I am building enclosed wood boxes to safely contain rat traps to use on chipmunk/red squirrel jobs. I am making the boxes about 2 feet long and just wide enough to house 2 rat snap traps end to end. Do you think if I close in the ends but use a hole saw to make 2 inch wide circular openings in either end that this will be big enough to allow in my target pests? I am trying to avoid non target catches such as birds.

Yes, I used plastic ammo boxes with a 2" hole for chippy, squirrels, and rats.

Careful with the hole size. I once had a skunk wedge itself into the hole. No idea what size the hole was, it was a decade or so ago. The customer took it upon herself to split the board with the hole with a hatchet and free the skunk. Those female Vietnam era Marines were a different breed, lol.

I now use Protecta Evo boxes with the internals removed for this. The path in has enough right angles in it that I can push my fingers in the hole and shake the box, I won’t get snapped. It needs a key to open too.

Oh, no idea has zero downsides. A black plastic box in the summer sun will liquify a chipmunk quickly. My business partner got chipmunk juice on his face when he didn’t open one carefully a few years ago, lol.

Honestly, it’s tough to catch chipmunks fast enough that new ones can’t move in to repopulate an area. The A24s are the best trap I’ve found to control the population as they remove the check and dispose of the animal. Each cartridge will fire the trap like 22 times.

It’s hard to charge what you want to for trapping knowing that you aren’t really going to keep the chipmunks out of a lawn for more than a couple days. If the habitat is right for chippies, they’ll be there.

I also have evo boxes for rodenticide applications (yes I have my pesticide license). I know chippys are a never ending problem. Most of my calls revolve around a chipmunk getting inside a home or basement, so trapping is limited really just to stopping the target critter, not everyone in the neighborhood.

However for the customers who just want the populations reduced overall, would you suggest charging by the week? I was thinking of charging a set price for 2 week minimum with the option of the customer extending to include more trapping if desired. I think charging per chipmunk is not realistic and a weekly fee makes more sense. I also know squirrels are territorial so once you remove one colony more will move in. I ensure my customer is made aware of this.

Used to use them quite a bit. You still get some by catch. Won't go into details but consider also what a rodent smelling box might attract.

The hard part of trapping chippies is they’ll run into the trap the first day, and then that trap is useless until you come empty it. The labor gets really expensive and the 5 gallon bucket of death in the back of the truck really stinks.

You need a trap that’ll kill multiple times and empty itself.

The A24s let you put them on a monthly reoccurring revenue plan. Stop in and check trap function, reset counters, and swap CO2 cartridge.

I'm not familiar with the a24, where do they go after the trap fires?

The animal falls to the ground and a predator picks it up as a free meal. No poisons are used, so it’s safe for them.

So you mount it directly to a tree or something? How high off the ground, and do you protect it with a cover or some other device ?

We mount them to a stake.

We screw the bracket to the stake, then drive it down to the height above the ground we want. (Mice vs chippie/rat). Then we attach the trap. There’s a plastic base that started coming with the trap a few years ago. I’ve seen them in use at a couple jobs, but I think the stake is more popular with the guys. It’s a pretty tough trap. I’ve had horses step on them and they’ll still continue to work like nothing happened.

So far I have found that red squirrels don't seem to want to go into weasel boxes. I have caught chipmunks in them though.

I agree. Have caught a couple reds in boxes, but not many. 'Munks will readily go in them. I like small cages for reds.

foldgers coffee containers work, just a 2 1/2 inch hole with a rat trap. easy to clean when stinky.