# Crazy question



## Halloween (Nov 24, 2012)

Lately I have been seeing a lot if squirrel's being popped on the road and roads near my house. 
1) what is the smack time before I can't grab them - get me some tail and meat 
2) it is worse this year then I have ever seen - anyone else notice this ? Like the r committing suicide or something. Like they know something


----------



## redhorse (Dec 27, 2012)

I wouldn't eat roadkill squirrel... To small, the guts pop and get all over the meat. Ever butchered roadkill deer? Bleh. At least deer are big enough you can salvage a good portion of the meat sometimes. 

I've noticed a lot of dead squirrels too. We also had a very mild spring and summer, plenty of rain, sun, and no extreme temps. I think is was just a good year for everything. At least up here.


----------



## Halloween (Nov 24, 2012)

I was thinking of saving the tails atleast so they can be remembered and at least not be a wasted life.


----------



## redhorse (Dec 27, 2012)

As a kid, I always saved the tails from the ones I shot. They were fun while they were floppy, but got really stiff and stinky after a while.... I think if you wanted to preserve them (they make awesome dream catcher materiel) you will need to debone, salt, and tan the hide. 

I've never done it myself, but I am sure someone on here has. I've built my own dream catchers, but never done my own hides. Winter project this year


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Our squirrel population is just making a come back after an outbreak of some nasty squirrel plague.

The ones I see on the road do seem suicidal but only 5 roadkill squirrels this year. Only one skunk and a possum. Nothing else hit by cars this year.


----------



## redhorse (Dec 27, 2012)

It's rut, we are seeing a lot of deer suicides. I saw a whole herd of them the other day, all does/fawns. I think anyway. A semi got them, it was a mess. One was still alive, the cops shot it while we were waiting for the road to be cleared. It LOOKED like a group of five, but there were body parts everywhere. 

Not to many squirrels dead on the road, but I have a ton in the pump house. The one corner of the ceiling fell in because they had so many walnuts stuffed in it. 

Skunks make awesome pets  Pretty stinky roadkill, but I haven't seen any of them either. 

Lots of porccupines though.


----------



## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

We have a 30 degree rule. Once dead, if their legs stick up more than 30 degrees, there's too much rigor mortis and should be left. Less than a 30 and they're good to go. Works for all varmints and deer. _For large animals, check road-kill rules for your state before taking them..._


----------



## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Ferget eatin em. Won't be anythin left edible. As fer the tails, Mepps used ta let ya trade squirrel tails fer lures. Don't know ifin they still do it er not. Gotta lotta fishin lures thata way.


----------



## Halloween (Nov 24, 2012)

I am always asked to make native totems with nature and I figured I could use them


----------



## tortminder (Oct 15, 2008)

*Preserving squirrel tails*

Squirrel tails have a variety of uses for craft projects. The fishing fly and lure industry, along with individual fly tyers and tackle-making hobbyists, use a large number of squirrel tails in creating fishing lures. Squirrel tails can be dyed in a wide range of colors or left natural. Each species of squirrel produces a differently colored tail that can range in length from 6 to 12 inches in length. Tails can be preserved with the tail bone left in for fly tying or with the tail bone removed for craft projects.

*Things You'll Need*

Pocket knife, 3-inch narrow blade
Non-iodized salt
Powdered borax
Paper towels
1-inch-by-4-inch board, 12 inches long
1-inch Brad nails, rustproof
Hammer

*Instructions*
*Without the Bone*
1. Cut the tail off of the squirrel where it joins the body. Poke the tip of the knife blade, sharp side up, under the skin on the bottom side of the tail and cut an incision to the tip of the tail.

2. Run the knife tip between the skin and the bone, cutting through the membrane holding them together. Free the skin from around the bone for the upper 1/3 of the tail.

3. Hold the skin-free bone in one hand and use your other hand to push down on the skin that is still attached to the bone. Slowly lift the bone and peel it out of the remaining 2/3 of the tail.

4. Lay the tail flesh-side up on a board and thoroughly rub salt into the skin, leaving a thin layer of salt on the tail. Leave the tail like this for eight hours.

5. Wash the salt off the tail after eight hours. Strip the excess water off the tail and blot it dry with paper towels.

6. Rub powdered borax through the tail. Lay it out full length on a board, flesh-side up, and drive a Brad nail through it and into the board at the center top and the tip of the tail. Place two additional Brad nails through the tail, evenly spaced between the end nails. This will allow the tail to dry straight.

7, Rub additional borax into the flesh side of the tail and put the board in a warm place to dry. Drying time can take three to five days depending on the temperature and humidity. Remove the dry tail and brush the excess borax out of it.

*With the Bone*

8. Preserve a tail for fly tying by removing all flesh from the top of the tail bone, but leave the bone in the tail.

9. Rub borax throughout the tail and coat the end of the bone in borax.

10. Place the tail in a warm place until it dries out, which could take seven to 10 days.

*Tips & Warnings*

-Tails that are to be used for fly tying or lure making should be dried with the tail bone intact so the tail will be rigid and the hairs can be cut off. Tails used for craft projects or decoration will need to have the tail bone removed and the skin preserved, or the hair will eventually fall out.

-The purpose of salting the tail is to draw the moisture out and set the hair roots into the skin.

-Powdered borax is a preservative and also serves as an insect repellent for the tail.

- When cutting the tail skin off the bone, push the knife blade away from you in case it slips.

*(Source: "Outdoor Life Complete Home Taxidermy;" Tim Kelly; 1987 *


----------



## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Mepps Squirrel Tail Program
http://www.mepps.com/programs/squirrel-tail/

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/squirrel-tail

Don't sell them. Send them as gifts to your nearest PETA chapter. 
Randomly tie them to car antennas at the Walmart lot.
Place between cans at the grocery store so they hang out visible from the aisle.


----------



## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

OK CRAZY ANSWER TO THE CRAZY QUESTION!!

They are the same squirrels over and over if you watch for a while after being hit they get back up! The Zombie apocalypse has already started it just hasn't jumped from the squirrels to humans yet


----------



## Sybil6 (Jan 28, 2013)

A lot of the squirrels and deer around here are kinda vacant eyed and have slowed reflexes. I was on top of a stag just last week before it even knew what hit him. But around here, a lot of their food supply was cut short by the floods and storms and so little sunlight that their population is down and a lot of them are starving. Rabbits are out the a$$ though, they think it's the funniest thing to dive out in front of my mom. She cries if she hits them, and the dang things get back up again!


----------



## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Here's a rarely seen squirrel tail. This poor little guy got caught on a barbwire fence last night and died. I was confused at first. I haven't seen a flying squirrel in 40 years, they are nocturnal. Sort of forgot they existed. :dunno:

The tail is really cool looking!

This is Glaucomys volans - Southern Flying Squirrel. It has a larger northern cousin - Glaucomys sabrinus


----------



## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

While taking drivers ed, i was going down this one highway, about 50mph, and all of a sudden, this squirrel comes out of nowhere, and jumps right infront of the car!
I told my english teacher, snd she pulled out this binder of newspaper clippings and internet articles about this happening in cities and squirrels causing huge accidents! She got a lot of the stories from insurance companies... One of my weirdest and best teachers ever!


----------



## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

OH and to give a more serious answer is most animal populations run in cycles. bumper crop on acorns the squirrels deer eat well are more healthy healthier femals are more fertile have more babies and are able to feed those babies well so more survive. This increases the population of course. Then there are many more to feed there is famine and they decline again. While they were plentiful the predators and (around the roadways scavengers ) ate well and were more healthy and well fed and had more babies and were able to successfully raise them. and they ate well and their population is high. Then the squirrells rabbits whatever decline due to either low food production or just too many for avail rescources so thee are less and then as they starve and die off the predators and scavengers have a lean time and decline. Its just natural the excesive squirrels on the road are probably a sing of poor fod sources driving them to scavenge for the trash thrown out along roads. They are likely in decline and will be far fewer next year. Just the Semi natural cycles of things I'd not fret about it over much. 

Id not be grabbing the road kill for all the above mentioned reasons and the fact that if they ARE in decline then poorly fed weakening and formerly over populated animals will have a much higher incidence of parasites like worms and other diseases and stuff you really don't wanna be eating. The tails well at your own risk of contracting the afore mentioned diseases can be lopped off and packed in salt and will dry and cure over time uh don't mess up and seal the package like a tupperware bowl the moisture still needs to be able to get out  learned the hard way.


----------

