Ground squirrel invasion

Two years or maybe 3 ago, we started having new holes in our yard, not the type with mounds but in addition to the mounds, were large holes all over. The things tunneled under our mobile home last year, now they seem to have come into our vents and under our shower pan. Any ideas of what to do?

We poisoned some and the smell was horrid. We only have one way in and out under the house and are a little afraid to send someone under there, with squirrels and maybe snakes by now. Any of you an exterminator?

Dawn

Dawn,

I have not seen, nor thankfully, not smelled, any around here for a few weeks, but we were overrun with them when we moved here. I caught a few in traps, and shot a couple, but they are hard to kill either way. I finally bought one of the black plastic squirrel poison bait holders, where you keep the bait available for them constantly, and that takes care of them, as well as rats and probably mice, too.

There is the risk that they might die under your house and stink for a while, but with the weather warming up, it may be the carcass will dry up soon and not stink much, or it may go to a burrow to die somewhere else. But the bait station i have has a tunnel across one end with a bait holding place in the back. I put bait at both ends of the tunnel as well as in the back. It only took one sack of the bait to clear them all out.

Good Luck,
Ernie

Well I guess I will have to try that. I will go look for it. Gosh dang it smelled. The one in the wall was hell, but oviously they found a way to get into my ducts. I thought I had some kind of haunting in the Winter. I could hear scratching and stuff under my shower pan and in the grates of the floor. thanks

I bought both the trap and the poison at Home Depot, but am sure they sell them everywhere.

Good luck,
Ernie

I have trouble in Chicago with them invading my plants and use Messina Wildlife's Squirrel Stopper. It is a rather strong smell, though, and you have to apply it almost every day. Not sure if that will help, but it's the only solution I know so far. I've created a post (in beginning gardeners) asking for advice on plants that might keep them away, fyi.

moth balls under your house will keep rodents away, the only trouble is you have to keep reapplying them.

I thought about the mothballs the only problem is the last time we used them with enough potentsy to keep cats off our cars, our dogs developed an almost deadly reverse sneeze? It was terrifying, when we got rid of the Moth balls the dogs stopped choking. I could try it but it is a little risky. If it does cause an issue, neither of us are going under there, with the squirrels and potentially gopher and maybe rattle snakes... I like the easy idea though. They are probably destroying my house.

oh, my dogs have never gotten near them. i didnt know that. did not seem to bother that cats though. and, it is easy and painless and no dead bodies to smell.

I tried the mothballs under my mobile home, and smelled them for months! Didn't slow down the oppossums at all. I had to trap them and haul them to the wilds. If you trap a cat once, you will never get it in a trap again...Oppossums, not so bright...

too funny about oppossums not so bright! my big issue was mice, and it does keep them away. dont know why i didnt smell the mothballs but it was never an issue.

I have a mobile home too. I have one crawl space and am not about to get under there to throw them way under and if they smell too strong, go get them. Where rodents are so are snakes. Nice idea but it won't be good for us if we can't get them out and if our dogs start that reverse sneezing again. Look it up on Youtube, it is hard to watch.

Thanks for all the suggestions though.

They are very destructive little critters, for sure. The ones i trapped were the strongest animals per ounce of body weight i think i have ever seen. Just vicious and powerful. I resorted to shooting them with a pellet gun while still in the traps. So, now i have put my trap away, and find the bait station to be the preferred way, but while they did dig under the garage, we have a slab floor, so do not have that problem like you do. I have only seen one rat, but the bait station apparently took care of him, too.
Ernie

We had one rat too and poisoned it, we found it out sitting all life-like on my walkway "dead". The thing I am afraid of it that they are under my shower pan, so they are in my house, in essense. The urine and fecal matter can also make you ill, not to mention snakes can pursue them within the walls of my house and come into my house perhaps.

I'm inclined to wrap all the vents under the house up and fumigate under there, if I can. The front of the home is so far from the crawl space opening. I don't know if it is possible. I would have to turn off the propane. I feel bad, it is spring and their are probably a lot of babies. I see the floor insulation is flipped down up in the front, so they are probably living in that, which is bad for us too next winter. They could eat through my ducts and wiring too. Good grief, I should tent my home.

I do sympathize with you, as living here is my first encounter with ground squirrels, and after watching them, i really dislike them as much as anything. They had tremendous cavities dug back under the garage slab, but the ground was sandy, and we were able to wash and push a lot of it back under. I seem to be free of them now, but it is just a matter of time when they will come back because there is a lot of brushy undeveloped land surrounding me. So i just leave the trap out all the time. I still have a gopher come in once in a while as the neighbors have them, but i put poison in their tunnel immediately, and then go back in a couple of days and tamp the tunnels shut. The last 3 or 4 have either died from the poison, been crushed from the tamping, or moved on to a friendlier place. I hope you find something that works for your situation.

Ernie

Well I relate to all of the above and all the measures taken too. Good grief. I gues we overtook their domaine first, they are just trying to reclaim it. I hate what they do, gophers too but find them all adorably cute to see or hear the bark of the squirrel when my dogs are terrorizing them. I'll kill the dang creatures though. I must.

It is all a part of evolution, and the idea that nothing is to be displaced or allowed to become extinct is just not the way Nature and the World works. We will displace the squirrels and someday something else will displace us. That is the only way that makes any sense to me.

Ernie

Yes, I think it is we who are displacing ourselves. Lets see what happens on Dec. 22. Maybe it will be the scary New World Order. No mark of the beast for me thank You.