OK, the damm squirrels chewed the wiring off the fuel pump of my much-loved old S10 Blazer AND ate holes in the tank vent tube. $427.47 to get it fixed. The truce is over. The tight-bored .410 is out of the safe, and blood is on the ground at Shagbark Hill. Got three of the sumbitches so far, and I'm gonna clean 'em out. I've put up with the treerats cleaning out the bird feeder three or four times a week, but when they start messin' with my Blazer it's WAR!

Don't blame you

I read about people with the same problems you have, but never experience any unwanted chewing around here (and I have lot of squirrels as I feed them).

I do have a pile of lead ingots and some old plumbers pipe outside, and they do chew on that. They need to chew to keep their teeth in check. I'm sure ingesting the lead isn't good for them, but they probably don't live long enough for it to be a real problem anyway. I know you want to give them some lead another way, but maybe you should try a sacrificial source for them to chew on.

At work we just a extremely expensive piece of equipment go down because squirrels chewed up the wires. (so they say)

What year is the Blazer? (I just put mine out of it's (my) misery and have some spare parts.

But the question is...can you taste the wire when you eat them.

Ain't nothin' like killing the enemy AND eating them!

That's how I discovered rattlesnake tastes a lot like chicken.

Murphy

It's a '92. Bought it new that year. Gave it to Dad in '02 when I bought a new one, got it back after he passed in '04. My rough-duty vehicle.

Had it a mile back in the woods up a rough, rocky trail when it ran out of gas due to the gauge sensor wire being chewed off. Fortunately the power wire to the fuel pump wasn't chewed completely through and a 2-gallon canfull got it back to the house.

I wouldn't mind having them around for emergency rations, but not if they're gonna continue to screw stuff up.

Shielded HO2S, computer wires, etc. they can be very destructive. I know of a truck that squirrels chewed through a fuel hose under the hood on a hot engine and it caught on fire. I'm still not sure how but it darn sure did.

Burnt out the fan motor and cost me dearly.

But never seen a live one yet:) I always wonder just how the heck they get in there, especially enough to build nests.

Small. Never asked the mechanic what he did with the squirrels - I hope they weren't live long! I have done some sniping in the backyard with my pellet rifle. Live trapped a few but they got too smart for that