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Old 01-14-2016, 09:11 PM   #1
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Dad-gum squirrels

I know that this is a strange question but does anyone have problems with the pesky squirrels,I cought one underneath the slide topper today trying to make a nest? The fiver is parked under the shelter that I built.I am in the city limits so I can't shoot them any comments would be helpful,thanks.
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Old 01-14-2016, 10:01 PM   #2
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Pellet gun legal in your city limits? That's what I use around my property to keep the critters at bay but I'm outta town.
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Old 01-14-2016, 10:51 PM   #3
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Close up the slide for a few weeks.

Moth balls around here do not work, they pick them up and haul them off.

Do you have cat? If so, grab a little dirty litter and spread it on the roof, possibly on a piece of cardboard.
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Old 01-15-2016, 06:45 AM   #4
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Big name hardware stores have hawk & owl decoys. Mount one on top of the camper. I have a fake hawk mounted on a old shovel handle in my rear garden. I had problems with squirrels and chipmunks and it solved the problem. If you really want to go hi tech, they also make owl decoys that are motion activated.
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Old 01-15-2016, 07:08 AM   #5
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Pellet gun legal in your city limits? That's what I use around my property to keep the critters at bay but I'm outta town.
That's what I do with the rabbits around my house!

Dan
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Old 01-15-2016, 08:39 AM   #6
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Each spring the birds try to nest in the space under the toppers when we're stored. I plug the openings with nerf footballs and put "whirly-gigs" at the ends of the rollers.
So far no issues with squirrels.
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Old 01-17-2016, 04:07 PM   #7
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I have trouble with squirrels every fall! They hang by their toes and gnaw away at the facia trying to get into the attic. I made a $10 purchase at Harbor Freight for a small live trap. I bait it with bread and dog biscuits. I usually catch 8 to 10 every season. I turn them loose in the park or keep them for a good gumbo. I'll never be able to get rid of them without cutting down all the live oak trees on the property, so it ain't gonna happen. Naturally, I don't want to involve the PD so no guns in the subdivision...besides you have to worry about where the bullets go. No point shooting up the house!
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Old 01-17-2016, 04:32 PM   #8
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An old Canadian friend taught me a trick for Chipmunks. They burrow under patio slabs and generally chew and tear stuff up. The trick! Fill a 5gal plastic bucket about 1/2 full and dump a cup or 2 of black sunflower seeds into the bucket. The seeds will float and the bucket will look like its half full of seeds, which the critters love. Place the bucket near a step or something about the height of the bucket and place a 2x6 or short piece of lumber from the structure to the edge of the bucket. Sprinkle some seeds on the plank and step near the bucket. Now go to work or watch the game on tv. You don't need to service the setup as it resets its self. The victim jumps in for a snack, can't get out, swims for a while, and then lights out. Sinks to the bottom and the seeds quickly spread out on top of the water.

Works great for chipmunks and I suspect for ground squirrels too. May seem extreme or even cruel but after a couple thousand $$'s repairing a sunken entry slab or cement patio you'll feel more comfortable with exterminating the little buggers.

PS before implementing the "bucket" I used a live trap and relocated more than 25 chipmunks on my way to work each day and a couple miles away on weekends. Some say they find their way home, but the truth is they breed like mice.
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Old 01-18-2016, 08:59 AM   #9
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In one summer and fall I took out 117 chipmunks from my front and back yard in INdy where we lived at the time. Had a clip board in the garage and put a hash mark for each caught or killed. Considered the pellet gun and took out 5 or 6 that way but the risk of an errant shot bouncing toward a neighbors window caused me to switch to the "bucket" after the live trap was just not keeping up with the problem. The high count for the bucket was 7 on a work day and 11 on a weekend [from 8am to 8pm]. Count dropped for a while and discovered my kids were disabling the trap after I left for work. Had to suspend the war for a couple weeks until they lost interest in their anti war efforts.

I probably didn't get them all, but certainly made a huge dent in getting the population down. Pretty much took care of any future damage until we retired and moved south 11 years ago. May have to reactivate the bucket as ground squirrels are eating most of the corn around my am/pm auto deer feeder. I use the deer feeder to consentrate deer below my bay window so the grandkids can watch them, I don't hunt.
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Old 01-18-2016, 10:51 AM   #10
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We don't have any chipmunks down here in Southeast Louisiana. Between all the rain we get and the high water table, they would drown if they burrow under slabs and such. They always outsmart the hunters in the nearby Honey Island Swamp, I Always thought chipmunks were cute, but then I thought gray squirrels were cute, too...until they gnawed into my attic. I ended up trapping those & relocating them to the park. Several hundred $ later and the facia replaced and painted, I now refer to them as "tree rats".

I don't think your bucket trap would work on these guys ... they can jump vertically at least 6 feet into the air and get into the bird feeder, plus they leap 20 to 30 feet going tree to tree. They also seem to have a keen eye for hitting the mark when throwing acorns and pine cones at you when you get in range.

Yes, they also breed like mice. Like the chipmunks, they are all rodents.

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Old 01-18-2016, 12:44 PM   #11
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"tree rats".

I don't think your bucket trap would work on these guys ... they can jump vertically at least 6 feet into the air and get into the bird feeder, plus they leap 20 to 30 feet going tree to tree. They also seem to have a keen eye for hitting the mark when throwing acorns and pine cones at you when you get in range.

Yes, they also breed like mice. Like the chipmunks, they are all rodents.

Jim Knoch
Can't jump in 8-10" of water. Also use a metal trash can and same formula of water and seeds. Squirrels are smart but greedy and likely can't resist a free lunch. Also had issues with squirrels in my attic. At night you could here something running around above the ceiling in sons bedroom. Went up thru a trap door and there it was a nest with 6 small squirrels about half full grown. First messed with the nest hoping that would discourage the mom and move them out. Failure so I went to lethal force and popped all of them with a bb gun. Then layed the bodies side by side on the roof directly above the hole they had chewed thru the fascia under the gutter. Next morning all were gone. Like to think the mom got the hint but likely they were taken by hawks or something. Patched the hole and no more issues.

Also had a war with woodpeckers. I know they are protected in most places but they too were destroying my house. House sided with rough cedar siding which I found out was a favorite target of the peckers. Pecking for grubs in the wood or some think just showing off for the females, but they could pretty much shred a 10 foot vertical board near a corner in just a weekend. NOthing worked to scare them off so out came the bb gun. With my house as a clear backstop, I could get pretty close [30'] and popped several. Dropped some for good and others left in a puff of feathers and again hoped the survivers would spread the word. Must have worked as the frequence and scale of the damage slowed way down. Still had some patching every once in a while. Now live in a home sided with large horizontal popular planks with chinking like a log cabin. LIve in the mid south and carpender bees are a big problem here. They drill into the planks and lay eggs that turn into larva which are a favorite of those very large woody woodpeckers. They can do more damage than a chainsaw. That problem is ongoing and so far no peckers down.
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Old 01-18-2016, 12:58 PM   #12
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My Springer Spaniel used to chase gophers around on our property and take care of them. We had a few that were pretty smart, so I would put a water hose in one of the holes and the Springer would go around to the other holes looking for the exit and sit and wait. 100% effective... one VERY HAPPY DOG!
What a team we made, may he rest in peace.

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Old 01-18-2016, 01:47 PM   #13
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Bassdogs,

I hadn't thought of using a garbage can ... that would probably work. We have to watch for containers holding water down here ... breeds mosquitoes which carry all sorts of things you don't want. Like Dengue Fever, Equine Encephalitis, Kissing bug (I forget the virus name for that one), and now a new one called Zika virus.

I had a camp on the Amite River, near French Settlement, Louisiana and the wood bees would infest the exposed beams. Then along would come the woodpeckers and they would shred the wood into splinters while going after the bee larvae. They actually caused the roof on the boat shed to collapse over the course of a week's time. The game warden stopped me with my pellet rifle before I could take revenge, even after I explained and showed him what the woodpeckers had done.

Since I couldn't beat them, I sold the camp. Now the new owner could deal with the birds & the bees!

You know how it is, when it ceases to be fun, it is work!

You had better keep any eye on the wood bees, if the woodpeckers see them, you could end up with a shredded house, too.

Jim Knoch
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