Wildlife woes

I've just returned from getting some training -- a dangerous thing. Of course, some of the interesting things I learned, I wanted to pass along.

• Squirrels may be cute, but they're mean, mean, mean!
• When dealing with nuisance wildlife, THE most cost effective way to deal with them is exclusion -- that's right, folks. Keep deer out with a fence, keep squirrels out with hardware cloth, keep bats out with some plastic netting. Our wildlife Extension Specialist will back me up since he's the one who told us.
• If you trap a nuisance animal with the intent to release it somewhere else, it cannot be on public land. That means you can't dump it in the Daniel Boone Forest. If you release it on another person's land, you must have their written permission, otherwise you could be in some trouble.
• There's a good chance if you release a trapped animal at a different site, the animal will die anyway. Other animals may not like the new guy and beat it up. Or else the animal could wander around for a long time with little fat stores trying to find food and shelter. Not a fun way to die.

Nuisance wildlife is a problem most of us will encounter at some point. Just remember, changing the animal's habitat (to make our yards less appealing) and exclusion are the best tactics against them.