How to get rid of squirrels (house, college, low cost)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I need to get rid of a couple of them, what's the best way to do it? All methods will be considered, including illegal and inhumane.

[MRNorthSide]

I would get a pellet gun. If you prefer even more illegal methods, there is always poison. Good luck!

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Slig

I need to get rid of a couple of them, what's the best way to do it? All methods will be considered, including illegal and inhumane.

Do it Mythbusters-style. Make a snare out of det cord.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by MRNorthSide

I would get a pellet gun. If you prefer even more illegal methods, there is always poison. Good luck!

I don't own a pellet gun so the cost of one would have to be put into consideration if I couldn't find anyone to lend me one. Also, the squirrel is burrowing into the roof of my house through a small hole so getting into a position where the squirrel is visible and in a position where I have a clear shot would be difficult.

The poison is definitely an option I would consider. Although my concern is sticking poison into my roof with the possibility it could leak into the house and poison my family. I could try placing it in the yard too but once again there is the concern it could get into the ground soil or into the tree roots or something. I don't want to kill or contaminate my yard in the process.

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Do it Mythbusters-style. Make a snare out of det cord.

I have no idea what you're talking about but this method sounds interesting. I'd like to hear more about it.

[MRNorthSide]

Although it is certainly not healthy, D-CON (highly recommended) is not as lethal as some people seem to think. I know of a dog who ate an entire tray, and he was fine.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Slig

I have no idea what you're talking about but this method sounds interesting. I'd like to hear more about it.

This is a snare.

This is det cord (aka primacord, detonating cord, etc.).

We used to use it as part of the extraction process for large granite blocks back when I worked during the summer at our family's granite quarry (since sold) in the mid-1980's.

One cuts around a roughly 20' w x 20' d x 10' h block of granite using either a water cutter or a "burner" (big blowtorch which flakes off the granite), drills a series of approx 2.5" diameter holes under it roughly 12" apart using a large horizontal rock drill called a "lifter" (a jackhammer on steroids), inserts primacord in all of the holes for their full length, gets the heck OUT of the quarry hole to someplace safe, and then detonates the stuff electronically from a fair distance.

The whole earth moves with enough of that stuff. It burns at something like 20,000 feet per second, and the force is enough (and spread uniformly enough) to crack the rock at the perforation AND lift the whole 50-to-70-ton block up and over a foot or so.

It impressed me rather a lot as a young college kid, and I've heard many stories about farmers using it to cut trees down, etc. It's a very interesting explosive.

Anyway -- if you could time it to go off at the point when the snare snaps shut, I suspect your problem critter would simply disappear.

The mythbusters reference was simply because the folks on that show seem to like big booms, and they've used det cord before on the show to make something go away. I don't remember what it was, though. A moped? A bike? It had two wheels. Had.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

my budget is far too low for that. I don't even find the $40 squirrel trap method practical.

[aperfectbass]

One thing I heard that is low cost is placing dog or cat hair near the hole its burrowing into. The threat of a predator is apparently enough to get them to move. Watch out, though, squirrells usually have a litter around this time of year, too.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Yeah, I'm hoping that isn't the case. I'm going to get somebody to lend me a few squirrel traps and see if that doesn't do that trick. I'll drop them off at Lake Nokomis and hope they don't come back.

[green_mariner]

The one thing that comes to mind when it comes to getting rid of some squirrels is a squirrel hunt. Hunting and eating them.