I would,like to call and talk squirrels with someone. I am starting to feel hopeless. I have been able to trap every animalexcept squirrels!

What's the issue? Squirrels are usually easy.

That's what everyone says, but the only squirrel I have caught was a forced set and o can't do it on this house, my ladder won't reach and there is no onside access. I put baited cages as close to the hole as I could but have had no luck

How tall is your ladder?

To be honest I don't know paul

What are you baiting with? Have you tried black walnuts for the baited cages? I grind up the nuts and hulls then toss a few shells in the cage, 99% automatic on squirrels. They come through my mudroom window in the fall to steal them out of the buckets, if the windows left open.

What are they eating in the yard, always put some bait outside the trap also. If they are eating sun flower seed at the bird feeder feed them the same thing. JMO.

The best way to trap squirrels is to focus on travel routes and access to the structure. Invest in a better/taller ladder. I shut down all openings to the den except for the main entry. Focus on that main entry and place traps in the path to that entry. wrap the squirrel cages in duct tap, and don't clean the traps out. The tap will hold scent(fur and poop)for future trapping. Bird seed(black oil sunflower seed) works great, because there is always some idiot nearby with bird feeders. Get a repeater over the den opening so the only option for the squirrel is to exit the den into the trap, and prevent them from reentering the building. In the squirrels frustration to enter the structure they will check the other traps.
I love trapping squirrels, because the money is good and consistent.

The squirrel you caught, was it a male or female?

I caught one female but that was at a different house.I have attempted three squirreljobs and just keep failing. It
T is insanely frustrating. I am going to try ground trapping tomorrow

Call LT, he's always willing to help trappers out.

Doesn't help at this moment but I have a few walnut trees on my property, when I harvest them this season you're more than welcome to try them out, I normally fill a little more than a 55 gallon drum. Hands down one of the finest attractants for squirrel, that's all I use for my squirrel jobs. Half the time a ladder isn't needed to trap them, just to seal up the entry and inspection. Few walnuts at the base of the structure their using to access the rooftop or pole if they use lines and a few in the trap seems to be all they need.

Do you shell the walnuts or,use em green

Throw Back, it's probably just a bad time of the year in California for squirrels. After the second litter is born and the first

litter is getting adult size you will probably be catching more squirrels than you want to. They end up in every kind of trap you can

imagine. The squirrels you can't catch on purpose now, you will probably catch by accident later on.

Both, I keep a batch of walnut paste available but using them green works well too. Rough up the hull to expose that bitter odor when green and squirrels go nuts.

I think I can find some down the street. Maybe

Throw Sorry but I was giving a state trapping course when you called Give me a call I am around .

If you can't access the entry point, how will you seal the hole once the squirrel are removed? I know I'm not seeing the entire picture, but somehow you need to get to the access hole. I don't like to but I have used an unbaited positive set over the access hole INSIDE the attic...ideal if the squirrel is out when you set it.

Call me. 7154597412. Mike

A blob of peanut butter has lured many a squirrel to it's death. They don't seem to be able to resist!

Grey Squirrels are easy... until they escape a trap. Won't catch 'em the same way, nor likely in the same spot, a second time. Put a different style trap a bit further away and back in business. Hickory, Black Walnut, PB then sunflower in that order around here. Agree on roughing up the hull a bit for attractant, spreading a few around the trap for confidence and placing as near as possible to where they are already travelling. Good luck!

I don't know that I can add anything to the bait side, but I'll second needing to get to the hole in order to patch it. We've gone to sets with 2 tubes on opposite sides of a hole and hardware cloth to funnel.

My favorite set exactly!

Here's my new top secret squirrel set. I have a bunch of the old clunky 2-door Havaharts that were given to me by customers. You

know, the ones with the peddle in the middle than can spring both ways. Anyhow, I put pieces of thin plywood on the floor and fence

them in to catch rabbits using hay for bait. I caught the rabbits but the squirrels were raising havoc with the mulch and the lawn so

she wanted those gone too. All I had to do was remove the hay and put in my combination bird seed, rabbit pellets, and whole kernel

corn. All three cages held grey squirrels today. The customer was thrilled but she wanted to know when I was going to get rid of the

raccoons too. I told her it's hard to get a raccoon in a cage that already holds a squirrel, but we'll catch them too, eventually.

Well I think what I learned is that bait is probably the least important thing. If you are on location you will get them and if you aren't you won't.

I hope you didn't learn that from me! Squirrels have excellent noses. ( They claim a male can smell a female in heat for a mile ) You

can have all the great locations, but if you have unappealing bait, you will probably catch zilch. I could probably set a cage inside

a dog kennel and if I had great bait I could still probably nail a few. Squirrels aren't hungry all the time like raccoons but they

just can't resist taking some good bait and burying it for later. Of course, then they forget where they buried it and are hungry all

over again.

I told her it's hard to get a raccoon in a cage that already holds a squirrel, but we'll catch them too, eventually. [/quote]...tell that to a coon, Wink! (Mr. Bandit might not get into the trap...but he'll get the squirrel out...one bite at a time!)

This isn't my first go-round at this place. The animals are all very cordial to each other. The only go in the cages that are baited

for their species. Today I had an opossum next to a squirrel.

Mr. Schmidt makes a good point. I've found a lot of squirrels in my cages that were killed by raccoons. My question is why? When the

raccoon sticks his paws into the cage, why doesn't the squirrel bite one of his fingers off? Having been bit by a grey squirrel, I

know they can do it and losing a finger would probably be a pretty good deterrent. I know one squirrel bite was enough for me.

I know every one of my fingers that goes into a cage with a coon or a squirrel gets bitten!

I put a little platform in the fork of a tree and set a 110 conbear upright on the platform with a chunk of corn on the cob on the trigger. Works great. If they are stealing tomatoes I use tomatoes for bait.