squirrels in pecans

hey guys, i have a neighbor that is infested with squirrels that
have taken over the pecan orchard. yeah, i know that will happen.
but he has not gotten more than one 5 gallon bucket of nuts in the
last 2 years, but the trees were full with green hulls. so we know
the nuts WERE there. we are trying to catch them with 110 conis,
but so far not much luck. we took a nut and drilled a hole in it
and put that on the trigger. catch a few, but not many that way.
also hunt the place a lot, but with a 10 squirrel limit, we are
barely putting a dent in them.

is there a trick out there that will help us thin them down a bit?
know that if anyone has dealt with this, someone here has.

please help me help him.

thanks

Try BLACK walnut meat not english walnuts. Thats what I use in my cage traps for squirrels, works great.

How many trees and how many squirrels are we talking about?

Once they're fixated on a food source it can be awful hard to lure them away in any number, especially if they're feeding 30' or 40' up in the trees.

I'm not sure of the laws in your area but I'd be willing to bet that with the damage they are doing you wont be held to the ten squirrel limit. Talk to the GW and explain the situation.

A pellet gun with a good scope or a .22 would be helpful. So would loading the area with traps. How many are you putting out?

Give a little more info.

My first thought was "what kind of squirrels are we talking about?" Since you are using Conibears, I'm guessing Greys. They are the easiest squirrel to catch, but I think the Conibear may not be the best choice. I have had some decent success setting cages on the ground or in trees, before they got to their main food source. Black walnuts with a commercial squirrel paste has proven quite effective. If that doesn't do the trick, your only alternative to ask Ron Jones for HELP!

You are aware that pecans tend to be biennial don't you. Combine that with borers that infest the nuts before shuck split and it's not uncommon for large apparently productive trees to have low yields. Now that said squirrels can eat their way through whatever is left. In your case shooting is going to be the most effective method if you can get a depredations permit or otherwise remove the season restrictions. Once you get the numbers knocked back you can start a control program by getting them habituated to artificial bait stations, ears of corn work well, and set your consideration or traps there to keep the numbers in check.

I had a squirrel job like that last year.

I had traps scattered throughout the trees and on the ground around them but there were many more squirrels than traps and they did a fair job of avoiding them.

Luckily, the trees were out in the county where fire arms were perfectly legal. The second lucky stroke was that where they were located I had to pass them every day as I came and went.

So, what I did was stop by every morning and every afternoon with my 20 gauge pump. In just that few minutes twice a day I killed 37 out of three trees in just under two weeks, plus what I caught in my traps.

The first law of property verses wildlife is that you have the right to protect your property. At least that's the rule in most states.

The best times of day to do this is just after sunrise and just before night fall. You will have to get creative after a few trips. They will learn you! They learned my truck and it got to the point where I had to park down the road and sneak up on them.

we are looking at about a 25-30 acre area. trees planted in rows along the bean
fields. made L brackets to put the traps on. trees are about 15 feet apart all
around the edges. he is trying to get them set up for pecan production, grafting
them for the larger pecans. as for numbers of squirrels, would hate to guess. i
was not the only one hunting last year, and i was shooting 10 about once a week.
both fox and greys. would guess several hundred squirrels in that creek bottom.

was wondering about maybe putting corn on the platform of the L bracket? where
they have to pass through the trap to get the corn? we only have 20 traps out,
but with the price of .22 shells, i am hoping to make the traps more effective.
too expensive to shoot anymore.

thanks all. great info

Is there some way to either access some of the upper limbs or create leaning/running poles. Squirrels are creatures of habit and if you can locate or create regular travel routes a few tube traps on those routes would up your odds. I'm also reminded of one particular squirrel that gave me trouble. This one was also a pecan raider that had learned to avoid the ear of corn my pellet gun was zeroed on. It got so bad that if I even went near my firing position he bailed on me. I did notice that he took the same limb every time so I did a little sneak to get into position and had the missus flush him my way.

With the green leaves a shotgun and permission is gonna be your best bet

ok, thanks guys. have the permission, so guess it will be the
scattergun. will keep trying the traps, and will put up a few
running poles. have a couple places that the trees should work
to support them.

As you pattern their travel routes, use traps on the ones that come in on the ground and shoot the ones that come in up in the trees. Learn their escape routes.

Change up the time of day you go there as much as possible. They will be patterning you as well as you them.

Often times two shooters can do more than twice the work of a single man.

With that many squirrels, keep all the tails to send to Mepps.

Good luck.