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Smallpatch

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I decided to become an expert on squirrels.. Its important for me to relocate these little rodents.... 

 

We planted 3 Almond trees about ten years ago and after about 3 years we started getting lots of almonds as our reward. This only happened one year then the squirrels realized they were good eating and not a one anymore for us to harvest...

War.... Last fall I started trapping the squirrels. Pecans seem to be their favorite food with almonds being next in line....I first put a dish of pecans in the cage...That started costing me for birds would find the food early that morning before the squirrels came around.. I got to change something for the cost of pecans lost as bait will end up equaling what we get after the squirrels are gone....so next I used only one pecan half and after building a flat little metal dish with holes in each corner for rain removal I started covering the food with screen wire... Hey that cut down on the cost... but next thing I tried, I pressed the little pieces  in the bottom of the metal dish so the oil in the pecan got spread around... Now I get to use the lure of one pecan half for a few squirrels for they can't get to the food and I get to use it over and over...evidently the aroma of the pecan oil brings the squirrels a running. The one caught yesterday made 11 this spring and usually by this time of the year all the almonds are gone... they are only about half old enough to be harvested but the squirrels eat into the green husk or shell and eat the very green nut and let the rest fall to the ground... 

   So the diversion of one half of one squeezed pecan is enough to get the squirrels in the trap before they go a few more feet to the almond trees... The pecans will not start falling out of the shuck until late October and we have somewhere around 8 trees that produce pecans so getting rid of the squirrels are very important.... We do have problems with Blue Jays, Raccoons and foxes but the squirrels go every day all day long hiding their bounty where the others all put together don't carry off that much as the squirrels.

  Just like wood working, or any other chore, if a person can't improve each time he preforms that chore then he needs to go back to brain surgery.!!!

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My problem Buck is I got too many people living close to me and if they hear a gun shot they might come to see whats happening and if they was to see a dead something or other after they faint they might decide to file charges and have me put in one of those cells somewhere.......So thinking about it and with me in jail somewhere the squirrel population would again get out of hand and wife would end up with no pecans , almonds, apricots, peaches and pears.........

 I am a good shot with a 22 for thats all I did in the army every day and all day long was shoot for I was on the rifle team. Bullet were free back then but I could get the area cleared out of the varmits cheaper than using a shotgun but hey I really need to keep  the peace and don't cause extra trouble.......

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Hatuffej thats pretty good advise.. You might could make a good neighbor.  Any objections to telling the world what part of it you live in.. For some reason I make it a point to look up the people who responds to my post but you forgot to add your where abouts????   Do you answer to Jeff? 

 

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I used to trap them and cart them off a couple of miles. Now about half the neighbors think their cute and feed them. Neighbors are too close to dispatch them with any type of projectile and I'm not good enough with a slingshot.

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5 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

Hatuffej thats pretty good advise.. You might could make a good neighbor.  Any objections to telling the world what part of it you live in.. For some reason I make it a point to look up the people who responds to my post but you forgot to add your where abouts????   Do you answer to Jeff? 

 

Hello Jesse. Thanks. I live in a small farming town in far northern Utah. Yeah, Jeff is OK. I've had to deal with various critters like raccoons and urban deer. The single biggest problem for the 45 years I've lived here is the neighbor's dogs that never leave their yards yet somehow kill my chickens (21 in one day) inside the coop and several rabbits (chewed through the wire cages). I feed my pets inside so the racs don't bother me. They run regular patrols, so I often ambushed them and they changed courses. I also shoot problem animals with a bow with a shortened arrow and a blunt tip. I also helped DWR live trap deer for relocation to the wilds.

hat 

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13 hours ago, hatuffej said:

also helped DWR live trap deer for relocation to the wilds.

Around here the law says you can't take a trapped animal more than a kilometer from where you trapped it! A squirrel, let alone a deer, would be back before YOU got home. :wacko:

John

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1 hour ago, HARO50 said:

Around here the law says you can't take a trapped animal more than a kilometer from where you trapped it! A squirrel, let alone a deer, would be back before YOU got home. :wacko:

John

I know that's true here for raccoons, on the property where you trapped it or send on to its eternal reward.

 

My former neighbor, AKA Crazy Squirrel Lady, attracted them by bringing up 500 lb of pecans at a time from GA.   Loaded the dozen or so bird and squirrel feeders about 4x a day, in addition to dumping a 5 gal bucket of bread across the street.  I think the record was 14 in my 1/3 acre back yard at once.  I learned to trap the chipmunks before they destroyed my patio slab.  The rest met Mr. Gamo.   She was a wildlife rescue and I groaned when I saw a strange car in her drive and someone walking up to the front door with a cardboard box.   The ones that lived, she'd just release in the yard.

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5 hours ago, HARO50 said:

Around here the law says you can't take a trapped animal more than a kilometer from where you trapped it! A squirrel, let alone a deer, would be back before YOU got home. :wacko:

John

The State Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) runs the program, so they have the authorization. They set out the live traps and volunteers monitor them, replacing apples as needed. They haul the deer several miles away to suitable deer range in the mountains. Urban deer have adapted to human neighborhoods, breed, and rear fawns. I once had 14 of them bedded down in my back yard. They can devastate flowers, shrubs, and gardens. A few die on the roads hit by cars. Some get trapped by their hind legs in field fences. I have rescued 2 of them. On rare occasion, bucks have attacked people out walking. A nice 3-point charged me in my garden area but turned away about 30 feet away. Now, I carry a long, stiff metal rod with a sharp point if I want to scare them away. Some folks have said "the deer were here first!" I reply "So were bears, wolves, cougars and Tyrannosaurus Rex!"   

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  • 2 weeks later...

There were four churches and a synagogue in a small town: a Presbyterian church, a Baptist church, a Methodist church, a Catholic church and a Jewish synagogue. Each church and the synagogue had a problem with squirrels.The Presbyterian church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn't interfere with God's divine will.

At the Baptist church the squirrels had taken an interest in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a water slide on the baptistery and let the squirrels drown themselves. The squirrels liked the slide and, unfortunately, knew instinctively how to swim so twice as many squirrels showed up the following week.

The Methodist church decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creatures. So, they humanely trapped their squirrels and set them free near the Baptist Church. Two weeks later the squirrels were back when the Baptists took down the water slide.

But the Catholic Church came up with a very creative strategy. They baptized all the squirrels and consecrated them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter.

Not much was heard from the Jewish synagogue, but it's rumored that they took one squirrel and circumcised him. They haven't seen a squirrel on their property since.

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Danl sorry about the late reply..  So far since winter I have relocated 16  and also 7 last fall and yes they have to come across a mile long bridge and smaller bridge that is over a long draw usually with water in it...to get back here One way is 9 1/2 miles. If they hadn't built a causeway to this so called island which I live right in the middle of, I would have to use  boat! Water is on three sides.....

 

   I did at first try to use florescent paint on their tails by Rustolieum  but after I painted the whirly gigs I build using bicycle wheels, the paint fades out in the sun very quickly... 

   Now after reading up on squirrels I find they don't hibernate and since they can't store enough food for a long winter, cause they can't remember where they bury most of it, they in turn hunt all winter long.... I didn't know that of else the traps would have been set year round...

   This is the first year in over six years our three almond trees still have nuts still on the trees. About the first of May they pull the almonds off the trees and go through the green husk to the very young nut and eat it and leave the rest on the ground.... This year so far we find no destroyed nuts anywhere. The pecans won't be ready till the middle of Oct. which I think is their favorite food even over acorns...And after relocating those 7 we had to buy another freezer for the extra pecans... Freezing them is the only way to keep the fresh  taste....

  I set the traps using the equivalent of just one pecan and I built a little flat dish from metal for the food then cover it with screen wire and the squirrels never get to the food... so I use the lure over and over again only occasionally rubbing part of a pecan over the screen wire for more aroma...

  This is the first time since planting 2 apricot trees 18  and 12 years ago we actually got to eat most of the fruit....

  I hang the traps from a limb with small chains so the ants can be controlled. I attach a small board to the bottom of the trap and keep it away from the trunk of the tree an inch or so..

  It seems like males are the only thing we get in the traps. So I researched that part also but the males do not help raise the young. They only mate then never see the female or the babies again except for mating.... So I wonder why no females in the traps???

  I got a license last year and it would let me shoot one a day legally but you know I just take time and move them to that area. When younger I think I did things differently!!

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