Squirrels are cute, playful creatures that are frequently seen in our neighbourhoods throughout the summer months. You probably enjoy seeing the animals frolic in your front yard, and you may have seen them gathering a collection of nuts to carry off. If you are wondering about squirrel behaviour and where they take their tree nuts, here’s everything you need to know.

What Do Squirrels Do With Tree Nuts?

Squirrels eat a lot of different foods. While they are notorious scavengers and may feed on bits of human food they find outside, they tend to eat nuts, seeds, bird eggs and berries. Many of these food sources are not available when the weather gets cold, so you’ll often see squirrels gathering food throughout the rest of the year to prepare for winter.

Nuts make up a big portion of a squirrel’s diet. Although the food is plentiful in the spring, summer and fall, it becomes scarce in the winter. Squirrels instinctively gather nuts throughout the rest of the year to ensure they stay fed throughout the cold winter months. Specifically, you’ll probably see squirrels frantically gathering acorns in the fall to make sure they have enough food for the winter. 

Squirrels can’t eat all the food they gather at one time. You may think that they take the food back to their nest, but this is not the case. Squirrels hide their nuts in the ground so that they know where the food is but don’t risk other animals finding it.

Where Do Squirrels Take Nuts?

When they start gathering food to hide for the winter, squirrels dig shallow holes in the ground to bury the nuts in. This habit is known as caching. The holes squirrels make are usually only an inch deep, but they prevent other animals from locating the food during the winter. The squirrels return to the holes and dig up the food when they need it.

Most often, squirrels store nuts in the ground near the tree they nest in. This habit makes it easy for them to access the food during winter. However, the creatures are known to travel up to seven miles to plant tree nuts in the ground. They will scatter tree nuts throughout their territory to ensure that they have enough food to last throughout the winter.

Not only does this habit make it easy for squirrels to thrive in the winter, but it also benefits the environment. When squirrels plant tree nuts in different areas, the nuts have the opportunity to grow into more trees. If the food is forgotten about and not dug up during the winter, it will eventually grow into a tree. This is a great example of how squirrels are beneficial to the environment and improve their habitat by promoting tree growth. It is especially beneficial when the animals travel several miles to plant tree nuts. This habit allows for a better variety of trees to grow in any given area. It also means that these squirrels have plenty of food if they have to move their nests for any reason.

Get Help Removing Squirrels

Squirrels pose little danger to humans, but if they start to infiltrate your home or cause damage to your property, you may want to consider squirrel removal. Just as they chew the tree nuts you see them carrying around, when squirrels are inside your home they will chew on anything they can find to file down their growing teeth.  It is best to leave squirrel removal up to wildlife control services to ensure that it is done in a humane fashion. When you need help from a professional to get rid of squirrels in your yard, Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control is ready to help exclude them for good and keep out the mess they left behind. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.