Put another way, Minot won\u2019t be able to rid itself of the squirrels because the animals have lived on the prairie for centuries. Outside of town, predators like coyotes, badgers, owls and even snakes love to dine on the squirrels. But in residential neighborhoods and even downtown, where few of their predators live, the rodents can roam pretty freely.<\/p>\n
Greg Gullickson, an outreach biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, adds that the squirrels now have fewer grassland areas available to them and like the mowed spots they find in town.<\/p>\n
No land is safe<\/p>\n
Female squirrels typically give birth to litters of about six babies a year, so it\u2019s easy to see how their numbers can quickly soar.<\/p>\n
Herman said he kills 3,500 to 5,000 of them a year, primarily by putting snares and carbon monoxide into the holes, and using an air rifle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had calls downtown, calls in the mall, along the highways, here at the airport \u2014 really every part of the city I\u2019ve done trapping for ground squirrels here in Minot,\u201d Herman said as he checked his traps along an apartment building and shoveled dirt over holes.<\/p>\n
Herman says they damage driveways, sidewalks and lawns; create tripping hazards with their holes and can harbor disease from fleas.<\/p>\n
Along an apartment building, the squirrels had dug under a concrete slab and against the foundation. Nearby in a vacant lot, the rodents popped in and out of holes.<\/p>\n
Ground squirrels near Pashone Grandson\u2019s ground-level apartment dig holes near her door and eat her plants. One squirrel even got around her baby gate at the door and into her daughter\u2019s clothes in her bedroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little scary. You don\u2019t know what disease they carry. They\u2019re dirty. I have a young daughter … I didn\u2019t know if it was going to bite her,\u201d Grandson said.<\/p>\n
North of town, Minot Air Force Base, which houses bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, has fought the ground squirrels for years. Earlier this month, the base said it had trapped more than 800 \u201cdak-rats,\u201d a base name for the rodents.<\/p>\n
Base officials declined to comment on the squirrels.<\/p>\n
Jared Edwards, facilities director for Minot Public Schools, which has three schools on the base, said residential areas of the base and runways are overrun by ground squirrels. He called it \u201ca continuous battle for them for the last 75 years since the base has been there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to exaggerate: They\u2019re by the millions out there,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n
In town, three school properties have large populations of ground squirrels, he said. Last year, the school system began using snares, and for years before that had used poison.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something you have to keep up with. It is Mother Nature,\u201d Edwards said, adding that they\u2019ve probably been in the area since homesteaders came through.<\/p>\n
A cute nuisance<\/p>\n
Still, not everyone sees the squirrels as a pest. Some find the critters cute and fuzzy.<\/p>\n
Herman said people have sabotaged, stolen or thrown out his traps. They occasionally confront him when he shoots at ground squirrels with an air rifle, scolding him for hurting the wildlife, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get that cute association, and they are, you know, adorable, but they\u2019re a vermin and a pest and dangerous when they are allowed to proliferate,\u201d Herman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Put another way, Minot won\u2019t be able to rid itself of the squirrels because the animals have lived…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":70007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-70006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114868849640295210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}