Squirrels...@&$?

To follow up on the squirrelinator, I have averaged two per day since I started trapping, up to 8 now total. I am definitely impressed with the traps. I caught 2 in one trap today for the first time.

One thing I learned to do was put a “line” of peanut butter on the wire that is right under the entrance, then they lick that in in in to the trap. It seems like I’m getting better results with that, there are fewer squirrels since I trapped a bunch but I am still getting them. So far the birds are eating the sunflower seeds outside the trap but the peanut butter lines and all bait in the trap middle is untouched by the birds.

8 down 40 to go for the year…

5 Likes

Three up, three down (one at a time!) and yes, 40 to go …

I’ll go for a stretch without seeing them, and then two or three will start competing for tree space in our maples. Right now they’re mating and I particularly want to interrupt that cycle. They are at their most vulnerable right now as their food stores and fat are declining and they’ll be a little less cautious during mating season. So this is a good “stitch in time saves nine” kind of situation.

By the way, don’t refer to the traps as “squirrel traps”. Call them “Rat Traps” -it puts things in a more accurate perspective!

6 Likes

Sounds like this trap is better than the tube trap?

Disposing of the squirrels is easier with the lethal traps. If the tube trap U was not getting bent and the birds were not stealing the bait I would prefer the tube and Kania traps, but overall I might be liking these squirrelinators the most. They also seem a bit more effective overall, no mis-firings at all since the mechanism is so simple.

One thing I meant to mention was on one of the traps I missed a squirrel in that evening, and a fox came in the night and a neighbor emailed around the next morning asking whose squirrel trap was in the middle of the street… The trap was 50’ from where I had set it - ! Anyway the moral is they need to be checked carefully every single evening, either that or nail them down well. The trap is still in good shape in spite of the abuse so the durability appears excellent.

3 Likes

What is the average price of the squirrelinator? I can get one locally but not sure if it’s a good price.

I wonder if this would work?

7 Likes

They work great for mice. It would have to be a very large container for squirrels though

1 Like

That’s a rat, isn’t it?

1 Like

I bet a trash can or something that size would be big enough but I would say that squirrels have a much greater sense of balance and ability to jump that they might not fall in. The clumsy squirrels probably don’t get a chance to pass on their genes, lol

5 Likes

they compost nicely. even the bones are gone in a few months in the middle of the pile. :wink:

2 Likes

I picked this one off of the top rail of the pipe fence. The half grown kitten seemed to enjoy it and maybe it learned a little about what it is supposed to be eating

11 Likes

Oh, I was about to say - What a Cat!

1 Like

Maybe when she gets a little bigger

Not much bigger than the squirrel now

1 Like

Just one guy, but i dispose of them in white wine, garlic, tomatoes…

Honestly my issues with squirrel as dinner are that they are smaller than rabbits and that the hair is remarkably persistent. That said slowly simmered a couple hrs in almost any fricasse or cacciatore-type recipe, they are by flavor WAY better than rabbit. Way way better…

And to the up-thread poster: i also shoot them; my patience is kinda finite to wait for them to die of old age, and there is a dearth of apex predators here…

4 Likes

tough cat! those grays are pretty big. mine tried to catch a mallard duck last spring in my yard. she hung on thru the air for about 20ft. before falling of into the water in the ditch! i laughed about that all day!

1 Like

The cat had some help from a 22

2 Likes

Can a gray squirrel get through a 1.5 inch opening?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Cv-r5dIVs. This video may help .

1 Like