The squirrel population has exploded in New England, and the frenetic critters are frustrating farmers by chomping their way through apple orchards, pumpkin patches and cornfields.
The varmints are fattening themselves for winter while destroying the crops with bite marks.
Robert Randall, who has a 60-acre orchard in Standish, Maine, said he’s never seen anything like it.
“They’re eating the pumpkins. They’re eating the apples. They’re raising some hell this year. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Last year, there was a bumper crop of acorns and other food that contributed to a larger-than-normal squir rel population this summer across the region, said Rob Calvert, wildlife biologist from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
This summer, there’s not as much food, so the squirrels are looking for nutrition
wherever they can find it, including farms, Calvert said.
New England is home to both red and gray squirrels. Known for their bushy tails, the rodents are a common sight in city parks and backyards, and people enjoy watching their frenetic movements.
They eat a variety of foods, including beechnuts, acorns, berries and seeds.
And, apparently, apples, peaches, high-bush blueberries, pumpkins and gourds. In New Hampshire, squirrels have been raiding corn fields, dragging away ears.
“It is crazy. You see squirrel tails everywhere,” said Greg Sweetser, who has an apple orchard in Cumberland Center, Maine.
In Vermont, where the harvest is just beginning in earnest, farmers are keeping a watchful eye because rodent damage has been a growing problem for its apple producers, said Eric Boire, the president of the Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association.