We are driving to karate this evening and Kyle says something about the apples on the tree in Grandpa’s backyard. He was wondering when they would get bigger. I had to point out that they were “crab apples” so they would not get much bigger than they were. He asked about the green apples you get in the store. He was genuinely confused. Poor thing. I explained that those are “granny smith” apples. That seemed to make him happy for a minute.
I then heard, “Grandpa needs to spray his apples with garlic so that the squirrels won’t get them.” What? Now I was the one that was confused. Now keep in mind that my father is a serious “green thumb” guy so I would not put anything past him, but garlic spray on the apples to repel squirrels? That is a little far fetched and a little stinky! Kyle then assured me that this is what Grandpa did this year and it worked a little bit, but he did not do it soon enough so the squirrels got to the apples first.
Now I could not just let this go. Squirrels around here are strange. They are not as bad here, but when I lived in Austin they were weird. They were not scared of humans like they should have been. They would scurry off like a normal squirrel. You could get them to come to you and eat out of your hand. They would even beg food off you. They were not as bold as the pigeons that would just steal your food out from under you, but they were certainly not scared of the humans to the level that normal squirrels should be. Here in the Spring and Tomball areas, the squirrels are a bit more hesitant to hang around when a human is around, but they might run up the tree and stop and look you over. They might even run up the tree and then throw things down at you. They are naughty little beasts.
They love the findings in my father’s yard. The little beasts will eat all the crab apples right off the tree before they get a chance to get very big or even ripen up. He has other trees with small fruits as well and it is the same thing. He even has a squirrel feeder and do you think they actually use it? Of course not.
So I am listening to Kyle tell me this theory about repelling squirrels and I am not buying it because I had experience to the contrary. I responded with, “but what if the squirrel likes garlic? Some of them do like french fries so why not garlic?”
I then hear my 15 year old son, Andrew, and my 12 year old son, Kyle, burst out into song. “French fry. French Fry. Can’t have a burger with ’em. French Fry. French Fry…” It is a song from the Ratatoulli sound track.
Kyle: “Mom, you walked right into that one.”
Me: “Yes. Yes I did.”
Andrew: “You opened the door and just let it fly open.”
Kyle: “Yep the door closed behind you.”
Me: “Yes. Yes, I did.”
I have to say that it was rather funny to hear them just pick that ball up and run with it. Totally irrelevant but totally added to the humor of the conversation.
I bet the next time you see a squirrel, you will never think of them the same way again. What is its preference? Maybe you should ask it. Your life could depend on it some day.
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