If they remove enough bark, they can kill the entire tree. While creating burrows, ground squirrels can dig up plants, tunnel through your lawn’s root systems, and disturb the garden beds.

“I’ve got voles and ground squirrels, and they have been here forever, but in the past 10 years or so, they are really spreading,” he says. “You can put out poison baits or try and shoot ...

Rat poison and dead squirrels have been found near neighborhood sidewalks since at least June. "Right now, it seems it just might be an individual doing this," Ald. Maria Hadden said.