If you can place the trap in a restricted area where the squirrel is already traveling such as a hole in a wall, gutter etc it can be sometimes used unbaited. And pay attention to their videos for best practices. I've had good luck with their squirrel tube trap but note that it is NOT a live trap. Over the years I've gotten a fair bit of trapping gear from Wildlife Control Supplies at: Could do another posts on the feeder solution if anyone is interested.Ī good trap for chipmunks, mice, smaller squirrels etc is nothing more than a 5-gallon pail with several inches of water covered with a layer of seeds and a ramp for the critters to reach the top edge and think they are in rodent heaven seeing all those seeds and then they jump in. They still entertain me sometimes as they try to develop new tactics to overcome the unsurmountable feeders, but I win every time. I still have them all in the yard but the population is stable and we are at a peaceable kingdom detente. Squirrels and raccoons are now at zero success rate after going on 8 years. My 12 year battle ended when I out smarted them & the raccoons, with truly critter proof bird feeders. Within 2 weeks though, there seemed to be just as many of both species back in the yard. Still I actually had fun and moved out lots of squirrels. Was a bit more time consuming then letting the HaH trap just do its thing but I could get 4 or 5 squirrels a day. I became very skillful at pulling the wire at just the right moment. When I saw a gray enter I would let it get comfortable as I ventured upstairs to man the wire. I would pile some seed in under the raised milk crate, set the stick and watch through the day as I worked from my shop window. All the hand holds of the milk crate were covered on the inside with hardware cloth. I gave up on the HaH trap and set up my own red milk crate hinged to a heavy board with a trip stick attached to a fishing line that ran to the 2nd floor window. Well, of course you know I came up with another location - this one involving several busy road crossings. They never even had to cross a road to get back and so they just geared up and bushwhacked it back to my feeders. Sure enough - as I learned - though I was bringing them more than a mile away, my mistake was that I was leaving them in the woods CONTIGUOUS to mine. SO I started spray painting their tales with fluorescent orange paint to see if the trapped ones were just coming back. Seemed like the very next day I would have just as many reds in the yard. I would relocate the reds about 1-1/2miles down the road. Still over one summer trapping session I captured more than 23 red squirrels and about 18 grays. The bait in the HaH traps was being taken by chipmunks and birds who could eat with impunity because even if they tripped the door, they could get out. Incrementally I would out smart them and then ONE would up the game with a new skill My trapping experience was similar to yours. I waged a 12 year battle with reds and grays over the bird feeder territory. THE ADVANTAGE is that the ones who have learned stealth techniques at getting to the bird feeder or other aggravations and have passed those skills on to their relatives - will now be gone and you may have 3 or 4 months of reprieve from the new group until one of those gets clever. THE TROUBLE with capturing squirrels and relocating ( or the other option - which is not ever a consideration for me) is that as soon as you empty the territory a new batch will arrive to fill the void - EVERY TIME.
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