Take it from a former Brooklyn resident who knows his bagels.
Keep feeding them those bagels and they will fatten up real good which will slow them down enough to trigger the trap. 
Mike
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you do have a valid point there Mike.
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Happy to report that my first squirrel of the season is in the garbage can!
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Here is a pretty ingenious ideal for a home made squirrel trap.
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How is this humane?
What do you do with the terrified critter after you trap him?
Mike
At my place, Into a bucket of water they will go.
I know that seems cruel, but after dealing with thousands of dollars in squirrel damage to my house and out-buildings, I have no love for the critters. It is illegal in my state to relocate them.
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@J.D
I’m with you. Although I don’t think that this trap is any moe “humane” than the tube trap that puts it out of its misery on the spot.
I prefer a .22 pellet
Mike
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I just got my first 2019 squirrel today… I baited my Kania traps a few days ago. One down 49 (if its a usual year) to go 
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if I have to trap then exterminate that’s way more time than I want to spend on them.
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I got 4 this week and have been continually trapping them most of the year. They seem to be really moving now.
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So my groundhog is causing trouble again. Wiped out 3 beds full of greens and broccoli. Right after I had sprayed garlic and pepper on it, after reading that the smell would keep them away. It also stripped my apple tree of leaves. I’m at a point that either I have to give up gardening or kill the groundhog. I bought a Giant Distroyer on amazon, thinking I’d gas the burrow which is at my property line. But then I realized two of the holes are on my neighbor’s property. I can’t cover the holes without trespassing. So that’s a no go too.
Now I’m thinking maybe I should buy a small radio for the yard. Make sort of an enclosure for it to keep it away from rain. I’m hoping that human voices will keep the groundhog away. Would this work? Do they get used to voices? What am I missing? Because it can’t be that easy.
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Sorry about the damage. I have never had to deal with groundhogs so I have no personal knowledge of how to get rid of them. I was curious enough to search YouTube. This guy says his method works. Simple and cheap.
Thanks Bill. Totally worth a try.
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I learned a trick from a good old boy on YouTube. For a normal Havahart trap, you add a chunk of gutter behind the trip plate with an extra gob of peanut butter splotched on it. They get near peanut butter on the trip plate, and then see the extra gob on top of the gutter, and stomp on the trip plate to get it. I catch four a day!
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Groundhogs have built a huge burrow under some of my best fruit trees, so today at midday I finally plugged three holes with dirt and put a Giant Destroyer smoke bomb in the fourth, then covered it with a board and dirt. I watched to see if smoke came from any other unknown areas. Two hours later I returned to the scene to find that Mr Groundhog must have been out to lunch, as he had reopened the entrance. I repeated the process, hoping he was now taking an afternoon siesta. Haven’t gone back to see if the door is open again or not. I don’t know if there is a best time of day to catch them at home. If you ignore the groundhogs, you won’t have any garden left.
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We call them woodchucks, but groundhogs is appropriate given what they do to a vegetable garden. For 25 years I’ve had to trap them almost every growing season. If you know where the burrows are you can usually easily trap them, even without bait, by placing a live trap where they will naturally walk into it before their eyes are accustomed to light.
If I don’t know where they are sleeping, it becomes more difficult. I have to cover all the vegetables in the garden with row cover fabric and place live traps baited with quarter heads of cabbage and a trail of leaves leading to the trap (maybe I should try peanut butter, but rodents will likely eat it during the night).
They will go into the traps before they will go under the fabric.
It is illegal in most states to move them so you are expected to kill the trapped animals, which isn’t fun. It’s probably more merciful than moving them, however, as there is no open land elsewhere for them- where they can live they are already established and will drive invaders out. Maybe a tarp with a smoke bomb is the ticket.
The meat is pretty tasty.
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The only way to be rodent-free is to buy a nice pellet gun and put out a extra ripe cantaloupe and just wait for him. If you do not kill them they will be back.
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When I checked today, the hole was still closed. The smoke bomb is quite easy to do. I have trapped them before, but this was much easier.
I’m happy for you. Maybe I should talk to my neighbor and tell them about the critter ruining my yard.
How many sticks of Giant Destroyer did you put in the hole? Did the smoke get out much?
In the mean time, I ordered a small radio and pinwheels.we’ll see if that works.
You only have time to put one smoke bomb in the hole, then quickly pile some sod or dirt over it. If you seal it good, no smoke at all should get out, or a tiny bit at the seams, which you then quickly shovel more dirt over. Have plenty of loose dirt or sod at hand before you shove the bomb in the hole.
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