any of ya'll been noticing a higher than normal population of squirrels this fall in your area,both alive and roadkilled?
here it seems like there is a huge percentage of squirrels with warbles this year, definitely hgiher than in recent years past.ive seen several around with noticeable warbles in them.Have any of you guys noticed that?
i saw one this mornin near my car with a huge warble right below his neck on his upper shoulder. it looked pretty nasty.
squirrels are so abundant here this year that ive even seen it being discussed on the news and heard it being discussed on the radio as to why there are so many of them getting hit on the roads.(i know its WV and we aint got alot to talk about in the news,LOL)
do you think the food supply could be low forcing more competition for food and making the squirrels travel farther than normal in their search for food and as a result more are getting smacked along the way or do ya just figure that all the factors were right this spring and the population is just higher so the roadkills are more noticeable cause theres more of them?
its nothing for me to travel the 17 miles to the nearest town and count 20 or more fresh roadkill squirrels per trip. thats way more than normal for our area.
Seems to be a good population here in NE Ohio this fall. Not like plague conditions but plenty to shoot at. Hope they don't try to take over the world. I don't have enough shells for that.
Huntinbull
Other than ground squirrels not many running around the desert. We do have them up in the high country, about a 6 hour drive for me. None the less I will make a trip up their 2 or 3 times during squirrel season. We currently have one planned for the end of Oct.
been seeing alot more around here as well but the last 2 years we have had an increase in mast and My Dad always told me that after a good year of mast that the treerats will become more plentyful always seemed to me to work that way and looks that way again this year so far been seeing a good bit more mast even better than what we had last fall so I am hopin that the treerat population will continue to increase give me and Logan some more rodent extermination chances I mean who dont love fried treerat with homemade biscuts and squack gravy mmmmmmmmmmmmm good :biggrin:
Not an over abundance of them here either....well not enough to appear strange.
What the heck is a warble anyway? Aint that, I say aint that something from Harry Potter? And you say some of the squirrels got them? You thinking they are wizards? :sad3:
A Warble is a HUGE Fly Larvae .........it enters the blood stream and finds the spinal cord....from there it grows till it comes through the skin and turns into a massive fly.
I have seen the larvae get to almost 1" in Dia. on a squirrel......once it frosts.......any late larvae die and the skin quickly heals.
Read this...........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warble_fly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warble_fly)
Cathryn,
On Monday evening I was in Charleston and came back up I-77 about 6:30 PM. I was the passenger. I wish I would have started counting when I left Charleston, but I didn't. At one spot I could see 5 dead squirrels in a 20 foot area to the right of the highway. They were thick all the way back to Parkersburg. In that about 85 mile trip I would estimate 500 - 600 dead squirrels??? And that was just on the right side of the road. I asked a game biologist friend of mine who works for DNR about them. Seems last year was a very good mast year. Because of that the squirrels litters were bigger so there are an abundance of squirrels this year. The mast this year is not so good. Therefore the squirrels must travel more to find food to store up for the winter. I wonder also if they are not trying to find water. It has been pretty dry here for the last 5 or 6 weeks. We finally got a little rain early in the week??
I was in SE Ohio doing some scouting for coyotes last week and found several cuttings where squirrels had cut off the ends of Oak branches and leaves with the acorns on them. The acorns were very small and stunted?? But I don't know how big they are supposed to be this time of year?? The only acorns I saw on the ground were old ones??
I'm wondering how this will effect coyote hunting. The coyotes can get all the squirrels they want just by walking along roads at night. They don't even have to chase them and catch them. I thought about using gray squirrel distress sounds on my FoxPro, but I'm afraid the coyotes have eaten so many squirrels that they may not respond to any prey distress sounds for a while???
:confused: :shrug:
Jim
Also found this article about warbles . . .
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/slansky/botfly/abotfly/overview.htm
Jim
Here is one of the best links I've found on them Jim.
It even has pictures!!! :roflmao: :yoyo:
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/slansky/botfly/cutrwrb/cutrwrb1.htm
Quote from: HaMeR on September 24, 2009, 07:20:35 PM
It even has pictures!!!
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/slansky/botfly/cutrwrb/cutrwrb1.htm
That is NASTY! :puke:
Quote from: HaMeR on September 24, 2009, 07:20:35 PM
Here is one of the best links I've found on them Jim.
It even has pictures!!! :roflmao: :yoyo:
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/slansky/botfly/cutrwrb/cutrwrb1.htm
Thats a very good link HaMer!! That is exactly what we see sometimes......
Found this on the wvsportsmans web site
Wednesday September 16, 2009
Cupboard is bare for W.Va. deer, squirrels
by The Associated Press
Advertiser
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A state biologist says the cupboard is bare for West Virginia's wildlife this year.
Randy Tucker with the Division of Natural Resources says this year's Mast Index Survey shows the mast crop is the worst in the study's 40-year history.
Mast is nuts, fruits and other food eaten by wildlife.
According to the survey, beechnuts are 46 percent below normal. Walnuts are down by 23 percent and white oak acorns are down by 48 percent. Hickory nuts, chestnut oak acorns, apples and other mast also are down.
Only dogwood is above normal but only by 1 percent.
Tucker says the mast shortage will force animals to travel to find food. That could increase the number of animals killed crossing highways.
Jim
QuoteThats a very good link HaMer!! That is exactly what we see sometimes......
So Al, what your saying is your girlfriend really doesn't have 6 boobs but might have two with a warble problem? :confused: :roflmao: :innocentwhistle: :roflmao:
We see those on the Caribou a lot up here.
I remember warbles on the cows. We'd pop 'em out as you would a zit. Then rub Bag Balm on the sore. :wink:
I remember the time of the heel flies. The cattle would arch their tails over their backs & run for the creek.
Our barn cats would get warbles. Wrap 'em up in a towel (for your own protection) & cut the hole open more & take the worm out. Pour in hydrogen peroxide & then apply Bag Balm. Your mouser was back in business in no time. :thumb2:
Quote from: Todd Rahm on September 24, 2009, 07:41:23 PM
QuoteThats a very good link HaMer!! That is exactly what we see sometimes......
So Al, what your saying is your girlfriend really doesn't have 6 boobs but might have two with a warble problem? :confused: :roflmao: :innocentwhistle: :roflmao:
:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
Seriously though, that looks like some nasty stuff. :puke:
It does look disgusting. Maybe I shoulda put a warning label on that post. :laf: :laf: There is a black squirrel out back here with a spot on it's front shoulder the size of a fifty cent piece. I've been trying to get it with the pellet rifle but no luck so far. :laf:
I am rethinking going squirrel hunting this year. I don't know if I would shoot the squirrel or myself if I came face to warble. :puke:
Jerry
If you shoot a squirrel with a warble just cut that leg off. The other 3 legs will be fine. And if you wait til after the 1st frost they will be nearly gone & the squirrels will have healed over. I've never found a warble after the middle of October around here.
Face to warble, Jerry says.
:puke: I just puked in my throat a lil bit. :sad:
:laf: :laf:
I won't be picking it up, it will be owl food, additional fly food, or fertilizer right where it lands.
Jerry
Every now and then I'll get a cottontail that has one. Just pop them out, no need to cut off the whole leg. They are lodged between the skin and the membrane on the body, never in contact with the meat.
I'm with Jerry, if the critter don't look right its going in the ditch.
frogman, i kow exactly what you mean, there are dead squirrels on top pf dead squirrels here.
i talked to a friend yesterday who said he though tit had to do with it being so dry this summer. either way there are alot of them here and alot of them have warbles(botfly larvae) if the ones round here close to the house ar e an overall indication.
we usually hold off hunting them till after the first hard frost causae they will come out then.
i aint ever been hungry enough to eat a warble infested squirrel, thank God!
some people down south call warbles "wolves", i dont know why but they do.
Quote from: cathryn on September 26, 2009, 01:01:10 PM
some people down south call warbles "wolves", i dont know why but they do.
Wolves, like warbles, are parasites. :sneer:
Makes sense to me! :eyebrownod:
wonder why they dont call em yotes? :biggrin:
Wolves sounds scarier, meaner. ;yes;
Coyote is a little more derogatory. :huh:
Quotesome people down south call warbles "wolves", i dont know why but they do.
Well cathryn, I reckon I'm some of those people down south :eyebrownod: :laf: They are called wolves here, that's all I've ever heard them called, I have no idea why. :shrug: I know what they are but have never heard them called warbles until I read this topic. Must be a regional thing? :wo: :confused:
BTW> I thought a warbel was a species of song bird? :shrug: :laf:
them birds are called warblers, not warbles. :biggrin: the sound it makes is called a warble though :biggrin:
Quote from: cathryn on September 28, 2009, 07:41:24 PM
them birds are called warblers, not warbles. :biggrin: the sound it makes is called a warble though :biggrin:
John James Audubon would have been proud! :laf:
jim 500 to 600? :confused: thats alot of squacks
Dave,
6 per mile x 85 miles = 510. I would estimate some of those miles had more than 6. In one 20 yard stretch I counted five dead squirrels. Plus I was just looking at the right side of the highway.
Jim
Quote from: vvarmitr on September 29, 2009, 10:01:12 AM
Quote from: cathryn on September 28, 2009, 07:41:24 PM
them birds are called warblers, not warbles. :biggrin: the sound it makes is called a warble though :biggrin:
John James Audubon would have been proud! :laf:
i missed my "callin", didnt I? :biggrin: