I saved after she was injured in a trap.  I learnt an awful lot about squirrels from various experts and observation. A squirrel cannot use a knife or a pair of scissors so id incapable of cutting anything. They have two litters a year with up to 4 kittens on average.  They do not get anywhere near the ground until mum is sure they can escape danger.Male and female kittens have very distinct behaviors. This makes it easy to sex them.  Males run around play fighting and chasing each other at top speed which is very fast indeed.  Female kitten are more interested in what is on the ground and good to eat so they will check out the grass roots and insects.  They will occasionally join in the mayhem of their brothers but prefer to be less reckless in their surroundings.  The mother will not be far from the kittens and will only allow them to be on the ground for short periods whilst she is foraging and then she calls them back and they go back to the nest. This can go on for weeks until she is sure they are alert enough to take care of themselves.  The other thing that happens when the kittens are first on the ground is another squirrel usually a male will be close by watching them.  they will bark at them to tell them to calm down or stop doing something dangerous.  We have every sort of spring bulb in our garden and I never once saw a squirrel eating them.  I did see them eating seeds newly sown for grass and flowers.  Once I saw a female squirrel pick flower petals when she was nesting and put them in the nest.  They are very clean and will clean their nest every day sometimes twice or three times.  They eat nuts and berries mainly but also love fruit.  If you want to see something hilarious leave an apple in your garden when you know they are around. The sight of a little squirrel trying to make off with an apple in it's mouth is really very funny.  Many people will tell you not to feed them peanuts because they should only eat native grown nuts.  This maybe true in the countryside but in urban environments they are around peanuts all the time in bird feeders so can digest them better.  Their favourite nut is usually walnut and you can get them to do anything for a walnut.  They will choose them in their shell first to bury them then whole out of the shell and they love to eat halves of walnuts rather than bury them.  The reason I have the most beautiful walnut tree in my garden is that they buried a nut there and it grew into a very loved tree which is the epicenter of a feeding frenzy as soon as the pods are out.    If you don't want them to go near your plants then surround them with lemon, orange and lime peelings they do not like citrus and white and black pepper are also deterrents.  They are very clever little visitors and can be easily shown you are no danger to them.  The one I saved used to come in and sit next to me eating nuts I gave her.  My rule is never touch them they are not pets if they are interested in you fine.  They are more nosey than cat's and they are also chatty.  I now speak squirrel and can tell you what all their calls are.  It was a lovely relaxing way to spend the first 12 months of the pandemic.  I will try and post some of my video's and photo's.  My go to guy is a forest ranger in Washington, Yellowstone.

Caroline Carney ● 1989d

Great post Caroline - on a rubbish thread..Many thanks - colourfully and entertainingly written..my wife also speaks squirrel..

Stuart Kerr ● 1989d

Caroline, are you saying you think squirrels never attack flowers? Both Karen Liebreich and the chap from the RHS seem to believe it happens.

Diane Brown ● 1989d

My resident squirrel is shameless and just snaps off the large magnolia buds, takes a nibble and chucks them! And moves on to the next bud. My poor tree is totally vandalised!

Caroline Carrington ● 1989d

At least it is now clear from today's W4 article that it was Karen Liebreich who arranged the flower heads then took the photo which she sent to JV.I might be wrong but I don't think this had previously been said. This left the implication that whoever decapitated the flowers was also responsible for laying them out as shown - definitely not something squirrels are capable of just yet even though they do seem to get smarter by the day!This means it was quite a jump in deduction to lay the blame on any human agency without further proof. It would be just as valid to imply that a cunning human had been trying to "frame" somebody else for the crime. Will we ever know the truth? Where's Poirot when you need him?

Bruce Hammal ● 1989d

But you have to get them while they're young. Anyone know where you can get one?

James Tickell ● 1989d

This is a really lovely post!  Learning to speak squirrel during lockdown is quite an accomplishment :-)I look forward to the pics and videos!My kids are big fans of Mark Rober - he spent lockdown building a squirrel obstacle course:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

Ed Saper ● 1989d

As commented on the other 'squirrel thread' I can recommend a sprinkling of cayenne powder or chilli to have squirrels hot under the collar for a while to avoid chilli gardens. Except, not if you have a dog or cat.

Bobbie Carnegie ● 1989d

Tried the cayenne pepper powder, chilli too, they ate the lawn after the first go. Then they got a taste for it.More from Mr Barter here:“ This is all down to a hooligan element of young male squirrels who, bluntly, are venting sexual frustration on your poor camellias. Magnolia buds also fall victim to bovver-boy squirrels and, if you doubt this, you may like to know that this theory comes straight from the font of all garden knowledge, the Royal Horticultural Society. According to Guy Barter, from the RHS, mild winters can encourage a large squirrel population and then, when the young bucks can’t find a mate, they rampage through the garden tearing off...”Their clothes? That’s all I could see outside the paywall. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/greedy-squirrels-leaf-curl-hostas-and-snails-t98vrr6lmlv”

Russell Pearson ● 1989d

Never care about any damage from squirrels they are so entertaining.

Janice Evans ● 1989d

Did Karen say her whole front garden was vandalised. Are there photos of this extensive damage or was it in fact a dozen flower heads. As a member of One Chiswick I’d like the truth,  the whole truth,  and nothing but the truth. Including why Karen sent the photo to JV?  Why they allowed Jo Rigby to raise money on Karen’s behalf. It’s not a funny story. It created hate against our group on Twitter which I think was the intended outcome. That’s not been dealt with yet.

Maggie Dodge ● 1989d

To get to the bottom of the mystery it would indeed be useful to have a picture of the crime scene before it was destroyed in order to create the famous exhibit A. It would would also help to examine the clues provided by the broken stems - teethmarks or blade? Again I fear the evidence has been lost. It will be interesting to see if this was a random crime or if we are dealing with a serial offender, in which case we will be ready next time!

Bruce Hammal ● 1989d