But he's SO cute

Stekay

<a href="http://www.newser.com/story/185244/squirrel-causes-300k-in-damage.html">http://www.newser.com/story/185244/squirrel-causes-300k-in-damage.html</a>

icesailor

Cute:

Arboreal Rodents/Tree Rats.

KC_Jones

Utilities

When I worked for the power company we actually had a squirrel damage prevention program.  Those damn things love chewing on power lines and knocking out the power.  Where I work now used to have major problems with the power going out all the time and had to do something about the squirrels also.  It's never ending with them.

icesailor

Coyotes:

One of the few good uses of Coyotes. They can catch squirrels. They do it in pairs and catch them between trees. Fun to watch if you can ever see it.

Mark Eatherton

I saw one take out 10 square city blocks of power...

I was working on a low-high rise (14 storie's) and just as I was walking out the mechanical room into the alley, there was a BRIGHT flash, like lightning, except it was a severe clear day. All of the lights in the building went dark, including the elevator. Shortly thereafter, I could hear a sizzle coming from down the alley, and people were looking up and pointing, so I walked down to see what was up, and there was Rocky J, right across two primaries, just off a transformer… The local power company showed up (along with numerous fire vehicles to rescue people stuck in elevators)



I asked the guy from the power company what the resistance value of Rocky J was, and he smiled, looked up and said "Enough to trip big circuit breaker…"



I concur. Tree rats.



ME

RobG

Recipes

However there are several fine recipes for cooking them. Squirrel pie being my favorite. MMMMMMMM Yummy!!! 

Jean-David Beyer

Squirrel pie being my favorite.

Just avoid eating anything contaminated by their brains. It may be caught from them.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disease

KC_Jones

Just enough resistance

To cause more than just a trip.  If it was a dead short with a piece of wire fuses would pop instantly.  The squirrel conducts, but not well enough to pop those fuses instantly so they can take out transformers and other peripherals in the process before anything trips.  Then people are usually in for an outage for several hours.  What a lot of power companies do now is put covering over lines that have recurring problems over time.  It's cheaper than all the emergency calls.  It's basically just insulation to keep them from going across phases and chewing on things they shouldn't be.  Oh and it's not just squirrels, how about people breaking into substations to steal the copper...yes it has happened.