The gray squirrel season ends on December 31. So you better hurry up if you want to rid your yard of these pesky animals.

You need to know that a small game hunting license is required to kill gray squirrels, and the daily bag limit is 4. If you like to hang onto them, your possession limit is 8.

I am certain people kill gray squirrels year-round, with no knowledge of these limitations. Years ago, I wrote a column reporting that I’d shot 8 gray squirrels off Linda’s bird feeders (today she has squirrel-proof bird feeders).

The day the column was posted, a friend at DIF&W called to tell me it wasn’t the gray squirrel season. I didn’t even know there was a gray squirrel season! But that afternoon I posted a correction, reporting that I’d meant I had killed 8 red squirrels. You can kill red squirrels anytime you want.

If you are unable to get rid of your gray squirrels before the end of December, there is another opportunity. From October 1 to February 28, you can hunt gray squirrels with falcons. And if you don’t want to get a falcon, there are about 20 Mainers who hunt with them.

And here’s more good news. Shevenell Webb, DIF&W’s Small Mammal and Furbearer BioIogist, told me, “I hear grey squirrels are excellent eating!”

But no, she didn’t ask me to deliver some to her!