help! My dog has chased a squirrel into my wheel. I took the dog away and the squirrel refused to come out.
What do I do now?
If he got in, he can get out. Just wait, and he will leave.
Put some bird seed or peanuts on the ground beside the wheel. He’ll come out soon.
I’ll bet the squirrel will make a hasty retreat if the vehicle moves a little. He/she will have a great story once when they get home. Just drive up and down the driveway slowly and the little rodent will leave the wheel in short order.
Thanks for everyone’s suggestions.
Patience paid off
I had the same problem some years back. I solved it by putting a circular squirrel cage under the hood in place of the engine in my Rambler. The dog chased the squirrels into the cage and the squirrels powered the car. We have a big oak tree in our yard, so I supplied the squirrels with acorns. Unfortunately, the squirrels unionized and demanded more acorns. I was spending all my time gathering acorns. In desperation I asked Donald Trump what I should do with the squirrels’ increased acorn demand and he said “Fire them”.
As a kid, I tried to make a squirrel my pet. Big mistake-another story. Keep your distance.
Speaking of squirrels, I just returned from pedalling a few miles through the neighborhood and saw dozens of squirrels and most were intent on cashing in their chips. As usual they were running from yard to yard, often chasing one another and getting into the street and when a car was within inches of them they would run in the worst possible course to avoid being hit. Three ran close enough that their tails touched my front tire. But they must multiply as quickly as rabbits because although their are always run over carcasses in the street and the hawks are getting fat eating them they are in every yard, on every roof and in every tree for a mile in every direction from me. I gave up on feeding birds because nothing would keep the squirrels out of the expensive seeds.
One winter one of them made its home in my BBQ grill. Jam packed with leaves and crap. If you’re a squirrel you gotta make sure you clear out before the first grilling.
You guys let me know when you are able to figure how to get a young venomous rattle snake out of the wheel. True story…
Put some food near the wheel. Really small ones will want insects, Somewhat larger ones will want small rodents. Dead is probably just as good as alive. If you don’t bother it, you probably have nothing to worry about. It will go away on its own soon enough.
We had a similar issue with a copperhead living under our front stoop. We saw it eating a chipmunk about 9:30 one night. Then we saw disturbed mulch where it came out at night. I put the mulch back every morning to see if it was still there. This went on for a couple of weeks. While trying to find someone to remove it, I came across an old friend that is the head herpetologist at the Smithsonian Institution. He said to just ignore it and it would go away when he had eaten all the rodents in the front garden. He was right. Still it did bother me that it might bite the dog, my wife, or me. But it didn’t want to have anything to do with us, and the rattlesnake is the same.
Call animal control… 
Or not. They don’t do snakes in MD unless the snakes are in the house. We tried that and animal control told us to ignore it and it would go away. I imagine that it is the same almost everywhere.
The squirrel found its own way out. Problem resolved.
@Bing I’d like to hear your per squirrel story. I must have been 8 or so, found a friendly squirrel, everything was going good until I picked him up. The critter scratched up my forearms pretty well making his escape, never told my folks, guess they must have thought boys will be boys and had been running through the briars and bramble or something. Reminds me of Hank Wison’s Back, ie Leon Russell batttle of New Orleans!
And then there are squirrels that in stunningly short order chew into the soffits and chew the ends of 75% of the house roof rafters such the entire roof truss system requires popping the cap off the house, sistering those rafters, 100% new decking and vent stacks, added ridge vent and new shingles followed by new soffit enclosures and fascia and gutters… Then slit my wrists when I pay the billl. Squirrels aren’t cute anymore.
I assume Bing discovered that squirrels can have a pretty vicious bite…
Be sure to give your dog a treat for protecting your car from that mean squirrel. What a good dog! … lol …
Squirrels can be extremely aggressive when trapped. And, very, very, very fast. And, like all rodents, they chew constantly their entire lives to keep their teeth from overgrowing.
I’ve trapped and relocated about 16-20 of them in the past year. But they’re still all over the place. I just discovered two active nests in the trees next to my house, and see them running around everywhere preparing for winter. What I do is slide the trap w/squirrel into a leaf bag and drive them to remote locations at least 7 miles from the house. Once in the bag, they calm down completely and remain quiet.
They do have a homing instinct, and routinely forage within a one mile radius from their nest. A study of 90 relocations by a Canadian group found that when relocated seven miles away no more than one in fifteen will return. One in their study even returned from 25 miles away.
Yes, they’re easy to trap and transport safely in your car, as long as they remain in the trap and covered while being transported. The best bait is raw peanuts still in the shells. I dip the tip of one in peanut butter for extra attraction, but I have no evidence that it makes a difference.