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Comment by sonofhans | Hacker News Reader

OMG yes. I feed crows on my balcony, giving them a few dozen peanuts every day. I mind less that the squirrels steal them and much more that they fucking pee on the deck railing every time. I’ve taken to leaving a window open and shooting them with a water pistol; that blows their minds.

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I learned right on HN that you can dust the peanuts with cayenne pepper. The squirrels won’t like it but the crows can’t taste it.

Supposedly that's how peppers evolved their capsaicin irritant. Discouraged land-bound consumers but encouraged avians who would carry the seeds further.

They're probably marking their territory against other squirrels, and who wouldn't, with those wondrous peanuts.

(Not that I blame you for squinting them, I am only providing reason why, perhaps)

Check your states nuisance animal laws, you may be able to switch from a water pistol to a pellet gun or bow.

Sounds like they may not want to.

It’s not impossible, I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16.

Yeah, but they're a lot larger than a squirrel. Unless you have squirrels the size of exhaust ports, in which case I need to know how to avoid your neighborhood!

Pellet gun or a bow sounds like it could seriously hurt the animal, why would you prefer that rather than harmless water? They'll learn after a while to stay away with just water.

They're good to eat, taste similar to rabbit. Might shoot some today.

Yeah, not everyone have a local butcher and need to hunt food themselves, not common to come across folks like you here :)

You really don't want to take squirrels to your local butcher. If they don't laugh you out of the shop, there's not nearly enough meat on them to pay them for their time.

Get yourself a good, sharp paring knife or pocket knife and some kitchen shears and you're good to go.

I find this reply humorous as it points out the flaw in the above posters thinking.

Having said that, I tend to lean on the side of the other poster in that harming animals should be avoided unless there's a specific reason (such as eating them)

At some point the world isn't kumbaya and the animals will learn when they tend to die or be physically hurt when approaching that activity.

The water has not been a deterrent, in my experience.

Well now you're just swapping one inconvenient squirrel fluid for another.

That squirrel will only leave that fluid once though.

Squirrels are large enough to make a meal.

And you can sell squirrel caps to the neighbors' kids.

Thought about it. My neighbors are so close that I worry about using anything other than a water gun, which was pretty ineffective, though they seem to really, really hate water, for some reason.

Oh, I’ve no desire to hurt them. Squirrels are living creatures. They’re causing no true harm, and I have no ends that are served well by their deaths. One could argue about whether they aspire to true Personhood as a dog or dolphin or human, but they certainly have their own little bits of Buddha-nature, and that is to be respected.

Get a cat. The presence/smell of a cat will do even if they never directly harm a squirrel. The week after my cat passed away, I was shocked at how brazen the local squirrels became. Suddenly they were everywhere around the house.

But then you have a cat

I say that's a win-win.

(inb4 beetlejuicing.)

HN complains about outside cats.

Don’t feed the wildlife.

It is often illegal.

EXACTLY THIS! OMG.

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