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My children and I are obsessed with a black squirrel, who lives on our block. He/she climbs on the window sills and doorway molding of the limestone apartment building just east of our building. But, unlike one of the members of Park Slope Parents, a community e-mail list service here in the Slope, we’ve never had to contend with a squirrel invasion in our apartment.
Most days I check in on Park Slope Parents (Your Site for Parenting in Park Slope) to see if there’s anything newsworthy there. Amid the usual discussions of one-day potty training techniques, baby sleep problems, and the use of duct tape to treat warts, this post by a mom in Windsor Terrace really grabbed my attention.
HELP!!!! 311 is completely useless. There is a squirrel in my apartment. The woman who works for my landlord is here with her boyfriend, who is a carpenter/handyman. We are without resources! The squirrel was in the couch, and is now between the wall and the cabinets. We need some kind of a trapper person? Does such a person exist? I’m googling but fruitlessly.
HELP!!!!!
My heart went out to this woman who, in the midst of a squirrel invasion, was typing away madly on her computer, googling for help. Finally, in desperation, she reached out to her fellow Park Slope parents. Later in the day, she followed up with this:
I’m sorry to bog down the site with this, my third & final post of the week. Just wanted to report that my landlord’s helper managed to grab the squirrel with a weird kind of a lasso thing he rigged with a mop handle and a rope, and he’s out. PHEW!
If anyone else ever has this issue, there’s a guy in Queens called Trapper John who will trap animals in your house but it’s $250 a visit. You can get his number by googling Trapper John NY.
Also, there is a guy who lives on either 10th, 11th or 12th Streets between 6th and 7th (various reports. I’ve seen his station wagon myself; I think 7 or 8 years ago he used to park it in Carroll Gardens at the parking lot under the F train elevated tracks near Luquer Street and Smith. His wagon is full of cages and stuff and his name and phone number are painted all over his car. I guess you could probably find him by driving up and down those streets. He may be something of an eccentric.
This is not an uncommon experience apparently! One family reported that they moved to a friend’s for a day and left a window open. Others reported having luck with a trail of crumbs to an open window. Others reported ongoing problems as late as earlier this week — looks like it’s young squirrels season! So keep those screens firmly in your windows.
This Park Slope parent signed her latest post: Squirrel-free. It’s good to know that in an emergency you can always depend on Google and the kindness of strangers on Parkslopeparents.com.
i live in the west village in manhattan. a squirrel just jumped in thru my window onto an easy chair! i screamed bloody murder and it jumped right back out, thank god.
The owner of the Brooklyn building where we both lived and worked would often make casual announcements just hours before big events were about to unfold — noisy, dust-choking renovations, etc. Typically, we would have almost no time to prepare or make alternate arrangements. One summer evening, I happened to glance down at her terrace dining table, carefully set for an imminent dinner with her gentleman friend — two perfect place settings, frosty bottle of wine, and a long bread basket. Suddenly, I saw a tiny brown paw reach up into the napkined basket and snatch the loaf of French bread. Maybe the squirrel beat it for the trees — I don’t know; I was laughing too hard. The Squirrel totem, as it turns out, symbolizes the wisdom of planning ahead and preparing for the future. Cool!
I had a rabid squirrel in my apartment in Manhattan once. After my super couldn’t get it out, we called 911 and the cops came and dealt with it rather quickly.
I also have a black squirrel on my block (3rd Pl. between Henry and Clinton Streets) that I love running into. I previously thought this made me (or more precisely, my block) special. Now I see every neighborhood probably has their own black squirrel.
They eat fried squirrel in the south (fried brains).
fyi
Horrifying but also hilarious. Squirrels never seem particularly interested in people much less their homes. I sort of remember a crazy car with all sorts of graffiti on it, and possibly animal traps – I guess he’s the guy she’s referring to. Thanks for the information. You never know what you’ll find on Park Slope Parents. It’s a pretty funny image imagining someone trying to solve this problem on google – which apparently she could have…