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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 02 2018, @02:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'll-be-back... dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Depending on which hemisphere of the Earth you're currently reading this from, summer is finally starting to fight its way to the surface. For the more "green" of our readers, that can mean it's time to start making plans for summer gardening. But as anyone who's ever planted something edible can tell you, garden pests such as squirrels are fantastically effective at turning all your hard work into a wasteland. Finding ways to keep them away from your crops can be a full-time job, but luckily it's a job nobody will mind if automation steals from humans.

[Peter Quinn] writes in to tell us about the elaborate lengths he is going to keep bushy-tailed marauders away from his tomatoes this year. Long term he plans on setting up a non-lethal sentry gun to scare them away, but before he can get to that point he needs to perfect the science of automatically targeting his prey. At the same time, he wants to train the system well enough that it won't fire on humans or other animals such as cats and birds which might visit his garden.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/04/30/training-the-squirrel-terminator/


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:39PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:39PM (#674610)

    I have experience here.
    "Non-lethal" is going to be an issue. The reason for that, is those little cheeky motherfuckers absolutely DO NOT GO AWAY unless you're subjecting them to trauma just short of killing them.

    I had a pneumatic cannon loaded with water, manually triggered, pointed at the bird feeder. It was enough to send them flying 15+ feet horizontally from the starting position and those bastards STILL had be shot 3-5 times per individual before they got the message. The cannon was painful enough to be shot with point-blank as a human, so I can imagine what it does when you weigh all of 3 pounds.

    Of course this was after I got sick of shooting them with a bb gun, which was also painful, even through clothing, but completely ineffective at discouraging them. Any auto-targeted rig you build is going to inadvertently kill a few birds in the process, since they obviously have a much lower margin between painful and lethal.

    The short answer is Just invest in a 22lr or good pellet gun and kill them outright if you actually want to solve the problem. You'll be doing everyone else and the power grid a favor.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:48PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:48PM (#674616)

    Pistol crossbows. Compact, silent, highly effective.

    https://youtu.be/g1Slq70qxtk [youtu.be]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:15PM (#674665)

      This crossbow [youtube.com] is better.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:59PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:59PM (#674681)

      Paintball gun.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @02:34AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @02:34AM (#674887)

        Do paint ball guns have glue gunner ammo ala BTD5?

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @04:28PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @04:28PM (#674635)

    Actually it hurts them much less because they are so light! Near 100% of the energy was transferred to your skin/body, but for a squirrel a lot of the energy is translated into kinetic energy as they get tossed through the air; and the landing probably doesn't hurt much either.

    I'm not a fan of killing animals, but sometimes there really isn't much of a better option. I wonder if some enterprising buddhists could come up with some novel methods of preventing squirrels from causing mayhem but I doubt it, logistically it just seems impossible to control squirrels.

    Oh! For a bird feeder you should use the slinky method. Mount the feeder on a tall poll and attach a slinky that drops down along the poll. They climb up the poll, then grab the slinky and fall to the ground, very frustrating for them.

    • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:45PM

      by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:45PM (#674722) Journal

      Oh! For a bird feeder you should use the slinky method. Mount the feeder on a tall poll and attach a slinky that drops down along the poll. They climb up the poll, then grab the slinky and fall to the ground, very frustrating for them.

      I've seen the video on youtube, maybe there is more than one? My question is has anyone actually tried this and does it actually work? The slinky seems to be a weak link if it stretches out and becomes useless.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:58PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:58PM (#674728) Journal

    Is a nail gun sufficiently non lethal?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @11:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @11:17AM (#675001)

      Are you trying to create Squirrel Jesus ?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by stretch611 on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:58PM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:58PM (#674759)

    Screw "non-lethal." Just kill them all!!!

    My experience... which just happened 3 weeks ago...

    I went out to run some errands. Cranked up the car and it wouldn't start. Called AAA for a tow. OFC, they send a jump start unit instead of a tow truck even thought I knew it wasn't the battery. They try to jump it (my battery is in the trunk) and they say my battery is fine (duh) that my car isn't getting gas, so they call a tow truck over like I initially asked after wasting an hour.

    I get to my mechanic, and they pop the hood and a squirrel lunged at him than ran under the plastic engine cover with two of his friends. The damn squirrels made a nest under my hood. They get the engine cover off, hose down the engine with water and wait for the damn rodents to leave. They had to replace 18 wires and a big wiring harness as well. DAMN Squirrels.

    And its not like the car sits idle either... it is currently, my only vehicle and was used less than 48 hours earlier. F-ING Squirrels. Made my nice 368hp engine go nowhere at all.

    KILL 'EM ALL!!! Sad thing is that my mechanic let them live... His place is only 15 miles away from me; which is close enough that the damn rodents are likely to make it back here.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P