Every boomer with a bird feeder hates squirrels. I don’t understand.

  • itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    The squirells empty the bird feeders much faster than the birds would so the boomer then has to refill it sooner. Rinse and repeat until they constantly talk about the squirrels.
    My parents bought my grandfather a slingshot for his squirrel problem/hatred and the dude took off part of his own thumbnail and had to go to an urgent care.

    • Lupus@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      My grandpa took issue with the seagulls harassing everything else in his backyard, so he bought a slingshot and shot them with grapes “They don’t get hurt by a squishy grape, they get scared and the pigeons are happy about the grapes”

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      I’m in my 30s and now also hate squirrels because of this very reason. They will empty an entire bird feeder in a single afternoon and the shit’s expensive. We like to keep it stocked so our cats have some excitement to watch out the window.

      Also, a bird built a nest in the tree right next to the feeder and squirrels came and ate through the bottom of the nest so they could eat the baby birds which was pretty horrific to discover.

  • Asidonhopo@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not a boomer but the little bastards chewed through the propane line on my grill so now I throw rocks at em when I see them. They’re formally vermin in my eyes.

  • corroded@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    A lot of boomers are really particular about well-manicured yards, pristine gardens, etc. Squirrels do not help with this.

    I love seeing little divots where our squirrels bury nuts. If they eat some of our plants, then I put a cage around it or plant new ones. Seeing the little guys play and eat the food we put out for them far outweighs any minor landscaping problems they cause.

  • lovely_reader@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They’re destructive and difficult to deter. If squirrel hate is more common among Boomers, it’s probably because they’ve lived long enough to find this out firsthand.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Well said. Not a boomer, but I’ve come to hate the destructive little fuckers and periodically go on an extermination binge. Chewing wires off, making holes in the siding and soffits to store their stuff, they have earned my undying hatred.

      Besides, red squirrels are the largest predator of baby rabbits.

  • Today@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not a boomer, don’t care for squirrels. They’re attic-hiding, wire-eating bastards. What the fuzzy-tailed rats don’t eat out if the bird feeder, they knock on the ground. I planted 12 cannabis seeds. Each time one sprouted it would disappear the next day with a tiny asshole paw-shaped scoop left in the dirt.

  • Hugin@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They destroy whatever they can. They chew cables, rip siding and nest in insulation. Make wherever they can smell of piss. If you try to grew anything edible they eat the sprouting fruit, nuts, and leaves then start eating the bark and kill the tree.

  • InSamsara@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not a boomer, but squirrels are pretty much just tree rats that make loud noises, could be the cause.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Loud noises? The only noise I’ve heard a squirrel make is the “Tsk, tsk, tsk” -sound while agressively staring me down and whipping their tail and it’s not by any means loud.

    • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      2 months ago

      They are of the order rodentia, but so are capybara and everyone loves those. So I think you’re incorrect.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        I love squirrels but Capybaras are the most different thing possible. I’ve played with some and they’re so mega chill, I can pet em and feed em by handing things to them… squirrels won’t even be on the same side of the tree as me.

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            They can be as related as they want, but squirrels run from me and capybaras let me love them. So that’s why capybaras are superior.

            I still love squirrels.

  • uienia@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    A lot of US defaultism going on in this thread. Americans (and perhaps British) talking about the North American grey squirrel as the incarnation of all squirrels, when people elsewhere in the world would have very different experiences with their local native squirrels, who act quite differently to those.

    • 24_at_the_withers@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      How DARE people answer a vague question with their own experiences!! Who’d guess that a question asked in English gets answers from people in predominantly English-speaking areas?! Fuck all these people for not discussing the habits of the Layards’s Palm Squirrel and why Sri Lankan boomers love/hate it!

  • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They eat hella fruit off my fruits trees. And when I say eat, I mean take 3 bites and drop it on the ground to grab a new one and take 3 bites.

    They waste 50 apricots to eat 3 apricots.

    Until I started taking all the ground fruit and boiling it in a pot to make fruit juice for brandy distilling, it was a complete waste. Now it’s still wasteful, because I’d rather eat the fruit, but at least I recover something from it.

    Fuck squirrels.

  • Vandals_handle@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I don’t hate them, but since grey ground squirrels are a primary vector for Bubonic plague in the southwest US, I prefer to keep them distanced.

    Also don’t have a bird feeder, planted natives to provide food and habitat.

  • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Squirrels were very popular pets in the 1800s. These answers are fascinating though.

  • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I disagree with the premise. Not every boomer hates squirrels. Not even every boomer with a bird feeder.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I normally don’t care for broad strokes like this either, but his statement was that every boomer with a bird feeder hated them, so it wasn’t all boomers. (So I’d say still broad, but a bit better than what you responded as them saying)

      That said, squirrels where I was from are much more scarce than they once were. The acorns are still around, but the animals… Slowly disappearing.

      • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        The title talks about boomers in general. Only in the subtext is it specified to mean the ones with birdfeeders.

          • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            And I think you don’t like admiting it’s bit of an clickbait title.

            My comment was very clear; I disagree with both, the assumption made in the title and I equally disagree with it after reading the subtext. Implying all boomers with birdfeeders hate squirrels is over-generalization.

            • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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              2 months ago

              It’s a quick title that leads into more detail in the body, as titles often do. I think you’re just regarded AF.

              • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                Yeah, I know how clickbait titles work. “Who do boomers with birdfeeders hate squirrels so much” would’ve been the accurate and non-clickbait version of this one. It’s no different from a news headline saying “USA will ban ICE cars by the year 2035” and then in the article itself it specifies that it’s about the sale of new cars.

                That’s besides the point anyway. My argument equally addresses the over-generalization made in the body, which you conveniently ignore and focus on defending the title and attacking me as a person rather than what I’m saying, ad hominem.

                Every boomer with a bird feeder hates squirrels.

                That is an absolute statement claiming that every single boomer with a bird feeder hates squirrels. Not 50% of them, not 80%, not 99%, not 99.999% but 100% of them. That is an over generalization which I disagree with which leads us back to my original comment; I disagree with the premise. Not every boomer hates squirrels. Not even every boomer with a bird feeder.