when i had a skunk problem i would live trap them then put the trap in the river. less than 2 min. they were done. then just put the body in the river. the fish will take care of it. no smell.
I thought that was you driving that big truck. I guess you hadn’t unloaded the squirrels yet. How’d you find my address?
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It occured to me that it may have been my amelanchier trees that originally brought them here. That may have served as an appetizer and since shadblow is a common species found in our woods anyway, the squirrels were probably searching for trees, emptying them as they traveled.
Finally a theory, or a guess, anyway. I still got nothing on why they aren’t going into the traps. Maybe because Drew already made them trap shy, traumatizing them not just by trapping them but then by driving them half way across the country. I’m not inserting an emoji for that silly joke.
All the baits I put in the traps are eaten by birds, mostly cat birds while the squirrels run around. I’ve used peanut butter, walnuts, sunflower seeds and cherries so far. I’ll try a trap mounted vertical to make it difficult for the birds.
Also checked my Redhaven peach today and all the peaches are gone except for the two smallest ones. Even the few largest ones I bagged are gone.
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I wasnt sure where you are located, but I have always been covered in squirrels here in upstate NY, but this year, Ive seen 2 sets of two over the past 6 weeks since I got back from Florida for the winter. I did however see a Fisher run across the road in front of me, and my brother has seen 3 at his place 10 miles away. I know they love squirrels and can climb the trees to get them and their babies in their nests. I had heard they were making a comeback in the Adirondacks and now I can confirm that. They are also the only thing that eats Porcupines by flipping them over and eating from the belly. Perhaps you have a resident family of Fisher feeding the kids.
20 years ago at our first house, we lived right next to some woods. My wife and I watched a squirrel run across our back yard, then a few more followed, then even more, and more. By the time it was done, I honestly think there were several hundred. It was remarkable, like a squirrel stampede. I assume they were migrating, similar to honeybees splitting a hive? I don’t really know, but it was a crazy thing to witness.
I only wish, although apples are also a favorite food of theirs. I believe that by apple season they are solitary, and one cat is welcome to its share of my apples for duties rendered.
They are in my region for sure and if you leave a captured squirrel in a cage overnight they can make a pretty gruesome mess of it without opening the cage. I’ve seen that at other sites, but not on my own… but then, I check my traps most every evening. I’ve never heard one here, though and their cries during the night are very loud and distinctive. For some reason, I’ve never had coyotes on my property either.
I did see a very strange, fox-like animal with splotchy looking fur of brown and blond colors earlier in the season that didn’t move like a farrow dog- I’ve seen farrow cats with the same kind of coloring. We also have red fox.
My helper saw a strange animal in a Norway spruce adjacent to an apple orchard in Greenwich CT. The house is next to a lot of swampy, undeveloped land. I showed him a photo of a fisher cat and he excitedly exclaimed that it was the animal. I told the owner to be careful about their small dog.
Probably not, these traps have very strong springs, but that could happen if a raccoon, skunk or another big animal tried to eat the bait in the squirrel trap. I stopped using my lethal tube trap when a skunk got killed by it one time, but it managed to spray my garage door before dying. The stench lingered for months in my garage and mud room!
Squirrelnators are very good, and are selective for squirrels. Havehart traps are very good too, but I had raccoons and skunks trapped in them several times before, which is not a bad thing. If you trap a skunk, you will have to release it, if you try killing it you will get sprayed.
Squirrels die very quickly (less than 10 seconds) if shot from their back into their chest with a 0.17 (or 0.22) pellet gun, faster than shooting in the head. In many towns it is illegal to use a firearm in a backyard, that’s why I prefer the pellet gun, in addition to being quiter.
I finally was able to catch two of the five squirrels inhabiting my front yard with the squirrelnator. I sprinkled a few peanuts around the trap and more inside, so that the squirrels can safely eat the ones outside and get tempted to go after the ones inside. It took a few days for them to get in. The other three squirrels which inhabit another big maple tree, are more cautious and are still resisting the temptation…
In prior years it took no time between setting a trap (with peanut butter, peanuts or sunflower seeds) and getting a squirrel trapped, typically a few hours and at most a day. Sometimes I got squirrels caught in as short as half an hour, and some days I trapped five squirrels a day. Oftentimes I got a really cautious squirrel that does not want to get inside the trap, those were usually conquered with walnuts, which seem irresistible to squirrels.
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were the walnuts in the shell?
No, I used the shelled, halves. We keep them in the freezer, so they retain the freshness of their oils, that apparently squirrels can smell much better than us. I put a relatively thick layer of peanut butter on the trigger plate of the trap, and then put the walnuts in it, effectively using the peanut butter as glue for the walnuts.
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Yeah, I had shelled walnuts in my bait mix.
I have heard that Fishers make crazy sounds at night . I have a memory as a little kid hearing crazy screaming coming from the stream behind our house in the Adirondacks and always wondered if it was a fisher. As for Coyotes, I heard them all last week in the fields behind the house calling to their pups as they train them to hunt. I saw two late at night in the spotlight looking at me as well. I decided to inundate the whole area with Wolf Urine the next day hoping to get them to relocate their litter and havent heard them since so not sure if it worked but oddly the deer are walking all over the area I sprayed so it didnt scare them away at all. I did put up the red, blue, and green blinking predator eyes in different spots to see if it would keep them away from the fence.
I’ve been picking zero mulberries from my Gerardi mulberry for the past 3 weeks because they are being eaten, probably by birds, before they fully ripen. My EI mulberries are now starting to ripen but so far I can’t find any fully ripe ones. I need to set up a camera to determine what is eating them.
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hambone,
An electric fence can keep out squirrels. The fence needs to be designed for small critters.
We use 24 inches of chicken wire stretched tight. Then 1-1/2 above the chicken wire you start the hot wires. I space the first 3 hot wire real close. Note the red wire spacer I made to keeps the close spacing. After you think your done, you need to walk the line and look for any opening. Our gate swings out and has a larger pc of fencing to overlap the post. The bottom of the chicken wire is covered in gravel. I spray for weeds so I can see any trouble brewing.
I’m picking peaches now and mostly I see bird pecks. I estimate we have 1500 peaches again from 3 trees
The chicken wire is ground. so weeds are not an issue.
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I have a similar arrangement but had it turned off for 2 years after apparently training the critters to avoid. But looks like I’ve got a new crowd to train, so will turn back on.
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@alan you can add me to the list of people with traps the squirrels are ignoring. I’m not as sophisticated a trapper and mostly use a small live trap, a tube trap or a drowning trap with a piece of PVC with peanut butter smeaered inside going into a bucket of water (I hate to use it, but it used to work).
With our drought, the critters are worse than ever and I don’t expect I’ll see a single pear and all the peaches are all already gone. It is interesting to hear from people who have almost no squirrels further out from cities, when we have a pretty much inexhaustible supply. They live in my large oaks in my back yard and some large maples in nearby yards, so they have plenty of cover from hawks, etc.
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I use a timer to energize at night only non fruiting times. Even without fruit, deer will eat the sweet wood! Full times once we set fruit.
before I had a good electric fence set up;
Rat traps only work if you drive small finish nails from the bottom to create a claw. I seen them wiggle out of regular rat traps. I would wire tie the traps to the tops of each scaffold. They were smart and just jump over the traps! I learned there are hundreds of squirrels to replace the ones I shot or trapped.
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For the record, my method has been a failure. If anything I think the squirrels have told their friends that they should try these new spicy apples.
Sorry to hear it. They really are a tremendous pest and seem to be able to get around almost everything.
Well, I’m harvesting ripe plums and peaches at a site with baffled trees where I saw a squirrel use a nearby bush to defeat the baffle of a single tree. All its peaches were gone while nearby trees had ripe fruit.
This is just one of scores of similar examples. I loose fruit if the squirrels have a way to launch from nearby fences, trees or bushes while nearby trees without such access are left untouched.
Baffles work for grey and red squirrels for sure. If you follow my methods. They pretty much saved my business.
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