flying squirel nest in my outboard, what to do?

[captpierre]

Yammy?

[DanD]

13 hours ago, north560 said:

trap and relocate the bunch make sure its over 20 miles away they do come back.

Better check with the MNR before doing that.

Can't find it on the MNR site to quote the actual law; but it says something along the lines of. You must release the animal no further then 1 kilometre away from where it was originally trapped. If you are a licensed trapper, you may euthanize the animal; if within that 1 kilometre is not piratical. 

Dan.

 

[Headhunter]

Why not just put a couple of moth balls in there? Momma will move them.

HH

[chris.brock]

On 4/22/2020 at 2:10 PM, AKRISONER said:

update? what did you end up doing Chris?

Akri, I'll nutshell it, lol

-built a birdhouse with a hinged roof from materials laying around

-took the cowl off, momma blasted out to the closest tree

-I put the nest and Wuhan etc into the birdhouse and tacked it to a nearby tree, 15' up

-I watched from a social distance, momma came back, sniffed around the outboard, then just sat there frozen, for a long time, not moving and didn't seem to notice the house that was close by

-I moved back in, she scared off, I took down the house and bungied it to the out board and watched from a social distance

-she came back, sniffed around, then went into the house, I left

-the next day I wanted to see if she was tending Wuhan and Huawei etc or had abandoned the whole thing, I opened the roof but couldn't see or hear anything coming from inside because of all the dried grass and crap for the nest, I used a stick to open the nest and she rocketed out, bounced off me and went somewhere

-I moved the house from the outboard to the closest tree, 8' up

-the next day I checked the house and again she was in there and exploded out

now I'm done and won't check it anymore 

[AKRISONER]

18 minutes ago, chris.brock said:

Akri, I'll nutshell it, lol

-built a birdhouse with a hinged roof from materials laying around

-took the cowl off, momma blasted out to the closest tree

-I put the nest and Wuhan etc into the birdhouse and tacked it to a nearby tree, 15' up

-I watched from a social distance, momma came back, sniffed around the outboard, then just sat there frozen, for a long time, not moving and didn't seem to notice the house that was close by

-I moved back in, she scared off, I took down the house and bungied it to the out board and watched from a social distance

-she came back, sniffed around, then went into the house, I left

-the next day I wanted to see if she was tending Wuhan and Huawei etc or had abandoned the whole thing, I opened the roof but couldn't see or hear anything coming from inside because of all the dried grass and crap for the nest, I used a stick to open the nest and she rocketed out, bounced off me and went somewhere

-I moved the house from the outboard to the closest tree, 8' up

-the next day I checked the house and again she was in there and exploded out

now I'm done and won't check it anymore 

Any plans for how you keep her out next year? Also how In the hell did she getting inside the cowling?!

[chris.brock]

23 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

 Also how In the hell did she getting inside the cowling?!

I haven't taken a close look yet, but my motor is electric start only, there's some foam crap she may have squeezed around where the pull chord would normally be on the manual start model?

[BillM]

Good job Chris!  Good karma coming your way for sure .

Edited April 26, 2020 by BillM

[Cast-Away]

Nice save Father Nature 👍

[Rattletrap2]

How many times did you have to change yer underwear Chris when Mama came "rocketing out"? lol

[Freshtrax]

Good job Chris.   Love some flying squirrels ,   have a funny story for around a campfire sometime. 

 

[chris.brock]

On 4/25/2020 at 11:14 PM, AKRISONER said:

 Also how In the hell did she getting inside the cowling?!

I looked closer, at the top and back of the the cowl, where you would put your hand to pull up and tilt the motor or take the cowl off, it's not a direct passage but it's not sealed off 

easy access for critters who can squeeze through small gaps

mine's a Yammi too, maybe check your V Max Akri too when you go to store it

Edited April 28, 2020 by chris.brock

[Old Ironmaker]

How you knew they were flying squirrels is beyond me Chris. I always fill our window flower boxes with pine boughs in the winter, looks nice. A few springs ago I came upon a nest of little birds. They were flying birds I think. I carefully put the branches back. I checked on them everyday and took pics with a macro lens, turned out nice. Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone and the nest fell on the ground. 1 bird flew off a few feet at a time then it was eventually gone. The other 2 died after I put them back in the flower box, I think Momma bird abandoned them after I touched them. I had a glove on. I still feel badly and stupid. 

[chris.brock]

47 minutes ago, Old Ironmaker said:

How you knew they were flying squirrels is beyond me Chris.

I didn't know what the little pink things I was looking at were OI, my wife noticed skin from the arms to the legs and figured it out, the mom looks like a short, fat red squirrel, more brown than red with big black eyes and a bushy dark tail, I've seen them gliding down to bird feeders at night

I probably stuffed this whole thing up too, but at least we tried and put in some effort, I think it shows an appreciation for nature and life

 

[Walltrout]

You missed your opportunity to give them tree rats their first flying lesson by just starting up that outboard with the cowling off. After all there were in the "FLYWHEEL" were they not.......LOL