Thursday, February 07, 2008

Ahhhhh.....Nuts?

It seems that we have something very disturbing happening here in the city. When Katie brought it to my attention the other night, I just HAD to look up the story -

"Some hungry squirrels have driven officials in downtown Fredericton to pull the plug on outdoor tree lighting.

Non-profit business improvement organization, Downtown Fredericton Inc., spent more than $10,000 putting LED lights on the large trees along Queen Street for the winter. But the capital city's grey squirrel population has developed a taste for the plastic bulbs.

'They don't draw a lot of power so the lights don't get warm, and they look like little nuts, so the squirrels think they can eat them, and that's what they've been doing,' said Bruce McCormack, general manager of the organization.

Initially the association hired a contractor to replace the bulbs the rodents chewed from the trees, McCormack said. But with 18 strings of light on each tree and the apparent tastiness of the bulbs, it has become too expensive to keep sending contractors up the trees, he said.

'They have to find them and repair the breaks, so we're just going to remove them all.'

The same strings of lights will remain up in Officer's Square, where the city maintains an outdoor skating rink during the winter months, for now.

'We're going to try to keep those up and running,' McCormack said. 'We'll take a look at what we're going to do with the rest of Queen Street at a later date.'

In the meantime, officials are trying to come up with ideas of how to protect the lights or wean the squirrels off the plastic, McCormack said."

This article was done by the CBC News but did not state who the reporter was.

Okay, I have a few issues. What the hell are these squirrels thinking???? If it might look like a nut but doesn't 'taste' like a nut...then it isn't a nut! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Maybe there's someone out there slipping these guys some weed or else we harbour all the stupid grey squirrels in the province ;o)

Wean the squirrels off the plastic? Is Mr. McCormack an idiot? If the squirrels aren't smart enough to figure out the light bulbs aren't nuts, there's no way they're going to wean them onto something else! Whoever heard of weaning an addict squirrel anyway? Is he going to put up barrels of nuts all over the downtown area?


Downtown Fredericton Inc. spent MORE than $10,000 on LED lights???? I think they're the ones that are nuts! Why not spend that money towards something more beneficial. Sure it's nice to have lights around the skating rink in the winter but they already have some nice lamps around the area. LED lights stuck in huge oak trees are not all that attractive. Plus, how is he going to stop the squirrels from going after those lights? Signage maybe? LOL!

Can you imagine being one of those contractors that has to go up and find each and every bulb that is either missing or faulty? That must be good for a laugh and a good waste of the city's money. Maybe these squirrels aren't so stupid after all ;o)

9 comments:

Marita said...

Maybe the contractors who were hired to replace the lights were bribing the squirrels with nuts to keep them coming back and breaking more lights?

Crazy what councils do.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the squirrels are going to die from all this plastic !!! lol They should send those squirrels to school to teach them the difference between nuts and plastic !!! lol

Karen said...

It isnt just plastic they like the flipping squirrels ate through our phone line a few years ago

Velda said...

lol that story made news over in Ontario too...I just laughed and shook my head. Altho I laughed more reading your take on it, it's much funnier :)

Lori said...

If I were one of those squirrels, I'd turn around and sell my stash back to the city !!! rofl.

But yea... I'm thinking that the squirrel's brain is smaller than the bulbs ;)

Loved this silly story...even if there were no pirates in it (poke, poke)

Carolyn said...

Cathey,

You have such a great sense of humor..I love it.

Who knew we had a squirrel problem here in Freddy Beach????

I agree with you-while the lights are pretty the city really should put the money toward the food bank or some other organization that helps people in the city.

Rachel S-H said...

Perhaps the squirrels were like my boyfriend's niece. She kept eating well, nuts, LOL, and spitting them out. When we asked her why she kept taking them if she didn't like them, she said she wasn't sure she didn't like them til she ate them. She had a point.

Ranae said...

LOL!!! funny story

stitcherw said...

Fun story, and what a bunch of goofball squirrels. You'd think after the first one they'd figure out they weren't any good. However, when I do a Christmas tree I can't put lights near the bottom as my cat Bug will chew on them and eat them. As much as I love him, he really isn't very bright. Sounds like he'd fit in with your squirrels. :)
Sue