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Old 08-09-2014, 05:43 PM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,755 posts, read 18,026,558 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geneyus View Post
If you're interested in catching squirrels, I've had pretty good success with peanut butter.

A bucket half full of water with sunflower seeds floating on top also works quite well. Just put a wooden ramp off one side for them to walk up and jump in. Sprinkle some sunflower seeds around the base.
Whenever anybody mentions using peanut butter to catch squirrels or groundhogs I have to warn them. Always spring your trap before nightfall - skunks love peanut butter! If you forget and let the trap set all night; your going to have an unpleasant surprise in the morning.

Also; always check your regulations - before you set any traps. You can get in a lot of trouble for setting the wrong traps, at the wrong time, without the proper license.

Last edited by fisheye; 08-09-2014 at 06:48 PM..
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Old 08-10-2014, 10:06 AM
 
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I use the common hardware trap that has the two doors that fall after the rodent steps on the feed plate. Squirrels are a little too fast for it sometimes. It's about 50/50 on whether they'll get caught after they spring it.
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Old 08-10-2014, 10:33 AM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,755 posts, read 18,026,558 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geneyus View Post
I use the common hardware trap that has the two doors that fall after the rodent steps on the feed plate. Squirrels are a little too fast for it sometimes. It's about 50/50 on whether they'll get caught after they spring it.
I just want to remind people to check your state laws. Here are your TN laws: https://www.tn.gov/twra/pdfs/wallet.pdf. If you notice the trapping law states nothing about squirrels. This is a public forum and I don't want to see people get in trouble. It is always better to check first.

PS However, with a license, you could be shooting 10 each day from May 1st to June 8th and from Aug. 24 to Feb. 28th!
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Old 08-11-2014, 12:50 AM
 
Location: In a happy, quieter home now! :)
16,900 posts, read 16,049,624 times
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You will need to grow more fruit if you would like more fruit. The fruit you have now isn't just yours - it's equally theirs, too...and any other animal, too. Share.
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Old 08-11-2014, 05:00 AM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,755 posts, read 18,026,558 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rainroosty View Post
You will need to grow more fruit if you would like more fruit. The fruit you have now isn't just yours - it's equally theirs, too...and any other animal, too. Share.
You should teach them how to share! I have had three years of spraying and pruning and have not enjoyed one piece. I know it isn't all their fault - we have had some bad winters. The problem is when I don't have a bumper crop - they still eat like I have a bumper crop.
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Old 08-11-2014, 06:58 AM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
30,313 posts, read 16,066,894 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye View Post
You should teach them how to share! I have had three years of spraying and pruning and have not enjoyed one piece. I know it isn't all their fault - we have had some bad winters. The problem is when I don't have a bumper crop - they still eat like I have a bumper crop.


I don't know it it's a brilliant idea or a stupid one but could you put food out for them? Let them eat a bunch of corn or whatever and maybe, just maybe, they'll leave some fruit for you.

or not.
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Old 08-11-2014, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,755 posts, read 18,026,558 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PAhippo View Post
I don't know it it's a brilliant idea or a stupid one but could you put food out for them? Let them eat a bunch of corn or whatever and maybe, just maybe, they'll leave some fruit for you.

or not.
Bribery never works - squirrels take advantage of more food and then reproduce. They create more squirrels and eventfully people say: Enough is enough and stop feeding. Then they descend on the neighborhood and eat everything or starve to death. I have bird houses that our squirrels have destroyed - they either enlarge the opening hole or they rip off the roof. Our so called 'squirrel-proof' bird feeders always had problems with the side springs - the squirrels pry the springs off. We gave up feeding the birds - because the squirrels get the lion's share.

There is one woman that lives about an eighth of a mile from our house and she religiously feeds the squirrels and deer. According to your bribery argument; I should be picking fruit right now - it doesn't work. We have more squirrels around the house than you can shake a squirrel's tail at!

Squirrel's are one of the sixty known species that carry or help spread Lyme disease (they are host to the deer ticks).
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Old 08-11-2014, 04:57 PM
 
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
2,218 posts, read 3,443,159 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye View Post
Bribery never works - squirrels take advantage of more food and then reproduce. They create more squirrels and eventfully people say: Enough is enough and stop feeding. Then they descend on the neighborhood and eat everything or starve to death. I have bird houses that our squirrels have destroyed - they either enlarge the opening hole or they rip off the roof. Our so called 'squirrel-proof' bird feeders always had problems with the side springs - the squirrels pry the springs off. We gave up feeding the birds - because the squirrels get the lion's share.

There is one woman that lives about an eighth of a mile from our house and she religiously feeds the squirrels and deer. According to your bribery argument; I should be picking fruit right now - it doesn't work. We have more squirrels around the house than you can shake a squirrel's tail at!

Squirrel's are one of the sixty known species that carry or help spread Lyme disease (they are host to the deer ticks).
I can't rep you enough. THis is exactly right.

I have had to stop feeding my birds too. It is just too frustrating to me to put out seed only to have it devoured by a hoard of tree rats. They come on to my deck, poop all over it, ruin my feeders and steal from my birds. Oh, and they also claw my patio tomatoes. Before these thieves discovered my feeder, I had 4 kinds of woodpeckers, finches, cardinals, etc. After they arrived...none.

Someone once said to me, "Kill a squirrel and 100 of his friends will show up to mourn." I don't particularly want to kill them, but I wont continue to feed them.

This afternoon I looked out on my deck and saw SIX of those rats hanging out. I hate them.
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Old 08-11-2014, 05:25 PM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,755 posts, read 18,026,558 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FlightAttendant View Post
I can't rep you enough. THis is exactly right.

I have had to stop feeding my birds too. It is just too frustrating to me to put out seed only to have it devoured by a hoard of tree rats. They come on to my deck, poop all over it, ruin my feeders and steal from my birds. Oh, and they also claw my patio tomatoes. Before these thieves discovered my feeder, I had 4 kinds of woodpeckers, finches, cardinals, etc. After they arrived...none.

Someone once said to me, "Kill a squirrel and 100 of his friends will show up to mourn." I don't particularly want to kill them, but I wont continue to feed them.

This afternoon I looked out on my deck and saw SIX of those rats hanging out. I hate them.
Unfortunately there are people that still think squirrels are cute and they think that they have to feed them. They do not realize the problems they create for the neighborhood and themselves.

You are on the right track by stopping the food source. Perhaps a dozen years from now (if your neighbors also stop feeding) you could start feeding your birds again?

There was another thread where a woman had a problem with rats. At first she did not want to give up feeding the birds. After she found out the cost of extermination; she reconsidered. Many 'nature lovers' cannot see the big picture. I know that I had a hard time seeing it when I was younger.

Today almost every major store sells bird food, corn and sunflower seeds. The more that is sold; the greater the problem. Eventually there will not be enough food to go around and many squirrels will slowly starve to death - but that is probably years away. Nature does a great job of maintaining balance when we don't interfere.
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Old 08-11-2014, 07:51 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia
1,342 posts, read 3,235,866 times
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Some people think squirrels are vegetarians, but they aren't. They will often raid bird's nests and eat baby birds.

Young Naturalists: Squirrels - Minnesota Conservation Volunteer: Minnesota DNR
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