THE GOLDEN AGE

In 1918, California Drafted Children Into a War On Squirrels

(Thanks to Nancy Gill)

Comments

[ImNotDave]

Thanks for the desktop background.

[Mr. Bill]

They talk about how lazy kids are today. If those kids back then would have done there job just think how much safer the world would be today!

[Patty V.]

Another thing about these damn squirrels is that they hate solar lights. I can't tell you how many of these things have been destroyed by SQUIRRELS. They chew the wire and also pull them out of the ground. They must have a thing about electricity.

[padraig]

"Always use poisons carefully" is GREAT advice. I insist on putting mine over ice with a splash of soda.

[wanderer2575]

Is this how "Kill the Wabbit" got started?

[GA-Oz Hybrid]

Wow, how things have changed... The medium-sized city where I live (in CA) is so over-run by squirrels that the city council tried to put a bounty on them...you could hear the cries of the do-gooders for miles around - aww they're so cute, etc.

[Frank Davuco]

Finally, the hidden subtext to the Eagles song is revealed.

[funny man]

The squirrels had an army in 1918?

Where was the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staffs then?

Or now?

[Howard from Broward]

Sending school kids out to sprinkle rodent poison around--what could possibly go wrong?

[MOTW]

GA-OZ: I hear ya. A group of Nutria took up residence in a pond in a city park, proliferating and thriving, making a wreck out of the pond and park. City officials posted a bounty to cull the population, but protesters of the human kind took to the newspaper and TV News to loudly voice their opposition.

Eventually, a midnight round-up cull took care of the excess varmint population.

[Ralph]

Bounties have never been an effective method of rodent population control. If the reward is high they encourage cheating, and they have little effect on population totals.

Poisons devastate predators like hawks and owls, making the problem worse. If you want to control rodents, don't provide them with a food supply like agricultural fields, and then remove the wolves and rattlesnakes.

There used to be an effective organic pest control guy in a town in Germany, but he left the business when his contract wasn't honored, and the technique was lost.