My grandfather used to go squirrel hunting. They taste very good when they are fried. I don't know what you can do to get rid of them. While you can trap them, other squirrels will move in to the vacated territory. The only thing you can do is make your yard, and yards of your neighbors in all direction unattractive to squirrels. I think the best thing to do is enjoy their antics and patch the yard. Do you have chipmunks? They are also a lot of fun! They are too small to eat.

When you mentioned that the Dragon's Tail and sweet woodruff were sheared off, I immediately related! Last year I had a rabbit eating/breaking/chewing...all of these actions. What really bothered me was it chewing off large stems of my budding indigo, finding it not to its liking, and leaving it on the ground to look for new spoils. It/they ate ground phlox, blooming tradescantia (my new gold one, not the green one I grow in abundance), sheared off ALL my fall blooming asters, and ate almost all of my Fatal Attraction echinacea ( expensive!) until I made it inaccessible. I was having coffee one morning, last spring/early summer, looking outside the front window when I spied a bunny having a feast of the phlox. I chased it off but of course it returned to wreak more havoc! Lol This year my resident-until-recently rabbit sheared off another aster in the backyard. Earlier in the season I saw one or two small hosta leaves on the ground but that was the extent of damage to hostas, thankfully. Jan, I'm sorry your obviously large and lovely S&S was diminished and damaged. It's not much consolation but thank goodness it will return to its glory next year. Would motion sensors deter critters, you think? Or do they just wakes us up and not deter critters from their goal?

This makes for interesting reading. It is clear that Lucy thinks that manhattanmatt is a crazed lunatic because what he is saying CAN'T POSSIBLY be true. Only it is true. Lucy, how can you be arguing this without at least taking two minutes to research and try and understand how this antiquated system works? You just think it sounds so crazy that Matt must be lying. Well it's true. Sad but true. My old market had rent control. Even in owner occupied two or three family homes, rent control is in full force, EVEN IF THE APARTMENT IS VACANT!!! Example: You have a rental unit inside your own house that you live in that is vacant and ready for a new tenant. It should be worth $2200/ month, but you can only charge $1100/ month. You're not kicking some poor, hard done by tenant to feed your own evil landlord greed - the place is vacant. You are free to rent it to anyone. Yet the rent is still controlled. WHY?????? I simply don't understand it. It makes absolutely no sense. So while the owner/ landlords expenses and real estate taxes go through the roof (some of these homes are now worth 1 - 2 Million dollars with re-assessed taxes to match), yet the owner cannot charge a market rent for a vacant unit. So Lucy, is it all the owners fault? They should move because they can't afford their taxes and the tenant holds all the cards? You could rent the apartment to someone with a 6 figure income (maybe someone making more than the owner) and yet the apartment will still be rent controlled. The situation in these big buildings is much, much worse. At least the house has some value because an owner can move in, and if it's less than a three family they can kick all tenants out and make it a one family. So out with the middle classes who need the income and in with the rich. Is this a better situation to you lucy? The big buildings have NO VALUE because no-one wants them. Some people take a risk, buy the buildings and then try and buy tenants out. Why should they have to pay a tenant thousands of dollars to move out of a place which is not owned by them? It is supremely unfair. I do actually think that there is a place for rent control. If it were subsidized by the government. The government put these rules in place and it should pay to keep them running. Why on earth should a poor unfortunate owner be bankrupted by something over which they have no control? I am not surprised that Matt got het up - it is very aggravating having truth dismissed by someone who clearly knows nothing at all about the subject.

Bump