I have a few farmers who have asked me to thin out their squirrel population a bit. I usually don't have problems but my issue is the squirrels are hitting the corn bins and have plenty to eat so they are ignoring my sets. I am currently using a mix of corn, sunflower seeds and peanut butter on their trails with mink boxes but with limited success. I have to be cautious as they have a dog and no real good places for much of any other kind of sets so am thinking about trying other types of bait. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Pellet rifle or .22, or you need to give the what they want! Hard to beat corn. Can you do an exclusion, and bait with the corn?

Shooting is not an option as the LO has eliminated the dumb ones and educated the rest. Anytime you pull into the yard they scatter and don't come out for hours. I don't care to put that kind of time into it. Spillage around the bins makes it difficult to do an exclusion.

False truffles are a very effective squirrel bait, as they're full of volatile substances mimicking squirrel sexual pheromones. When they ripen and start getting soft, they get this strong, peculiar sweet smell, reminescent of rum, musk, and burnt plastic at the same time, and there are squirrels everywhere along roads in pine forests, stashing them frantically. Now is not the best time to harvest them, though, but they can be plentiful under pines sometimes.

Thanks for the suggestion Tatiana but unfortunately I don't believe we have them here. And even if we do, they would be under about 2' of snow and ice right now.

Just thought you could find it useful in the future. I keep a jar of fermented earth truffles that I collect in the summer specifically for squirrels

Black oil sunflower seeds are my go-to bait.

Pictures might help. Are they going to the bins elevated or on the ground?

That's part of my mix.
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They are feeding off the spillage from the elevators out of the steel ground bins.

I would imagine every bird is on the corn also? Could blind set them in the corn piles but would have problems with other things also. Unless you make a covered box they can get into. They might use this for they're safety also? Kind of like a giant weasel box over the corn with openings on all four sides??.?

Black walnuts are excellent. I have a couple of trees in the yard I planted. Went looking for the nuts, couldn't find any. Went upstairs in the barn and found 4, 5 gallon pails worth stuffed in two beaver boxes. They love them, red squirrels too. Lots of time I don't use lure either, just the walnuts.

I'm using mink boxes to prevent any bird catches, not that it would matter other than that's not my target animal.

Off season for black walnuts Jim, no access to any this time of year but agree with you on their popularity with squirrels when in season.

The reason I thought a bigger box might work that they can enter. I have a feeder with tube spouts for the corn to gravity flow down. Many times when I go to fill it I open the top and the squirrels are inside and scare the crap out of me when I take the lid off. Build something they can enter and have the traps inside weather it is 110's or smaller foot holds. Put corn in the box or have a bottomless box and set over the corn pile. Just a thought.

We have used the double door swing panel, panless cage traps for blind sets for squirrels and rats. Much easier than footholds or conibears. Set in seconds, not dangerous.

I thought of that also, maybe a colony rat trap? If this is something you have on hand.

Caught 3 today in mink boxes today. Guess they just weren't curious enough before.

Good start. Maybe enough for a meal.

I have used peanut butter for squirrels and chipmunks with sucess.

Corn still on the cob wired to the back of a cage seems to work pretty good.

I like peanut butter and marshmallows for bait but in your situation it probably wouldn't help. What about some type of box over the corn they're eating with some 110s in the openings?