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