If the birds didn’t knock off half of the food while foraging the squirrels might jump higher. The strange thing is that there is such variation in what wildlife do or can do. On one site squirrels don’t seem to bother to go much higher than 4’ to reach fruit and at another it is over 6’- these are sometimes similar sites near each other. Same goes for the dear browse line.
One of my customers who certainly is the type of man who elicits confidence in his mental competence claims to have seen a woodchuck beat one of my baffles by jumping 5’ from stationary- wish he’d gotten a video of that.
I try to discourage my customers from keeping bird feeders because no matter how they are made, squirrels get a lot of nourishment from the seed birds waste- this helps them survive winter and provided lots of food in spring encouraging two litters in a season instead of one. It also encourages rats and chipmunks.
These are mainly advertised for ground squirrels, but they will also trap grey squirrels, correct?
I read on another thread you are using a clear bowl with a rock on top of the trap to prevent birds from getting the bait. But do you bait the entrances of the trap? If so, how do keep the birds from eating that bait?
Do they really catch more than one squirrel at a time?
The Tomahawk traps I use are very effective. But they only catch one squirrel at a time. And Bluejays will occasionally enter the trap and eat up all the acorns, I use to bait the traps.
I don’t think Bluejays wouldn’t be able to get inside the Squirrelinator traps, but I wonder if they could stick their head down through the trap to eat the bait?
OK, on those crazy years where everything is hungry due to a giant mast crop followed by failure the next year, I simply spread a couple of sunflower seeds in the weeds by the trap- the squirrels don’t literally need to be led into them. I actually believe they see the bird activity from afar and investigate and end up going for the protected sunflower seeds the birds cannot get to but can be seen because the plastic container is transparent. One problem is that on such years I also have chipmunks that can enter and leave the squirellinator traps at will. I end up putting rat traps under trays nearby to kill them, but they often take the seeds in the trap first- but I do get ahead of the game after a few days.
I have caught two squirrels in one trap on occasion, but if you have more than one trap set up, and I always do, it is much more likely that trappings will be singular.
Pecans in the shell will discourage most birds and can be used to lure squirrels into traps if you don’t want to keep wasting sunflower seeds.
@TNHunter given you found the maximum jump is 47", if u put a 4"-10" band of tanglefoot starting from 50" up the trunk, will the squirrel be able to jump up vertically and skip that band of tanglefoot and grab onto the unprotected surface above it, thus make it’s way up the rest of the tree?
@tubig … i have never tried tanglefoot… never had any trouble with squirrels getting my apples (my older early mc that ripens june/july).
But last year my 3 yr old gold rush had 5 or 6 apples on… it ripens much later and a dang squirrel got every apple.
I saw him doing that when he got the last apple… he ran with it across my yard and up a oak tree.
I put a round from my 17 hmr in his mouth… and out the back of his head… made a good squirrel out of him. Did not get to eat a single gold rush last year.
The same tree has 12-15 fruit on now.
Think i will start by trapping them first and start on that soon.
Squirrels are pretty easy to catch in box trap… they cant resist a ear of field corn.
Most of my GR apples are on higher scadfold branches… perhaps some tanglefoot would help ? I have never tried that. Is it known to stop squirrels ?
@TNHunter i read somewhere here squirrels hate getting their paws dirty/sticky but i don’t remember reading a setup like I mentioned. I would first wrap the trunk portion with Saran wrap first to keep the tanglefoot from being absorbed by the tree bark.
Another option may be to create a mini eaves/overhang to serve as a fence using a rigid enough material that protrudes out about 3-5" around the trunk at 50" above ground (or more in case there are Olympians in the population) then coating it with tanglefoot along the edges where the squirrel may reach to climb up on. More complicated to make than the simple band of tanglefoot but might be more effective if squirrels can somehow vertically skip over and avoid the tanglefoot and grip the unprotected area above it.
