Ground Squirrel trap works great!

We have been attacked by Ground Squirrels the last two year.

I thought the cotton tail rabbit scourge was bad a few years ago.

Ground Squirrels eat tangerines. Last year in one week that cleaned two tangerine trees of about 3 or 4 bushels of tangerines in 2 weeks. I went to a gun shop and bought an air rifle. After a couple of real lucky shots after one box of 100 pellets, I gunned down one and think I hit another. Clearly no way to rid them.

I'm told that CA has closed down on the traditional rat and squirrel baits due to uncontrollable baiting formula for baiting squirrel was threatening other harmless and helpful birds small critters and even cats.

I was at the fertilizer store in Fallbrook, CA last week. I saw the Squirrenator! Ask about it and the staff was enthused. It is a humane trap if handled properly and checked every day.

First night, caught 1 squirrel. score us 1 squirrels 0
Missed 2nd night didn't set trap
night 3 1 squirrel. us 2 squirrels 0
night 4 1 squirrel. us 3 squirrels 0

I will be getting more traps there must be hundreds of them out there. I hear them, but seldom see them.

It's nice that there is a humane way to trap them. What's the latest score? We have lots of squirrels as well but I wouldn't know what to do with them after they were trapped. Relocate them? Anyone want squirrels?

This message was edited Jul 13, 2011 9:24 PM

My uncle in Wisconsin used a live trap to catch a racoon causing problems. He relocated it in the woods a distance from his home. Then, a friend used the trap using peanut butter on bread as a lure. When he was putting the trap in his truck to relocate it, his wife made a peanut butter sandwich for the racoon 'to go'.

My count is 11 live squirells two of them were very pregant. So we feel good and count them as another bunch.

Had I been very diligent we would have had many more. Out of town a lot due to family emergency.

All of these squirrels were trapped between 2 and 4 PM. So that is the best time to have your trap in place. We have put the trap out after that and nothing is in the trap till those hours the next day.

I left the trap with one squirrel overnight. Next morning there were 2.

So what are you doing with all your 'catches'?

I wonder if it is squirrels that go thru my back yard at night pushing planted pots off their shelves and dumping out my very expensive potted bulbs which I can then never find.

Or raccoons?

Or opossums?

Our neighbor left his Squirrelinator out overnight and the next day there were 2 bunnies in it. Let one out, but the other didn't survive. Where there are bunnies, it's probably best not to leave the traps out overnight.

I do have both opossums and raccoons! And even a beautiful skunk under my porch that is forever letting go in the middle of the night and my whole house reeks for hours. I bet you are right, since big pots are knocked over often along in an animal made pathway so a bigger animal must be doing it.

I wouldn't mind taking care of the bunnies at the same time. They cause a different list of problems. Did I miss what you do with the squirrels when you catch them.

I didn't say. But there is a watertight box that comes with the trap. We have found the most humane way is to drown them to help them to the Happy Squirrel hunting ground!

Bob

PS. We now have a count of 14 and have not missed catching at least 1 squirrel for all but 2 settings and have caught 2 squirrels in each of 2 different settings.

Have been very much pre-occupied over the last months with much travel and illnesses related to events leading up to yesterday's burial of much beloved Patriarch and incredible Father of DW (Carol' Daddy).
Bob

Condolences to your DW and prayers for your family to get through this.

Sorry to hear of your family's loss, Bob. It must be such a sad time for you all.

Thank you Quiltygirl and Kell,

We do appreciate your prayers and and thoughts as we adjust to the missing dimension in this family. I have known him for over 55 years and never had a cross word with him. I met him before I met his daughter (my DW for nearly 50 years).

There are few things worth being so sentimental over. He lived and loved for 90 years. A huge sentiment has left this earth.

Strangely, he believed he was born in 1922. It turns out that both his name and birthdate were different from those on the Birth Certificate. So he was one year older (at least by official records.).

Thanks again,
Bob

BTW,
Another double squirrel catch to add to the total --- now 16!!

2 with at least six soon-to-be squirrels in escrow..makes the REAL total about 28!!

Now we are getting somewhere!!

He sounds like a lovely man and how great a life he had to be so well loved and respected and now missed.

I'm so sorry to hear about your FIL. Losing a patriarch must be very difficult. It sounds like he was a wonderful person who was lucky enough to live a long and fruitful life. My thoughts are with you and your family as you go through the process of adjusting to the transition.

Hello thistlesifter,


I was plauged with ground squirells as well . Some of my experience was similar . I am surprised that you could not catch any before 2 PM though . I could catch them starting around 10AM through about 4 PM not often any later than that . I used 4 of the havaheart traps scattered throughout the yard (4 acres) . When I first started this year I was catching about 3 - 4 every hour . One day was over 24 . Some were double cacthes . even with single traps . (yes, I was infested) I gave up counting at 125 plus caught . Before anybody asks what I did with them , lets just say the local turkey buzzards were very happy .

Temps here were/are such that if I did not check the traps every 1 to 2 hours that the squirells would expire due to the heat exposure here , I live in the low desert . Looking at the site for the Squirrelinator I am impressed at its design and abilities . I will have to contact them as I have not seen it available here . Also would like to see if they have any larger models for the likes of cottontails . You mentioned above that you had a problem with those. What did you do to deal with them ?

P.S. best sure fire bait I found for squirells was peanut butter .

Kell,
Thank you again for your added thoughts/comments. It means a lot to Carol and me to hear those words from you.

TLeaves
Thank you for your generous expression of care.

One of the great things about the man was his enduring generosity. He retired at 62 from a life of commercial trucking. Then after formal retirement he continued a charity work that he had begun some 20+ years before. He supplied free food to thousands of poor people each month. He delivered foods donated by his wholesale food distributors contacts who trusted him from his trucking days. These food packages went to Orphans, poor Widows, Abused family retreats all over San Bernardino, LA, and Riverside Counties. during that time he loaded and delivered products in his own trucks upon which the odometers rolled over many times. He was never paid for this work. He and his loving Wife at his side did this without help till he was 88-3/4 years old. He literally wore his body out giving to others. He died after a long and happy life, proud to be 'poor'. He is the 'richest' poor man one can ever know. He was not proud of what he lived...he was a quiet humble man. He had been hungry when he was a youth of 11 and had leave school to 'Hobo' a ride on freight train to get to/from place where he could make a few dollars for his hungry brothers and sisters.

The suppliers of the food all but worshiped him! There are very strict laws about distribution of giveaway foods donated by such establishments and they new they could trust him!
Otherwise, if there is no trusted agent to take the food it is often destroyed.

Bob :>)

Lonediver,
WOW! I need to get those traps do you have a source?

A website that has a list of various formulas for repellents is:
http://www.ehow.com/way_5468054_homemade-rabbit-repellent.html

Still have a somewhat irrational distaste for euthanization of cotton-tail rabbits. I was raised on a farm where jack rabbits were often thick as fleas on the croplands. It was okay to kill jack rabbits, but Dad was against killing cotton-tails around the farm. Luckily the cotton-tails weren't very prolific so they didn't take over like the Jacks.

A successfully used variation is the linseed recipe similar to the one in above linked site. it can be varied it by using 3 parts linseed oil, 1 part sesame-seed oil, 0.5 part Murphy liquid detergent, and 1.5 part water.

Use of a spray-on repellent is most effective by just spraying it directly onto the the leaves of the plants. I spray them around the bottom areas near the ground and areas where the leaves can be reached from around the plant by the rabbit. It is used well after the rainy season growth of grass and favorite green foods are depleted and the bunnies have moved down on the menu to Aloes, Agaves, Aeoniums, and Crassulas. These are the type of things in our gardens.

I don't know what would be most effective around a veg garden. In the past we have lined the perimeter of the garden with elephant garlic and toxic non-succulent euphorbia purges .

San Diego County sometimes uses bird netting around valuable, juvenile plants. They staple one layer loosely to the ground on areas extending beyond the reach of the subject protected area. Then staple another (second) layer even more loosely on top of the bottom layer. They use the commercially available ground staples often used to attach weed block around bedding areas.

Bob

Last year I was growing veggies using the straw bale method learned here on DG. To thwart the bunnies, I covered the bales in bird netting that then 'pooled' at the base of the bales. Someone had suggested that, saying the bunnies would not want their feet caught in the netting. It did not bother them and they jumped up on the bales and enjoyed nibbling melon flowers and leaves, in particular. I then added 3 ft fencing hugging the bales and that worked. HOWEVER, the netting was, sadly, detrimental to reptiles and several were found dead, tangled in the net - lizards and horny toads. I had no evidence of ground squirrels around those bales and fortunately no gophers dug up the bales, but when I use bales again I will put wire under the bales, just in case.

Thistlesifter, your FIL sounds like a wonderful, upright man. He is someone your family has a right to be proud of!!