yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I've always had issues with squirrels when I put my trees out on the deck in the spring. Removing the nuts helps but that is not enough. Even without nuts, they dig into the medium and kill some plants. Something actually chewed through one of my plastic containers to get at the rots of some apples last year. I was starting to believe I had a opossum or skunk. My solution to the squirrel problem has been trapping them with a box trap and then baptizing them (not the sprinkling form). They are territorial and once you remove the ones living around your house, it takes quite a while before others in the neighborhood start moving in.
I started trapping early this ear but I was having trouble catching anything. I had to stop using peanut butter because I found cardinals would fly into the trap and eat it. They are not heavy enough to trip the trap so they never learned not to eat it. Next I went to mixed nuts. The cardinals just flew away with them. Finally I started putting the nuts in a mesh bag and tying the bag to the trip. That stopped the cardinals but I wasn't catching anything. I finally bought a skunk trap and put some sardines in it. I figured at worst I'd catch a stray cat. I also put a game camera out to see if I could figure out what was getting into my trees.
When I got back from turkey hunting today I checked the traps. The box trap with the nuts was empty but the door was closed on the skunk trap. Then I noticed there was a squirrel half way coming out of the top of the skunk trap. The squirrel had learned not to go into the box trap, even for the nuts. Evidently a near miss when it was younger. The skunk trap was new. It must have been curious concerning the sardine smell. The skunk trap was a solid plastic to keep you from getting sprayed. There was a small clear piece of plastic at the top so you could see what was in the trap. There was enough of a gap for the squirrel to start working on the black plastic. it was quite thick. It had gotten about 1/2 way out and got stuck. A curious stray dog cam on the deck and killed. it. I guess it was just a squirrel that had a pension for plastic that was chewing my RB 2 containers.
Thanks,
Jack
I started trapping early this ear but I was having trouble catching anything. I had to stop using peanut butter because I found cardinals would fly into the trap and eat it. They are not heavy enough to trip the trap so they never learned not to eat it. Next I went to mixed nuts. The cardinals just flew away with them. Finally I started putting the nuts in a mesh bag and tying the bag to the trip. That stopped the cardinals but I wasn't catching anything. I finally bought a skunk trap and put some sardines in it. I figured at worst I'd catch a stray cat. I also put a game camera out to see if I could figure out what was getting into my trees.
When I got back from turkey hunting today I checked the traps. The box trap with the nuts was empty but the door was closed on the skunk trap. Then I noticed there was a squirrel half way coming out of the top of the skunk trap. The squirrel had learned not to go into the box trap, even for the nuts. Evidently a near miss when it was younger. The skunk trap was new. It must have been curious concerning the sardine smell. The skunk trap was a solid plastic to keep you from getting sprayed. There was a small clear piece of plastic at the top so you could see what was in the trap. There was enough of a gap for the squirrel to start working on the black plastic. it was quite thick. It had gotten about 1/2 way out and got stuck. A curious stray dog cam on the deck and killed. it. I guess it was just a squirrel that had a pension for plastic that was chewing my RB 2 containers.
Thanks,
Jack
