Squirrels and bats are ruining my builds

[dwaynerz]

Live traps, and take them for swimming lessons. Sure they are cute. They are also destructive.

 

[nicksnothereman]

Is there an effective way to trap and release squirrels? Maybe something I can buy. The are tearing through the insulation in my barn, eating the wires in my cars and defecating on cars pending paint work. I don't care to kill them, though my neighbor has offered to "off" them for me. What are my options?

It is illegal to kill or harm bats in anyway in Florida so my only option is to close the barn in tight and use the State approved Exclusion method.

Any good ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There's probably a noise thing for the bats. Actually, I'm certain that would work on them.

Squirrels, I don't know. It's not cold enough to be a migration issue so it's probably a food issue. Do squirrels eat insects? If they do it's probably an over-spraying issue. I get people doing it for roaches (you got the palmettos would be my guess) but crickets, nah you shouldn't do that. You kill all the crickets you get more roaches and you'll never eliminate a colony of them...never.

Here, if you don't spray for crickets you get little to no roaches; they eat the larvae. I just spray entry ways. They don't come inside. Squirrels like bird food so you could try leaving that outside but they might be smart enough to come back; the squirrels I had in PA seemed to be pretty smart, used to taunt my dog on purpose.

 

[James E]

Rat poison with peanut butter- Never touched it. Found two dead crows on my roof assume they ate some of it. Put in my attic and it drew a swarm of ants.

Snap rat trap- baited with cheese, nuts, fruit- they ate all the bait and never set off the traps. Tried placing the trap in a cardboard box to hide it they never went inside.

Hav A Heart trap- They went half way in the trap to eat the bait while using their tails to hold the trap open. Did catch two birds in the trap.

Glue traps- Killed one flying squirrel who stuck to it with a blow gun. One gray squirrel got stuck to it, but ate his foot off to get free. Caught so many birds that my wife made me stop using them.

I have nails in a few oak trees about six feet up. I buy rat poison and hang it on the nails. Squirrels eat it up but it's too high for dogs or most other animals to get to it.

Snap traps and live traps are more effective when baited with peanut butter. The squirrels have a light touch and can remove hard bait. Smear peanut butter on the top and bottom of the trap's trigger and they have to claw and lick every bit of the peanut butter off--maximizing the chance that they spring the trap.

If you're using a Hav-a-hart trap and they're eating the bait while they're half in the trap, you're using too small a trap. Go to a larger size. Also, they will often reach in from the side of the trap through the wire to get at the bait. This springs the trap and renders it useless. I have wrapped all of my live traps with thin sheet metal around the triggers, so that the squirrels have to enter the trap to get at the bait.

Question: Will a 17 cal. air gun delivering 1200 feet per second kill squirrels? Ruger has one selling for $90. I don't know if it's Made in USA or not. Supposed to be quiet. Comes with a 4x scope.

A .177 air gun moving pellets at 1200 fps will easily kill a squirrel. Most guns that advertise this velocity will actually shoot a standard pellet at between 900 and 1000 fps, by the way. A BB or pellet gun that shoots 600 fps will easily kill a squirrel. The farther you go below that and your range starts to get limited. You can still kill them, but you can't reach out and touch them like you can with a more powerful rifle.

HTH, James

 

[vertguy]

I resorted to a pellet gun to deal with the never ending barrage of ground squirrels digging holes in the landscaping. It does take some patience, but it is was much more fun than trying to trap them. I took out 18 this summer, so it will be interesting to see come spring how many are still around.

But I did go overboard with the whole air gun thing as I quickly found out it was just like any other hobby. After modifying several lower end Crosman's, I dumped way more than I ever thought was possible on a pre-charged pneumatic air gun. But man is it fun to shoot!

 

[MDSPHOTO]

I have nails in a few oak trees about six feet up. I buy rat poison and hang it on the nails. Squirrels eat it up but it's too high for dogs or most other animals to get to it.

Snap traps and live traps are more effective when baited with peanut butter. The squirrels have a light touch and can remove hard bait. Smear peanut butter on the top and bottom of the trap's trigger and they have to claw and lick every bit of the peanut butter off--maximizing the chance that they spring the trap.

If you're using a Hav-a-hart trap and they're eating the bait while they're half in the trap, you're using too small a trap. Go to a larger size. Also, they will often reach in from the side of the trap through the wire to get at the bait. This springs the trap and renders it useless. I have wrapped all of my live traps with thin sheet metal around the triggers, so that the squirrels have to enter the trap to get at the bait.



A .177 air gun moving pellets at 1200 fps will easily kill a squirrel. Most guns that advertise this velocity will actually shoot a standard pellet at between 900 and 1000 fps, by the way. A BB or pellet gun that shoots 600 fps will easily kill a squirrel. The farther you go below that and your range starts to get limited. You can still kill them, but you can't reach out and touch them like you can with a more powerful rifle.

HTH, James

Tried peanut butter on the snap traps, but they never touched it and got more ants.

Success this morning on one of the Hav-a-Heat traps I was laying in bed and heard it close shut, went out to find a small squirrel stuck inside. YES!

I take your point that I need a much larger trap to get those big ones.