I agree with you. I have used this trap so much and only bait the plate with peanut butter. I feel this just reduces a possible entry point by one, reducing the traps effiency up to 50%.
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I do it this way because you can bait the far end of the trap forcing the squirrel to go over the trip pan…pretty much guarantees you’ll get one every time.
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Bob,
How big is that bucket? I have seen more chipmunks running around eating my peanut butter bail for squirrels.
On the positive note. I saw a young red fox chasing squirrels and catching one. It made my day!!!
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Mine is a 44 gallon trash can. While I did get one squirel, I have some video footage from last night of one successfully eating without falling by running around the rim. Something larger would be good- too bad I don’t have a small pool for the kids 
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Chipmunks, I know from experience, can swim.
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I’ve met at least 7 which couldn’t. At least, they couldn’t swim long enough to say hi to me when I came by.
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I know they can’t swim forever when they fall into the sump pump well
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Yayyyyyy foxes are my favorite! Lucky you!
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Bob, I wonder if using a shorter bottle, say maybe 4-6" instead of 10" or so would be more effective.
I think I’d like to try this. How deep is the water that drowns squirrels.
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I’m not sure. The bottle I’ve been using is 8" long. I was actually thinking about using a wider wheel, so that they couldn’t stand on the axle (a non-rotating part). I’m planning to try out an empty badminton bird tube (I have a lot- my wife buys birdies by the crate), which are about 15" long. But shorter ones are worth a try too, as it’s unlikely I stumbled on the perfect size with my first try .
I’m actually alternating the water wheel with conventional traps. One thing (aside from all my strawberries getting eaten) that spurred me to try the wheel is that the bait keeps getting stolen out of my big traps. I’m thinking that the chipmunks are small enough to get in there and take it out without triggering the trap. Now that I’ve cleared out some chipmunks, I want to see if I start to get the bigger animals again (Raccons, Possums, etc).
I didn’t measure, but I think it was about a foot deep. Maybe 18". I didn’t want to make it too deep, or it would swim close enough to the top to get out.
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Game cameras are great to figure out new field mods. Additionally (to the wider wheel) you might try just putting peanut butter in the very center of the wheel.
Looking forward to your figuring it all out. 
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oh they talk, I was walking to the bus one day when a stealthy neighborhood cat leaped out and took a squirrel by surprise. The whole block burst into loud chatter from all sides with what I can only guess was gossip about how squirrel Larry just met his end.
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Wish I had a squirrel cat
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Oh, but they don’t remember. Yesterday around 9 am, a young red fox came in my yard and took one squirrels away for breakfast.
The whole backyard was quiet for about 3 hours. By noon, all other squirrels return to the yard having fun eating my bird feeds again. I wish the red fox was back.
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Perhaps it will come back for more squirrels
A fox would be nice
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No squirrels here so the fox eat my fruit. Really I’m not kidding.
I do appreciate the lack of squirrels…!!
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Fruitnut,
Don’t tell me a fox climbs trees. If it does not climb my trees like squirrels and groundhogs, I don’t think I would lose many fruit.
I’m not sure if they can or not, but the one in this story likes fruit, but can’t climb…
They can climb a bit, but not straight up
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