TSM, I am going to remember the relocation tip. Thank you. Since I am just three miles from driving across the mighty Mississippi River I am willing to bet they won’t swim such a wide, swift moving river to return and resume efforts to munch on my nank account . . . I mean chew on my house. 
…still reading, still learning…
@“the same mountainbike” said, “I’ve trapped and relocated about 16-20 of them in the past year. But they’re still all over the place.” Really? Is it really worth all the effort? As you admit, “they’re still all over the place”. Seems kinda like urinating on a forest fire to me. 
But I do have a few observations.
My neighborhood seems to be overrun with rabbits from time to time. For various reasons, I find myself coming home at odd hours during the night, and each turn I make, the headlights seem to chase out a rabbit or two. The rabbits somehow seem to be better at avoiding being run over by cars than the squirrels do, or even the possums and raccoons for that matter. I hardly ever see a squashed rabbit on the road.
Recently, for nostalgia, I took a drive through the neighborhood my parents grew up in many years ago (used to be a working class area, but since all the factories and shipyards, steel mill and stuff closed down, its kinda slummy today). It was about 2 hours after sundown. Rats. Big ones, scurrying to and fro across the street as I drove through. Looked down an alley saw about 3 or 4 more of 'em in the alley. Whew, it was NEVER like that when I was a kid. Made me profoundly grateful that I live in an area where the only nuisances are rabbits and squirrels.
And if you think about it, they (squirrels and rabbits) lived there before we (people) came and tore out all the woods and built houses. They’re just trying to survive just like most of us are. Most of their natural predators probably got ran off / killed when we built the houses, that’s why there’s so many of them, all they really have to worry about is getting hit by cars and maybe the occasional stray cat or two.
Here’s a trivia most of you probably already know: How do the squirrels remember where they buried all of their nuts? They don’t; that’s how a lot of trees get planted."
It’s worth the effort if you’re trapping the ones that found their way into your soffits… like I did (that’s what got me started). And then seal up the access path… like I did. I’ve stopped trapping for this year because they’re no longer running up my house. One big male stopped halfway up my siding and looked at me as I was sitting in a lawn chair as if to say “I dare ya’”.
Ed, I agree, the animals were here long before we were, and they’re just looking to survive. That’s why I relocate them. I’d never hurt one unless it showed signs of rabies.
Good morning. If there’s anything left to be said about the automotive angle of this, could you please bring it back on topic? Thanks.
in wheel well? Don’t know what “in” wheel means.
This incident at least relates squirrels to internal combustion engines. I was walking across campus and there was a,squirrel laying on the sidewalk with a group of students surrounding it. The consensus seemed to be that the squirrel may have fallen out of a tree. Nobody seemed to know what to do until one hippie type student went up and pulled on the squirrel’s tail. The squirrel scampered off. When the spectators looked shocked, the hippie just said “Squirrels start like the Briggs and Stratton on your lawnmower.” He was braver than I am. I wouldn’t touch asquirrel, injured or not, but this young man seemed to know what to do.
Aw and I was just going to tell my rabbit story.
Good thing you didn’t have a flat tire with all those rats around.
@Cavell In wheel well is the space between the tire and the metal, had a cat sitting on the tire there when we were kids, looked for stupid cat that pulled a houdini car escape, after 20 minutes my parents say cat is gone, get in the car pos starts it up, starts to go and a white lightening flash of our white cat running to the nearest bushes. Pickd up bitty, the white kitty, into the car and on the road again.
Yeah our cat used to do the same thing and taught her kittens too. Unfortunately all the kittens weren’t as good getting off the tire when it started to roll and lost a couple in the driveway.
We had cats crawl up the front cross bar in the winter for the heat.
I also worked in some rural areas and the wolves would hide in our carport due to the extreme cold. Now that is a nice surprise when you have an emergency at 2 AM. But I still prefer them to the rattle snake.