Poisoning chipmunks and squirrels

[Zone6]

I thought in the Rustbelt they called squirrels, tree rats. But it looks like they really do have a tree rat as well as a roof rat, so decided not to be cute in the title and call the squirrels, tree rats.

Get a rat poison block, score it and snap it into two pieces. Zip tie it to a branch. You can also zip tie blocks without snapping, but I like this method best.

Sometimes bird may peck at it. If you have pets or kids that will fool with the blocks use a bait station. I like to tube bait station. The coons flip the flat stations all around unless you mount to the ground. The tubes are just easier to deal with and check the bait. If you don’t like the baffles on the tubes, you can remove them.

[Nothing2crazy]

Please don’t do this. We lost a dog when I was a kid that found and ate part of a mouse that had been poisoned. The poison travels and can kill wildlife and peoples pets.

[Phlogopite]

Not to mention all the birds of prey and small carnivores that get poisoned by eating these freshly dead rodents

[marknmt]

I’d like to hear what @Lucky_P has to say about secondary poisoning in this case. Can you id the product you’re using? Thanks.

[krismoriah]

Not sure of your laws in your state but likely not legal to poison squirrels…or kill them out of season… unless in your neighborhood you can hunt squirrels?

Anyways that looks like the fish flavored poison… so likely just attracting mice and rats and coons and possums to your home.

Regardless… this isnt cute no matter how you look at it. Its a slow painful death and leaves those animals likely under someones house or in their attic or eaten by someones dog or cat in your neighborhood.

[DennisD]

Agree with all, this is a very disturbing practice, rat bait should be secured where only the intended pest can get to it. If you poison squirrels or other animals that poison will transfer down to foodchain to whatever consumes those dead critters.
Please modify your poison baiting so only real rats can access it!
Dennis
Kent, wa

[BobVance]

@krismoriah

squirrels…or kill them out of season

Maybe there is some overly-restrictive place which puts such limits on them, but I think squirrels are generally considered vermin/pest. Not something that would fall under a hunting season.

@DennisD

Please modify your poison baiting so only real rats can access it!

I think that even if only rats could eat it, those rats could still get eaten by other things.

Now, if it was the only option I would be OK with napalming all of mother nature to eliminate fruit-thieving pests. But, I think there could be a cheaper and easier way. It’s definitely better for eliminating chipmunks, as I getting a ton of them. But I only occasionally find a squirrel in it. Maybe I need a bigger barrel…

I call it the wheel of death. It is like the America Ninja Warrior show, but instead of money and fame, the reward is peanut butter and the failure penalty is death.

Basically:

• Half-fill a barrel of water
• Drill holes in a plastic bottle
• Put a metal shaft through it and secure the shaft to the barrel
• I also put a bit of rubber take to keep the bottle from moving along the shaft, so the animal can’t pull it over to the side.
• Put a little ramp up to the barrel and half fill it with water
• Put some peanut butter on the bottle and come back later

I’ve seen as many as 4 chipmunks and 2-3 mice in there after a day. The above pic is from a camera I setup after I noticed that sometimes the peanut butter wasn’t getting entirely eaten- not a good thing, as it meant something got away.

I was thinking it could be a large animal, which could reach the bottle while standing on the barrel, like a raccoon. Or, I was applying selective pressure to breed a super acrobatic chipmunk, as all the clumsy ones died…

Turns out that very light animals are sometimes able to get away with the peanut butter. After watching the video for a bit, I did a few things:
1.) Apply some lubricant to where the shaft goes through the bottle
2.) Apply the peanut butter around the middle of the bottle only, rather than making a lengthwise line. The goal is to get the animal to go sideways on the bottle, until it rotates and they fall off. So, while making a lengthwise line is faster for me to apply, it is defeating the purpose.

This is likely cheaper than poison, since the only continuous input is peanut butter. And the animals don’t seem to mind the cheap stuff.

[alan]

I flagged the post because I believe what is being done is illegal. Such rat poisons usually have a label that requires bait stations and often they are not allowed beyond a few feet from buildings depending of the poison used.

Wildlife is also often killed by eating poisoned rodents, but if its left out in the open, birds and other animals will eat it directly and be killed.

[TNHunter]

Most States consider squirels as game animals and they have defined seasons that they can be harvested in.

In PA.

2024-25 HUNTING SEASONS AND BAG LIMITS

SQUIRRELS, Red, Gray, Black and Fox (Combined): Special season for eligible junior hunters, with or without required license – Sept. 14-28 (6 daily, 18 in possession limit after first day).

SQUIRRELS, Red, Gray, Black and Fox (Combined): Sept. 14-Nov. 16; Sunday, Nov. 17; Nov. 18-23; Sunday, Nov. 24; Nov. 25-29; Dec. 16-24 and Dec. 26-Feb. 28, 2025 (6 daily, 18 possession).

My State TN below.

In Tennessee, squirrel season runs from late August to the end of February and again in the spring from May 11 to June 9. The daily bag limit is 10 squirrels for both seasons. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) designated the spring season because female squirrels can reproduce multiple times a year.

[BobVance]

I checked and it looks that you are right. Thankfully, at least in my state, there is a homeowners exclusion for nuisance animals.

[smsmith]

@BobVance

there is a homeowners exclusion for nuisance animals.

same here, as it should be everywhere

[TNHunter]

Found this in the TN law details…

…

Frequently Asked Questions about Wildlife Damage Control
Can I take care of the problem myself?

Yes, if you are the landowner.

TCA 70-4-115 Destruction and disposal of wildlife—Permit—Penalty.

The owner of lands may destroy any wild animals, wild birds, or wild fowl when such wild animals, wild birds, or wild fowl are destroying property upon such lands. Any person, before destroying any big game under the conditions provided for in this section, is required to obtain a permit for destroying such big game. Such permits shall be issued by an officer of the wildlife resources agency.

…

With small game no permit is required.

If you trap some critter you are not allowed to release it somewhere else… reason given… spreading illness, disease…

But if you purchase a permit… they will let you do that. Money talks I guess.

I never release, take no prisoners… I either eat them or let my local buzzards eat them.

[Lucky_P]

While ‘secondary poisoning’ is a possibility - primarily with the second- and third-generation anticoagulant rodenticides like brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone and difenacoum, it is extremely rare, as predators/scavengers would have to consume many poisoned rodents in order to ingest a toxic dose.
Bromethalin, a neurotoxin rodenticide, could conceivably cause secondary poisoning, but dosages required for lethality are so large that it’s unlikely to occur.
To my knowledge, the Vitamin D analog rodenticides pose no secondary poisoning threat.

I have greater concern about ‘non-target’ animals being poisoned by way of having access to baits placed in a manner that don’t adequately preclude accidental ingestion.

Im currently up to 6 raccoons + 1 skunk eliminated over the past week or so, after the masked marauders trashed my chestnut & pecan seedling plantings. Squirrels will probably not rise to threat level until this fall.

[disc4tw]

Poisoning the hawk babies fledging from the white pine beside my house would be my biggest concern.

They’ve kept the blueberries and raspberries on my bushes without netting (again) this year, the robins have stayed away.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with raccoons.

[TNHunter]

Those blocks look like Tomcat brand baitstation blocks. They are available at Walmart.

I have used those in the past to protect a huge crop of ginseng berries from rodents.
I put the baitstation inside a length of plastic drain pipe near my seed producing bed.
It worked well… without it all berries and seeds would be eaten in a week once they turned red.

it has a Nerve Poison in it named Bromethalin 0.01%
It is not an anticoagulant type rodenticide.

[Drew51]

They have squirrel traps you can place in trees that’s better to use. What I like about these poisons is they make the animal thirsty. So mice leave your house to find water and you don’t need to clean up. I lock my cottage for the winter. I need a way to keep it rodent free for months. Traps become full and mice rot in place. As it will be months before i come back. These baits work well to solve my problem.
I don’t like that other animals may be hurt. But I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars to replace beds, clothing. furniture damaged by rodents each year.

[Duncandog]

You can contact the DNR about nuisance animals and they might direct you to a legal means of control. If you get caught killing game without a license or out of season you can be charged with a felony, so be careful… that being said many people snipe them with air rifles out of season.
As far as the poison, that is regulated by the EPA and there are rules that need to be followed. But more importantly, bait needs to be put in a proper container for safely. When exposed to elements they fall apart and chunks get everywhere. Those poisons dont cause a quick death, and if a dog or cat get them it can be awful. I do use them for voles and mice, because they do work.

[Coconuttree]

Here in Germany we got your Wash bears and they caused a big desaster in the wild life society of the birds. Even though it´s not allowed to kill them. Only hunters may do it. Squirrels are under shelter.

[Farmerboy1]

I trap out the groundhogs, racoons and chipmunks in that seasonal order. “Have a Hart” traps keep them until a pellet to the head arrives. After a few years the population subsides.
I know they are just “trying to live” but $$ worth of trashed fruit netting and biting through wire fencing was the limit to cohabitation.

[ECSask]

We shoot them; the ones the dogs don’t get. We live on a farm in the parkland area of Sk and you would not Believe the number of rodents here incl beavers. (Shot one red squirrel this aft and dog got a grey about an hr ago).

We use mouseblocks in bldgs and equipment. The damage they do is simply unreal.