The squirrels are finding new ways to irritate me. They have taken to eating the flowers off of my franken pear tree. If not hungry they just chew off the clusters and let them drop. Three traps running. No catches yet.
Buy a big bag of sunflower bird seed from a big box or feed store. spread some around the traps and lead them into a tray of them within the traps.
If it doesnāt work replace traps with squirllenator traps.
This guy has some pretty good tips for catching squirrels with the 110 conibear trapsā¦
I hunt squirrels myselfā¦ my weapon of choice is a 17 HMRā¦ I have a 4x12 power scope on it.
at 100 yeards it will stack bullets. If you are going to eat them, very important to make head shots.
Squirrels are also very easy to catch in your standard box trapā¦ just place a couple ears of corn behind the pan and they are suckers for it. Put a couple of box traps at the bottom of a fruit tree (that they are raiding) and in a few weeks you will clean them out.
My dad used to have a couple of Pear trees that he planted too close to the woods and every year when they first started getting ripe, the squirrels would wipe them outā¦ unless I trapped them and I didā¦ couple of box traps baited with a couple corn ears behind the trip pan, and I usually caught two squirrels a day for a few weeks.
By the wayā¦ back in the late 70ās and 80ās I was a REAL Trapperā¦ long line on the River, catching lots of fur bearers. We used 110 conibear for mink and muskratā¦ 220ās for coon, 330 for beaverā¦ but those were only for specific situations (normally entrance to a hole, hollow log, den, etc) We used steel leg hold traps for mostā¦ again REAL trapping.
That was 3 weekends in Dec 1987. 101 Coons, 67 Muskrats, a few beaver, possum, mink, fox, bobcatsā¦
That is me with the Black Sweatshirt on in that first pic (holding a grey fox)ā¦ I had nice dark brown hair back thenā¦ that has been replaced with silver/white now.
TNHunter
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Iāve got two conibear box traps and one tube trap baited with peanut butter. Its weird that they are not even licking up the PB happy trail. They are just completely ignoring the PB. Iāve tried two different types of PB even the fancy stir stuff that I usually reserve for myself haha!! Iād rather not use seeds because whenever I put them out the birds get into the action and get keyed into the PB and clean me out as soon as I bait them. But I may have to do that. Usually these traps are money in the bank. They must be really keyed into new growth. Iāve seen them on the ends of the oak branches eating the new growth. Must get firearm but donāt want to spend the $. One of the box traps is sitting in the favored tree. I wake up this morning and there is a squirrel sitting about 2 ft from the trap on a branch munching flowers haha. Actually not really āhahaā.
Last year just as my first bloom set BIG BEEF tomatoes were turning ripeā¦ something started eating themā¦ lost my first 6-8 BIG nice tomatoes to this critterā¦ and on top of that I had some very nice Ambrosia sweet corn that was about 3 ft tall at the time (pre tassel) NO fruit presentā¦ and some critter just gnawed 4-5 plants off just above the ground.
Those are fighting words for meā¦ a couple days laterā¦
Coons love Jack Mackrelā¦ (very fishy smelling) Notice in the Pic that Jar Lid (then filled wiht dirt)ā¦ it had Jack Mackrel in itā¦ placed just behind the trip panā¦ Garden Problem eliminated.
You can think that I took him off to a nice location in the country and let him goā¦ but hey my place is a nice place out in the country alreadyā¦ and I would not want anyone letting him out near my place.
Mess with my sweet corn and tomatoesā¦ and well it is just not going to end well for youā¦
TNHunter
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Those never worked for me in trapping squirrels, but live traps do. My squirrels will occasionally get caught in a āconibearā (I donāt think thatās right) trap- the cheapest of lethal traps for squirrels but most avoid them. Live traps require the gruesome bit of killing them directly, either by drowning or to a pellet or 22 cartridge.
I donāt recommend using fish to bait for coons if you happen to live where there are any feral cats. Probably would attract skunks as well. Marshmallows are just as attractive to them here. Just put a few in a ziplock and put a stake through it in the back of the trap with a couple of loose ones to lead them in.
Alanā¦ you may be right about marshmallows being just as attractive to coons as very smelly fishā¦
I have a picture of 35 coons caught in one night on the Duck Riverā¦ with Jack Mackerelā¦ but honestly I never tried marshmellowsā¦ but somehow I doubt seriously they would find them just as attractive. I can smell Jack 10 yards awayā¦ a coon probably 100 yards.
Agree definitely on less likely to catch someoneās cat or a skunkā¦ the fish would no doubt catch those and possum, and mink, bobcat, foxā¦ in fact i have caught lots of those on jack mackerel in water sets.
Here is one thing to consider on Coons and Box/Cage type trapsā¦
Coons are smartā¦ If you bait the trap, and he can just reach inside thru the cage and get it, he will not go in the opening of the trap. He will just reach in and steal your bait and be gone.
Best to bait your trap, then use some scraps of plywood or some old boards, to cover the back half of the box trap, to sort of box it in, even on the topā¦ Then if you can pull a little cubumber or cantelope vine across the back of it, to help make it look a little more natural, that may help your chances too.
If he canāt just reach in and get it, cause you have it all blocked offā¦ he will eventually go in and get it.
It may help too at the entrance of the trap, where the first step from your garden dirt into the cage trapā¦ cover some of that cage bottom with soft soil, or strawā¦ make it feel more natural, but donāt put enough there to bother the operation of the trap. That door has to slam shut.
Good Luck
TNHunter
We bought ther Squirrelinator and the Chipmunkinator last year. They caught nothing. Iāll be interested to see how yours do for you.
Do you mean you use marshmallows to trap squirrels? Havenāt tried that yet.
They have been working well, in fact I bought a couple more for this year. I now am approaching 20 squirrel traps total. One reason why I bought more traps is re-baiting due to birds stealing things is a big problem and I want to trap in waves ā I will put out a ton of bait and trap dozens of squirrels (I hope) before all the bait is eaten by the birds. This year I bought special squirrel food, it is a mix of corn peanuts and sunflowers. It was the same price per pound so figured why not.
The birds can get stuck in the squirelinators, I had to free half a dozen birds last year.
Are you using the special squirrel mix in the traps? I used peanut butter and it didnāt catch a single one!
I used peanut butter until this year. Did you put a lot of mast outside the traps (on the edge), and keep refreshing it if some critters took it? Also put the peanut butter in the tunnels in plus a big pile in the middle of the trap. The squirrels are scared of the trap and you need to work to get their greed to overcome their fear.
OK. Iāll try again this year. Last year we had hundreds of chipmunks. Ate half my peaches. Never seen anything like it. I must be baiting the traps wrong.
Have you found anything that works for voles & mice? Those are eating my spring greens right now. Despite protection with screening the voles also pushed up and girdled 2 trunks on my largest fig tree. Thank fully one is left.
Chipmunks are sneaky. They are too small to trap by regular traps. You need a chipmunk trap for them. They ruin more fruit and veggies than people realize. They are cute so people think they are harmless.
They ate all my young seedlings if I donāt cover them. I saw them up on top of my apple tree stealing apples. Donāt let their cuteness fool you.
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I am close to some woods and was inundated last year. I ended up buying a small havahart trap and when baited with peanut butter and crackers I caught 6 squirrels and 6 chipmunks. The chipmunks proceeded to take the bait without setting off the trap repeatedly. I stopped baiting the trap but leaving it open including overnight and proceeded to capture another 20 chipmunks over a couple months.
It hasnāt fooled me. Unfortunately I am surprised at my own wish to murder all of them. I know thatās bad of me. Iād at least like to trap and get rid of them.
I tried with several means and caught nothing. I am either doing something wrong or ours are all members for the MENSA club.
I do have at least a couple smart ones living under my front steps and under the concrete of the side walkway. And another right in the middle of my lawn. The hole in the lawn I filled with water and it came running out and ran off for a timeā¦
I assume there are dozens more in the area who havenāt had swimming lessons yet.
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So far I have not had any serious trouble with squirrels or chipmunks and my fruit trees.
Most are a good distance out in my field from the woods so perhaps that helps.
I have PLENTY of squirrels and chipsā¦ and field miceā¦
I have had the need to protect lots of ripening berries on forest grown plantā¦ and have experienced field mice, wiping out hundreds of berries in a just a few days as they were first ripening.
I used DCon blocks (similar to shown in the youtube vid below) and very successfully wiped out the offendersā¦ for 10 years or more. They only got my berries one year.
I would not like the idea of hanging a poison block in my fruit treesā¦ but this guy does.
In my case I put the Dcon poison blocks inside a black plastic drain pipe, that was staked down to the forest floor. The field mice found them easy enough, ate plenty and were no more.
TNHunter
coons