A farmer friend is having troubles with squirrels at his farm. I setup a few weasel boxes with rat traps inside and the only small live trap I have. After a few days no luck. Any advice you can offer?

Try and sprinkle some seed or squirrel food around the boxes, also I'd remove the front of the weasel box and position in a way chickens can't get their heads in. Small branches in front of the weasel boxes works good, squirrels will find the entry point. I'd screw snap traps up off the ground onto the structure they're causing trouble in or their activity area as well. I like to use lure when trapping squirrels, it helps to get them stubborn old timers to commit. Only downside to snap traps are mice will set them off.

I know a guy that gets good results using running pole sets when squirrels are tearing up his crops. He leans a 4-5 foot 1x1 against his trees and sets 110s, 115s, or snares. He wires or screws the narrow board to the tree to secure it.

No chickens to worry about just cats. His yards and shops are surround by a wind belt of pines and they are going to his steel shop and chewing hoses off fuel tanks and combines

Are the critters eastern gray squirrels or smaller red pine squirrels?

What species? I do a whole lot of squirrel trapping....

Should have said off the start regular red squirrels

If "regular red squirrels" are what I have heard referred to as pine squirrels the below hotlink may be of interest. We don't have that species down here.

Here is a link to trapper ron's tutorial on snaring red squirrels- https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads....irr#Post1126006

Unfortunately the link doesn't work. I picked up some picture wire today and will be hanging snares on crossing logs tomorrow. Have I mentioned rat traps are scarier then 330's lol

Revised link- https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads....irr#Post1126006

Wow, what an amazing link!!! I'm saving that one.

Question. I don't know too much about red squirrels, I deal a whole lot with California ground squirrels...and they're a force to be reckoned with. Horrid overpopulation and damage problems. Do red squirrels forage from the ground primarily, or are they more interested in collecting food from trees, etc? Asking because I use a different method...and it works great for ADC work if you hit them hard at the right time of year. I've trapped 10K CA ground squirrels this year. Things are slowing down because they go to ground fall to early spring...but once they're back out, I'll probably double that number next year.

Grey Victor plastic snap style rat traps, with peanut butter on the pan work very good for me.

'Annie, I would be very interested in knowing more about your method for catching Ca. (i.e. Ca. collard ground) squirrels. Anyone that can catch 10,000 of these things a year I am sure I could learn a few things from.

Hey Probtrapper, I see you're in CA too? You're dealing with the same thing-or Belding's squirrels? Nasty, destructive, germy little buggers. We're in plague country down here...dunno about up there-but use PPE...it's not worth getting sick.

I use repeating traps...they are 24" x 24" and have two center doors, directly opposite of each other. No way I could use single traps...I'd literally need thousands of them.

I bait based on what time of year it is. Mid spring when things start to dry out here, cheap, greasy dog food and lure. Lure at all times.

If the dog food smells like bacon, even better. By summer I've switched to a combo of the same cheap dog food, but add dry corn. 50 pound bags at the feed store are around $13.00, and also add black sunflower. I went through prolly 600 pounds of dog food, 100 pounds of dry corn, and 25 pounds of black sunflower this season. They seem to go for those items until late summer, and then they're getting real thirsty, so any non-citrus, old fruit (grapes, apples, melon slices, etc. all work well...but I still keep the dog food/corn/sunflower going.

Using a lot of bait for big infestations is a necessity, as more squirrels enter, they just start eating and stuffing their cheeks.

I get my traps from a trap maker up in the Redding area. All hand made, no cheap, mass-made Chinese crap. You already know we have two choices, dispatch on site or release on site. Takes me maybe 3 minutes to dispatch a trap full of them...apparently we're not supposed to talk about dispatch methods I think...(I'm still kind of new here) so PM me and I'll tell you what I do. It's legal, cheap, and fast.

My record in one trap is 25...in 2 hours. My sets are always in the shade...something they're looking for when it starts to heat up.

I made rigid, cheap plastic covers that I can pop on the top of them with a rock..to keep them focused on going through the doors, and keeps ravens from trying to get bait (or at squirrels) from the top of the trap. I often use the same plastic (sheets of it at Lowes, Home Depot) for a few bucks, cut them 4" square larger than the trap's footprint...which keeps them from trying to dig under to obtain bait.

I'll edit my post when I find the link-his web site is sort of old...and I don't want to give you the wrong link!

These traps show a 1x2 mesh, but my newer traps are 1x1 mesh, and I like those a lot better. Keeps birds from stealing bait, and its too small for them to reach in far enough to steal bait.

Have you considered digging a small hole UNDER the trap for the bait, and staking the trap down, so it can't be flipped or scooted?

I have-once. They'll start to dig at the edge of the trap and straight to a bait hole in about 5 minutes, stuff their cheeks and off they go. Digging is what they do best. They also need to be able to see the bait from ground level, it helps lead them through the doors. I've never had them flip a trap...or drag one.

In large square traps like those, Flipping/scooting is done by Dog's/Cat/s/Yotes/Coon's etc.

True! I don't normally have problems, clients know that if traps are damaged on their properties, they're payin' for them. If on ranch land/large properties, I do stake just to be on the safe side...and now that I think about it, I need to get more rebar and a bender to make more. :-)

"Annie, I also have used the same trap as as you do and have had fair results with it. The only problem with it that I have had is birds. If a bird gets caught before a squirrel the squirrels won't go near it. Then of course my client calls and I have to make a trip out to turn the bird loose. Thanks for your in depth answer to my question,I found it very informative and interesting. Up here we don't have near the g.squirrel problems that you do. A 150 squirrel year is a good one for us. In my area I have found that the repeating traps work very well in late spring-early summer when the young squirrels of the year are out and about but as the year goes on I go to tube traps set at "hot" holes to be more effective for me. Almost all of my g.squirrel calls are for animals that are digging under a house or out building so its really not as labor intensive as trapping acreage. Most of my ranchers and orchard men use t-feeders and they seem to work well for them.

Probtrapper-you get birds in them? Whoa, that has never happened to me. I did get a cottontail rabbit in on once, no idea why. The only birds I really have to worry about are ravens, and they're HUGE. With 1x1 mesh, they can't get those fat beaks through to the bait. Seems their cycles are a little different up north? Here it seems everybody comes on out when the younguns do, but...a couple always stay below. Then when all the food the younguns cheeked and stored runs out, then hold-outs hit the surface. I'm usually trapping acreage with a house, outbuildings, etc. so I get my exercise. Some of the adults I got this year were absolutely huge...I don't know how they fit through the door!