How to safely evict squirrels from a palm tree about to be trimmed?
May 18, 2013 3:50 AM   Subscribe

We share a 10' tall palm tree with a neighbor. The tree needs to be trimmed (dead fronts, some rotting areas, etc.). At least one, and probably a whole family, of squirrels has made its home somewhere in that tree. I don't want to see them get injured, but I don't know how to get them out before the tree-trimming service people come and start whacking at it.

I doubt very much that the service (which is being arranged by the neighbor, because the tree is technically in their yard) will be careful about such things. Does anyone have ideas about what to do?
posted by StrawberryPie to Home & Garden (6 answers total)
 
Chances are the squirrels will clear out as soon as humans start moving up the tree. Frankly, the humans are probably in more danger from a crazy squirrel expressing its displeasure, than the squirrels are in any danger from the humans.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:47 AM on May 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


Have you ever seen a dead squirrel, aside from auto incidents? Most animals are absolute experts at clearing out when they sense the slightest of danger. You're thinking from a human mind, where we often get snuck upon by other humans.
posted by Kruger5 at 4:59 AM on May 18, 2013


Squirrels bolt as soon as somebody invades their territory.
posted by amar at 5:32 AM on May 18, 2013


Best answer: Squirrels can look after themselves. Of course if there are any pups in the drey they may suffer. I have no idea of the breeding season for squirrels where you are.
posted by BenPens at 5:38 AM on May 18, 2013


If there are very young baby squirrels in the nest, then they won't be able to get out of the way. Squirrel parents don't carry the babies away from danger.
posted by Red Loop at 10:38 AM on May 18, 2013


Response by poster: So to follow up about this, we could not come up with a way to check for baby squirrels in the nest (which we believe was somewhere in the upper reaches of the palm tree). We tried to warn the tree trimmers about the situation. I could not be present when it was being done, and at the risk of being cynical, I doubt they cared or would have done anything different. Happily, though, after the work was done, we saw the squirrels still around our back yard running around in the same way they did before. So it seems that they (or some of them anyway) survived the ordeal.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:30 AM on June 23, 2013


« Older Help me make good decisions about my child's...   |   Simplest mobile phone for use in Europe, USA, and... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.