Trapping Squirrels

How To Trap Squirrels

squirrel trapSince You are now aware of the dangers of these animals living in your home lets learn how to properly eliminate them from the area they are causing you problems.

Live Traps

You will find this to be the most humane way to remove problematic squirrels from your home. It’s very easy to do and can generally be done within a few days. There are several brands of live traps on the market that will work for these small animals. I won’t get into how these traps function, but I will tell you how to place them properly in order to take care of your pest problem.

Baits: I have found the best bait is peanut butter on bread or crackers. All squirrels love nuts, so they will naturally be attracted to peanut butter. You can also use a variety of other foods that should get results, since most of these animals are not picky eaters.

Finding the perfect location to trap squirrels: You should be able to identify the normal travel routes of these critters. They will often frequently pop out first thing in the morning and spend most of the day up in the trees.
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Locations For Placing a Trap:

  1. You may be able to identify specific routes that they are using by looking for small trails in the grass and snow.
  2. If the problem squirrels are in your attic, then it would be a good idea to place a trap right in the attic and see if they respond to it.
  3. This might seem obvious, but squirrels love to frequent bird feeders! If you have a bird food dispenser I would highly recommend placing a trap near it. The birds should be light enough to not set of the trap and become caught, so that should not be an issue. Birds cannot smell as good and are not quite as curious as squirrels, so it would be unlikely to have an incidental catch anyway.
  4. Placing the trap directly over the entry/exit hole used by the squirrels: This is a great technique! The squirrels will try to leave out their only exit and you will have it blocked with a trap. They will eventually have to leave, so this method should be nearly foolproof! However they could potentially hole up in your attic for days before they finally fall victim to your trapping.

    Squirrel trapping technique

    Often times the best strategy for trapping squirrels is to place the trap directly over their exit/entry hole.

Trap Shy Squirrels: In the event of having a particularly shy specimen that won’t enter your trap, you can often give it a more natural appearance by masking it with sticks and brush. This will make the animal much less reluctant to pop in your live trap and have himself a peanut butter sandwich. If your arch nemesis is playing really hard to get, another tip is to wash your trap with odor eliminating soap. This is available at most sporting goods stores in the hunting section. Many people say that squirrels are not afraid of the human odors and manufacturing oils in the metal of the trap, however I find them to generally be more effective if they are at least rinsed before use.

Deadly Traps

Well the squirrels will often cause significant damage and hardcore trapping is the only way to motivate them to leave. Here I will outline a few different trap styles and allow you to make your decision on the best type to remove your squirrels.

Rat Traps: If you are targeting smaller species, such as the red squirrel or even chipmunks,  the rat trap should be all it takes to eliminate your problem. You can place the trap in a high traffic area of the squirrels and apply a generous amount of peanut butter to the trigger. As with all trapping, you will need to be aware of the other animals in the area! Does your neighbor have a small purse pooch who likes to pee in your yard? If so you should consider placing this trap in an area where it cannot be accessed by him.

110 Conibear Traps: With these traps you will really need to know what you are doing in order to successfully trap only problem target species without killing anything else. These will absolutely kill small dogs and cats as well, so they will need to be placed directly in the problem area where there is no risk of killing other animals.

Traps can be an efficient means of squirrel removal, however you will need to exercise caution and common sense when using deadly traps.
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