So I just want to know --

[pameladean]

Has anybody reading this ever stuffed an empty Kleenex box with bubble wrap, wedged it into the space between the window air conditioner and the side of the window, and plastered it in place with packing tape, to prevent a determined squirrel from gaining entry?

P.

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

No. But I have had to close every damned window in the house and stand around yelling to keep a juvenile scrub jay from trying to swim in my bathtub.

[pameladean]

That cracked me up. Do juvenile scrub jays like water generally, or was this one peculiar?

P.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I am not sure. I'm not sure that was what it was trying to do, but it kept flying into the house and headingfor the tub, which was full because Frank was about to take a bath. It came in two windows, the door, and the dog door, which was not an easy find as it is very low and has a little house built over the outside of it.

May as well ask why the squirrel wants in your house. Don't you have cats? And aren't cats generally inimical to squirrels?

[pameladean]

Juveniles of many species sometimes seem confused. I'll just assume it was having a teenaged crisis.

We do have cats, but they don't sit by all the places the squirrels want to come in all day. Also, I would actually try to discourage my cats from getting into to it with a squirrel. A cornered squirrel can be quite nasty.

P.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

I think I'd add a metal plate on the outside, covering the opening. (It could be held up by punching two small holes in the plate, and running a loop of wire or a cable tie through the holes and around a dowel on the inside.) Fur-tailed tree rats can be very stubborn.

[pameladean]

My permanent installations run rather to a crude vapor barrier and scrap two-by-fours, but yeah, this was a temporary measure so I could leave the house for the afternoon and not find a squirrel running around when I got home.

P.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

'Fraid not. And I'm not sure it will work.

[pameladean]

Certainly not in the long run, but I needed to leave the house for a few hours.

P.

[wonderlandkat.livejournal.com]

My guess is that the squirrel will make mincemeat of it pretty quickly - you're going to want something they can't chew through

[pameladean]

I think the sound of the bubble wrap popping really alarmed the squirrel. It is now chewing on the mostly-intact accordion of a different air conditioner, and experience suggests it will take another several summers to get through that, since the accordion has metal ribs. The one on my bedroom air conditioner is gone, and had been replaced by a thick plastic grid, now breached enough that I wanted to reinforce it. Scrap lumber seems to work all right. They could chew through it, but they don't; perhaps the smooth flat surface is less attractive than a vulnerable-looking pleated plastic thingy.

P.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Besides you, you mean?

K.

[pameladean]

Shhhhhhh, don't tell them I did it!

P.

[lutin.livejournal.com]

nope! but i giggled a lot reading this :D

[pameladean]

Good, that was part of my intention. 8-)

P.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

No, but if I were a squirrel with a bad head-cold and went looking for tissues and found only bubble-wrap, I would feel pretty deterred by that.

My father used to put vegemite sandwiches in the roof to deter possums - or at least, so he claimed. Does that count?

Catherine

[pameladean]

I think it actually disliked the popping.

I think the vegemite sandwiches not only count, they win the day.

I am really tempted to smear some vegemite on the window sill. I had thought of mothballs, but those are really evilly toxic, and I'd have to breathe the vapors myself. I like vegemite.

P.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Vasiline or similar sprinkled liberally with powdered cayenne is also supposed to work well.

Oddly enough, marthawells reportedly had a squirrel fall two stories down her newly-cleaned gutter the other day. I'm starting to feel left out; all my squirrels have been doing is failing to get into the bird feeder.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

We were never *quite* sure whether he was joking about the vegemite. It could go either way.

I can see the popping being quite disconcerting, yes.

[redbird]

Not yet. Our squirrels usually stay closer to ground level, though you never know what will turn up on the fire escape (over the years, we've had a few squirrels, a raccoon, cats not our own, and the occasional bird of prey along with the sparrows, mourning doves, and the like).

[pameladean]

Our house is made of stucco, and they just swarm up it like little furry miltary trainees.

A fire escape seems a very good perch for a bird of prey.

P.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not that creative. But it sounds like an EXCELLENT idea.

We used to get birds nesting in and around the window air conditioner. My little apartment now has central air, so it's not an issue, but maintenance still had to chase the squirrels out of the crawlspace and repair the roof this winter. They get in everywhere.

[pameladean]

I have house sparrows nesting under two air conditioners, but they don't want to come in, so I don't mind.

Squirrels really do seem to want IN.

P.

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

What? No steel wool?

[pameladean]

That's keeping the mice out. I might get another box, though.

P.

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

The fact that I have not done that makes me wonder what I've been doing with my life so far.

[pameladean]

I expect it's just lack of opportunity. You are young yet. I am sure importunate mammals will come your way and you will thwart them with a cereal box and some honey.

p.

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

Haven't had to do that yet (no air conditioner) but I have patched torn screens and blocked indoor mouse holes with lots of things. Speaking of rodents, I've found that aluminum foil, particularly crinkled a bit, is a really good quick deterrent to the mice (plus it holds odd shapes), so if you have to reinforce/replace your kleenex box, you might want to add some of that in there, too.

[pameladean]

That's a very good idea; unlike the steel wool, I wouldn't have to buy more.

P.

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

No, our empty Kleenex box was busy leveling the bookshelf until yesterday (at which point Eric took the bookshelf down and painted Baby's room - yay!).

So if you need a spare Kleenex box.... ;)

[pameladean]

Yay, paint!

I fear that the structural integrity of your Kleenex box may have been compromised, but I appreciate the offer.

P.

[magpie49.livejournal.com]

I will second the crumpled aluminum foil as a measure to thwart squirrels from being willing to chew through.

It might be that chewing on aluminum foil, with spit, don't neglect the squirrel spit, may engender extremely small electrical currents that are quite unpleasant.

[pameladean]

I'm not sure I have ever considered squirrel spit before, but I'll try to reform my ways.

I am definitely going for the aluminum foil.

P.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

I'll send out a memo asking them to stop pestering you.

No promises, though. My squirrelly army is about as hard to manage as you'd expect.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

No! But my mom makes cunning safe (to the mouse) mousetraps out of bubble wrap, plastic garbage cans, a TP roll, a one by two, and some squash seeds. Because she is rube golbergian like that.

To keep the squirrel mafia from the tomatoes, I cover the wee tomatoes with spare Pookie fur. You might try adding some to your next Kleenex box if they start into it. They don't care for it. Er, edited to clarify! Spare fluffy fur of any predator, really. Cats fluff works fine. I just pick up the rolling fluff from under the couch. Heh.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

No, but when the city and condo board let me raise the stoop and put a concrete ramp up to it (replacing two wooden ramps), my upstairs neighbor and I had to stay inside for the first day so the concrete would set. When I opened the door to go out the next day, I found a couple of jumps-worth of indented squirrel-feet prints. Some people don't like it, but I think they're cute.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Of course not. Duct tape.

(BTW, if you need a large supply of bubble wrap, just ask.)

[pameladean]

I couldn't find the duct tape. The rest of the vulnerable points of entry via air conditioner are duct=taped, and the piece of grid the squirrels took four years to chew through is duct-taped in place, but I could not find it in a timely fashion.

The bubble wrap, like the packing tape, was kind of a desperation measure, but if I need it for more orthodox purposes I will certainly ask.

P.