Any tips would be welcome for simple tips to catch cottontails and black squirrels so i can add them to the larder instead of having them damage things. The squirrels are mainly bad for digging and uprooting seeds and seedlings, the bunnies are nipping off seedlings. I live in a small town on a corner lot so there are a few prying eyes, i need to be discreet. Its the first year ive ever really had problems, i lost some sweet corn to squirrels one year. I have a wooden box rabbit trap i bought awhile back from wcs but im wondering what would work for bait theres so much feed available to the critters right now. Thanks in advance for any tips.

Raised garden bed with small fencing. Works for me.

Fencing...for the Garden

Apple slices soaked in salt water for bait.

Remember to follow Game laws.for your State

Thanks guys, i do have raised beds, the strawberries are fenced, just makes it more awkward, ive been lucky up to now for not too many critters. In these strange times i figured having a little extra protein in the freezer wont hurt either!

I don't have squirrel issues but do have a lot of cottontail habitat all around me. I live in a small village so I don't like to shoot at all if possible. I put up a 2 foot chicken wire fence around the garden and stake it about 2 foot beyond the tilled part so I can use my tiller easily. I only need that for really a few weeks until the plants they like are far enough along. I also moved my bird feeder about 100 foot and that keeps a lot of birds out as well.

Bryce

What materials do you guys use for your raised beds?
Treated lumber?

live traps and a trip to the wood shed

the cage type with appropriate bait , suet for squirrels

rabbits don't like to go in box traps as well , you may have to try a few baits

Rabbits follow trails,snare them.

lots of feral cats = few rabbits , no feral cats = lots of rabbits in village garden.

in 2010 all the houses around me were foreclosed on , Lots of Feral cats and no rabbit kits survive.

I trapped out all the feral cats , and then I had to protect my peppers from the rabbits

a wrap of chicken wire around a tomato cage over the pepper plants till they are old enough the rabbits leave them alone

Bear tracker i dont use treated lumber, i buy pine or hemlock lumber from an Amish mill for my raised beds, make em 4'×8'.

I don't use treated lumber because the chemicals.

Air rifle. Shot does not sound like a gunshot so no one knows a thing.

I have lived through a lot of garden damage by rabbits and squirrels. Right now when I plant my peppers and tomatoes I put a corn tunnel or I stake a tomato cage (2 X 4 X 36" wire with chicken wire fastened to the lower 12-18") over them as soon as they are in the ground. This way the cage is in place from the beginning and they are protected. When planting corn or vine plants and the squirrels find them I have to use lethal means with a small wire basket fastened to the trigger of a 160 size BG filled with corn. Pre-bait and set on day 4. When I was younger I had a friend who was a med tech at a local hospital and he got me all the OUT DATED blood I wanted. It was the best rabbit, squirrel, and deer repellent I ever used when sprayed around the plants (also the best mosquito ATTRACTANT). Lasted through couple of rains and then needed to be reapplied. There are some other techniques such as feeding corn in selected spots to keep the pests away from the garden plants until they are bigger and spraying the habanaro pepper sauce on the leaves as a repellent that will work to a degree but those are constant labor takers for 3-4 weeks and I don't have that kind of time . Have 81 peppers and 83 tomatoes in the ground and 72 pumpkin-squash-gourd hills this year. 1.5 ac of sweet-ornamental-broom corn and am planting daily so I don't tolerate animal damage ............................ the mike

Anyone that could post pictures it would be appreciated. Thanks all!