OT squirrels in the shop NOPOL

This has been an ongoing problem, and I've stumbled upon a technique that appears to be working consistently for my location in western PA. Rodents in other locations can be more of a threat, carrying the hanta (?) virus. I've read and heard a multitude of methods at trapping and preventing these fancy rats from invading shop and home space. These particular ones are the flying type, gliders actually. Yeah, they're cute, but nature belongs outdoors or not where I am. The NG alt.home.repair used to have lots of posts about rodents, friends have related their own mostly unsuccessful experiences, and have seen the Backyard Bandits shows the BBC made years ago. They're very agile and can be extremely clever.. it's said that they have map/memory intelligence to remember how to retrace their route to stored food.

Mice are fairly easy by comparison.. place a trap on their trail, and you'll get 'em, sometimes sideways as they attempt to run over the mouse trap. It seems like they're too busy playing tag or grabass and aren't the least bit cautious about where they run.

I won't consider poisons as an acceptable solution. The only thing worse than a filthy destructive rodent is smelling (and trying to locate) a stinkin' carcass.

The pyrotechnic technique shared here in RCM about a year ago seems a little (?) risky, although the video would probably make it worthwhile.

Preventing them from entering or quick death are the better solutions, I figure. It seems that it's possible that some of them have a preference for this structure, located on the wooded edge of a small town. Deer often visit for the crab apples (and maybe the chestnuts), and ground hogs are present near the back edge of the property. Large oaks are nearby, knot that I'm all that familiar with the trees of North America, but I've found caches of acorns in the shop.

A couple of seasons ago I got a couple of the large Victor traps and figured it wouldn't be very difficult to diminish the population to a point where there wouldn't be any left that had a preference for this building. I got a roll of hardware cloth to experiment with putting large amounts of aromatic bait inside a cage with the trap at the entrance (haven't tried that yet).

I dunno if litters have been born in this building, but they seem to be very familiar with the structure. I figured these bastards have great night vision, so I got some artist's charcoal sticks to blacken the big white board that the traps are built on. Stealth traps, black on top, sides and ends. Big tasty morsels that can't be removed.. sounds like a good plan.

I've witnessed them moving around while I was in the shop (located in the basement), and they use a ledge on top of the formed walls for a trail. The ledge is wide enough to hold the traps, and when the trap goes off, the traps fall off the ledge, so I tie a cord in the loop at the back of the trap (the staple that the arming lever is mounted with) and attach the cord nearby. This serves 2 purposes.. the trap won't fall behind something, and it removes the trap from that trail temporarily (which might limit their ability to remember a specific spot where a sibling died). This may sound weird, but there is one spot where I've gotten numerous kills (same trap, same nut).

After seeing that peanut butter, cheese and bacon weren't going to be effective (to my astonishment), I tried corn chips, Fritos.. aromatic and tasty, but no luck. I was still having a hard time believing that peanut butter wasn't effective. Early in the learning process, I nailed one with a piece of non-garlic ring balogna that had been on the trap so long that it was really stale and moldy. My usual mounting method was to wrap any bait with a heavy cotton thread to insure that some tugging and biting would be required.

Among the acorns I've found, there were a couple of larger white-shelled nuts, that a friend identified as hickory nuts. I cracked a couple of 'em open so that they might release more aroma, and noticed a white nut with red skin. I drilled a few holes thru the nuts and wired them to the trap triggers by threading the wire thru the holes and passing around the bottom of the triggers. The acorns mount well on mouse traps, same method.. crack 'em open, drill and wire to attach. It's said that the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. When the traps fall off the ledge, hanging in air, it's gonna get a little difficult for them.

The wired-on hickory nuts have been completely successful. No bother with reloading more bait.

WB

Reply to
Wild Bill
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Out here in the Pacific Northwest, Eastern gray squirrels are classified as a pest. They are not native but most people here don't know it as they are very very common. The usual method used out here (pretty effective) to trap them is to first feed them for a few weeks, to get them used to finding food in a particular location, then to get a medium sized live trap and put the food dish in the back of it. They get in but they don't get out. An easy way to kill the animal is to submerge the entire trap in water with the squirrel in it. I know of a person in Salem, Oregon who has dispatched over 100 squirrels this way. He says it makes a dent but they always come back.

What we really need is more squirrel hawks. I'll add that to my list of hawks we need, which already includes pigeon hawks and crow hawks.

GWE

Wild Bill wrote:

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Hawks are beginning to come back in the Phoenix area. It's quite a sight to see on sailing majestically over your house at an altitude of

200 feet or so. And then to observe the total lack of visible pigeons for several minutes afterward.

As far as shop vermin are concerned, the varieties found around here tend to be much less begnin. Black Widow spiders, scorpions and rattlesnakes top the list. If you have a free-standing shop you want to be careful how you pick things up.

Rattlesnakes are attracted by populations of rodents, btw. Another good reason to keep the rodent population down.

--RC

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

Reply to
rcook5

Or some good squirrel stew recipes. Perhaps we could reduce the squirrel problem _and_ the low-income nutrition problem at the same time?

Reply to
Tim Wescott

I would trade a rattlesnake for a squiral any time i have them run through the shop all the time there is a hole i here them on the roof and in thay come one time one jumped on me that i scarey. The ground hog runs under the door and out the back he goes this morning i got a pc of conduit to see if i can work the squrial over..

Reply to
HaroldA102

Tim, I salute you! You know I'm a fan of "eating problems"

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Yeah, but now you have a cat problem.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

Take your pick:

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Reply to
Joe Gorman

The Vietnamese have a recipe for cat ;)

Reply to
Nick Hull

In Larousse Gastronomique (sp?), in the section under "cat" they warn that if you are _at all_ suspicious about your rabbit stew you should inspect the bones to see if it's cat you're eating.

So presumably any good rabbit stew recipe would work for cat. But really, it's inefficient to run all those squirrels through a bunch of cats to get your meat -- you'll get more meat just eating the squirrels.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Squirrel dumplins, MMMMMMMM!!

Jim

Reply to
Jim C Roberts

A Problem? With Cats?? Surely you jest!

The only problem I see is getting smothered under a pile of cats, if you walk in the house smelling of tuna fish... ;-)

We have a stray living under the house, which will necessitate a two-step program: Get the cat used to us, and then sealing up all the crawl vents again. S/He can be an outdoor cat, or even a house cat if s/he wants to play nice, but /not/ an under-the-house cat.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

I suppose you're right, although those rib bones are kinda pesky to fish out of the pot.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

By contrast, we have discovered a rare Douglas squirrel on our property. They, apparently, were once wide spread, but have virtually disappeared from Lewis County in the last ten years or so, and no one seems to know why. We don't see any other type squirrel here, but we have a huge number of chipmunks, which we feed regularly, although not necessarily by design. We feed the birds and the rodents help themselves. We're OK with that.

Harold

Reply to
Harold & Susan Vordos

Yep! I'd rather have the rodents.

Harold

Reply to
Harold & Susan Vordos

I think I heard that eating squirrel brains might be linked to mad cow disease. I don't know why I bothered to remember this because the chances of me ever deciding to eat a squirrel brain are about one in a zillion.

Reply to
kandr

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 21:50:30 -0500, "Jim C Roberts" calmly ranted:

This reminds me of a skit I heard a comedian perform once. He wanted to cure two problems at once, so he suggested distributing loaves of bread to the homeless folks in the parks. They'd grab one of those pesky pigeons, pull the feathers off, and slap 'em between slices of bread, curing both the pigeon problem AND the hunger of the homeless.

----------------------------------------------- I'll apologize for offending someone...right after they apologize for being easily offended.

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

The brain is a delicacy in many places, but you're right about the disease. Next time you chow down on tree rat stay away from the noggin and spinal column.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

Have you considered just sending them over to the neighbors?

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David

Reply to
David Courtney

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