Clemson University is fighting back against an invasion of squirrels on its South Carolina campus.
The Anderson Independent-Mail reports workers spent much of December trapping Eastern gray squirrels, catching and euthanizing the 200 rodents allowed under federal law.
The squirrels have caused problems in recent years, killing about 100 mature trees by chewing on the bark for food and making their territory. About 10 percent of the campus' trees have been damaged in some way, likely costing the school about $1 million in the past decade.
Clemson officials tried a squirrel birth control program, but it didn't do enough to curb the population.
Biologists estimate the 800-acre campus has two to three times the normal population of squirrels per acre.
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