Squirrel Population Boom Frustrates Fruit... - ABC News [ournewsa.blogspot.com]
Question by Katherine: What should I wear for "Salad Dressing Day" tomorrow at school?!? Ok, its pretty stupid, but its Spirit week and were doing "Salad Dressing Day". We have to dress up as a type of dressing. For example if you picked Ranch, you would dress up like a cowboy or something. I want to dress up as something no one else would think of. I need to use household items too. Any ideas??? I understand it the stupidest thing ever. Dont say anything. My principals are pychos. So shutup. Its not my choice. Best answer for What should I wear for "Salad Dressing Day" tomorrow at school?!?:
Answer by Babyyyyyxo
lmao what mother fking school do you go to?
Answer by Anna
Caesar - Wear a toga . French - Wear a stripy white T-shirt and a beret, or dress as a mime. Honey - Dress as a bee, or just a yellow and black stripy t-shirt and a bee headband thing. Ranch - Dress up like a cow or a horse. Any type of dressing - Wear all black clothes, find a picture of a salad dressing label, print it out in A4 or A3, and stick it to your front and back. VOILA. And tell your school that its crazy.
Answer by Ron again
Go nude as a sugar and fat free salad dressing.
Answer by Nohealani
- Dress up as a bullfighter to represent Catalina dressing. The Catalina name derives from Catalonia, a region of Spain in which bullfighting was once popular. - Dress up as one of the Mario Brothers to represent Italian dressing. Alternately, you could dress up as a runway fashion model and promininently display an Italian brand name like Prada, Fendi, Armani, Vercace, Gucci, etc. - Wear an ushanka (Russian fur hat) and a trenchcoat to represent Russian dressing. - Wear a kimono, cheongsam dress, martial arts gi, tai chi uniform, a ninja costume, or a Shaolin monk costume to represent Oriental dressing.
Don't let the bright eyes and bushy tails fool you. These squirrels are up to no good.
Last year's mild winter and a bumper crop of nuts have caused an apparent explosion in the squirrel population in patches of the country, bewildering fruit growers with their ravenous appetites, littering highway shoulders as roadkill, and keeping homeowners and pest control experts busy.
In southern Vermont, Clarence Boston said he hasn't seen such an infestation of pests in the 33 years he has been an orchardist on 60 farms in five states.
The squirrels wait until his apple crop is nearly ripe to swarm into the trees from nearby forests, sometimes eating half a tree's fruit in two or three hours. Sometimes, the squirrels will take only one bite, but the teeth marks make the apples worthless for retail sale.
"It's leaving me reeling. I'm sort of used to getting kicked around; I'm a farmer," said Boston, who estimates squirrels destroyed about half of his most profitable variety of apples following a season already made tough by the weather. "I was not expecting the next plague to be red squirrels."
Biologists know squirrel populations have rare but periodic "eruptions," when conditions coincide to produce abundant foods that fuel the fast-reproducing animals. This year's squirrel boom in parts of Vermont followed two seasons of bountiful acorn and beechnut crops and last year's mild winter.
AP
In addition to eating up cash crops, squirrels can also prevent future harvests by "girdling" trees â€" eating away a band of bark around the trunk, causing it to die.
At South Carolina's Clemson University, gray squirrels have been so abundant in the past several years that they have killed more than 100 mature trees, said Greg Yarrow, chairman of the school's division of natural resources.
The school has experimented with non-lethal squirrel-control methods, including capturing and then injecting them with birth control chemicals. Another, less labor-intensive method has involves leaving chemical-laced bait that inhibits reproduction.
"In this state we are getting increased calls of problems," Yarrow said. "I know it's similar in other states. ... It's all food-related."
The same conditions are contributing to increases in other rodents, such as red squirrels and certain species of mice, experts say.
Experts noting an increase in squirrel populations include Paul Curtis, an associate professor at Cornell University's Department of Natural Resources and a pest management expert. Such eruptions are rare but noted in historical literature, he said.
"This is the first one I've heard of," Curtis said. "I've been here in New York state for 20 years."
Trying to get a precise measurement of the scope of the infestation is difficult. The population booms appear to be happening in some places, but not others.
Curtis said he has heard of problems in New York's Hudson Valley, north of New York City, but not in western New York. Similar booms have been reported in New Mexico, and squirrel hunters in Indiana and Ohio are expecting banner seasons. But hunters in Pennsylvania are being told it could be a tough season.
In Vermont, at least, the plague is expected to end this winter. After two good nut seasons, this year saw poor acorn and beechnut crops. That could be contributing to high activity as many squirrels look for food elsewhere, Hammond said.
Related Squirrel Population Boom Frustrates Fruit... - ABC News Topics On this day- David PomeranzEnjoy!
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