Re: What do do about squirrels chewing up feeders?

>
> So the point of this question is ..... what is squirrel's favourite food?
>

I don't know about the squirrels - they don't tell me what they prefer
- but I find lead shot always goes down well with grey squirrels
(stainless steel is even better if you can get it). It seems to fill
them up to the extent that they never come back for more. The reds
(which live further up our valley, hence the necessity to control the
greys), eat cones (as in tree cones, not road cones!), seeds and
nuts. Greys have a fondness for housemartin chicks, which does
nothing to help their cause.

They're easier to feed if you set a proper squirrel trap for them
(available on-line or in certain hardware shops) baited with a 3:2 or
3:1 mixture of whole maize & peanut kernels. This will also tell you
whether you have hedgehogs as they go in after the slugs and snails
which in turn go in after the squirrel bait. The traps are live-
capture, which means that you can extract the hedgehog & send it on
its merry way.

On Jul 11, 11:42 am, Gwyddno <Ieit...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > So the point of this question is ..... what is squirrel's favourite food?
>
> I don't know about the squirrels - they don't tell me what they prefer
> - but I find lead shot always goes down well with grey squirrels
> (stainless steel is even better if you can get it). It seems to fill
> them up to the extent that they never come back for more. The reds
> (which live further up our valley, hence the necessity to control the
> greys), eat cones (as in tree cones, not road cones!), seeds and
> nuts. Greys have a fondness for housemartin chicks, which does
> nothing to help their cause.
>
> They're easier to feed if you set a proper squirrel trap for them
> (available on-line or in certain hardware shops) baited with a 3:2 or
> 3:1 mixture of whole maize & peanut kernels. This will also tell you
> whether you have hedgehogs as they go in after the slugs and snails
> which in turn go in after the squirrel bait. The traps are live-
> capture, which means that you can extract the hedgehog & send it on
> its merry way.

'Proper squirrel trap' ho ho!
Whether or not the squirrels round here are in league with the devil
or not I am not certain, but it must be something like it. Certainly,
they make Houdini seem pretty useless. I have redesigned both
conventional rat traps and a 'purpose built' live squirrel trap, over
and over again. I caught one, once, but it was obviously one of the
dumber ones!

I am quite sure that both rats and squirrels simply hold the plate of
conventional traps while they eat at their leisure. They did this even
when I rewired traps to work on being lifted rather than pressed down.

At the moment, I have my live-cage trap redesigned so that its trigger
is actually an almond with two holes drilled in it. One end attached
by a wire to the cage body: the other to the cage door spring. The
nut thus takes the whole tension of the spring and it is impossible to
eat it without slamming the door. First time I tried this design I
caught a squirrel. Never again: door is always shut, nut gone, no
squirrel.

Also, the mesh of the cage as standard comes much too wide as well, so
that mice can get in and take the nuts without going through the door
at all. Upgrading this to 1.5 cm mesh, I did actually catch a mouse
once...

Thus the squirrel can get into a trap, set it off, and be out through
the door before it closes. They can do this even if I turn the trap
upside down or put it on its side.

I can't see any reliable way of catching a squirrel (Ray Mears'
'squashing' trap looked particularly laughable!) other than shooting
it - but everyone round here feeds the little b's!

On 21 Jul, 19:05, spamlet <spam.mores...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> > They're easier to feed if you set a proper squirrel trap for them
> > (available on-line or in certain hardware shops) baited with a 3:2 or
> > 3:1 mixture of whole maize & peanut kernels. This will also tell you
> > whether you have hedgehogs as they go in after the slugs and snails
> > which in turn go in after the squirrel bait. The traps are live-
> > capture, which means that you can extract the hedgehog & send it on
> > its merry way.
>
> 'Proper squirrel trap' ho ho!
> Whether or not the squirrels round here are in league with the devil
> or not I am not certain, but it must be something like it. Certainly,
> they make Houdini seem pretty useless. I have redesigned both
> conventional rat traps and a 'purpose built' live squirrel trap, over
> and over again. I caught one, once, but it was obviously one of the
> dumber ones!
>
> I am quite sure that both rats and squirrels simply hold the plate of
> conventional traps while they eat at their leisure. They did this even
> when I rewired traps to work on being lifted rather than pressed down.
>
> At the moment, I have my live-cage trap redesigned so that its trigger
> is actually an almond with two holes drilled in it. One end attached
> by a wire to the cage body: the other to the cage door spring. The
> nut thus takes the whole tension of the spring and it is impossible to
> eat it without slamming the door. First time I tried this design I
> caught a squirrel. Never again: door is always shut, nut gone, no
> squirrel.
>
> Also, the mesh of the cage as standard comes much too wide as well, so
> that mice can get in and take the nuts without going through the door
> at all. Upgrading this to 1.5 cm mesh, I did actually catch a mouse
> once...
>
> Thus the squirrel can get into a trap, set it off, and be out through
> the door before it closes. They can do this even if I turn the trap
> upside down or put it on its side.
>
> I can't see any reliable way of catching a squirrel (Ray Mears'
> 'squashing' trap looked particularly laughable!) other than shooting
> it - but everyone round here feeds the little b's!

I like the idea of a squashing trap - if only it could be designed to
squash only grey squirrels! I did once see a clip on YouTube or some
such site of a squirrel landing on a clay pigeon launcher. It was
controlled remotely so that when the squirrel landed the launcher was
triggered, sending the squirrel into space. I nearly wet myself when
I saw it! Here are the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0EzjGqlarw
and
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...69422788202691 (slightly
different as it involves a home-made catapult).
These are not suitable for bunny huggers but if you're made of sterner
stuff they're quite funny. While you're there, this clip of a
squirrel tormenting a cat is worth a look and quite bunny hugger
friendly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGQ62SgKc8

As for trapping, I find that I need to bait liberally around the trap,
often for a few days, before I catch anything but that once one gets
the idea of going in, the others need little encouragement. They are
then, as I said, given lead sandwiches to eat.

On a related note, if anyone knows where I can get hold of steel .22
pellets, I'd be very grateful if they'd share the information with me
as they're next to impossible to obtain here.

G

On Jul 22, 3:09 pm, Gwyddno <Ieit...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 21 Jul, 19:05, spamlet <spam.mores...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > > They're easier to feed if you set a proper squirrel trap for them
> > > (available on-line or in certain hardware shops) baited with a 3:2 or
> > > 3:1 mixture of whole maize & peanut kernels. This will also tell you
> > > whether you have hedgehogs as they go in after the slugs and snails
> > > which in turn go in after the squirrel bait. The traps are live-
> > > capture, which means that you can extract the hedgehog & send it on
> > > its merry way.
>
> > 'Proper squirrel trap' ho ho!
> > Whether or not the squirrels round here are in league with the devil
> > or not I am not certain, but it must be something like it. Certainly,
> > they make Houdini seem pretty useless. I have redesigned both
> > conventional rat traps and a 'purpose built' live squirrel trap, over
> > and over again. I caught one, once, but it was obviously one of the
> > dumber ones!
>
> > I am quite sure that both rats and squirrels simply hold the plate of
> > conventional traps while they eat at their leisure. They did this even
> > when I rewired traps to work on being lifted rather than pressed down.
>
> > At the moment, I have my live-cage trap redesigned so that its trigger
> > is actually an almond with two holes drilled in it. One end attached
> > by a wire to the cage body: the other to the cage door spring. The
> > nut thus takes the whole tension of the spring and it is impossible to
> > eat it without slamming the door. First time I tried this design I
> > caught a squirrel. Never again: door is always shut, nut gone, no
> > squirrel.
>
> > Also, the mesh of the cage as standard comes much too wide as well, so
> > that mice can get in and take the nuts without going through the door
> > at all. Upgrading this to 1.5 cm mesh, I did actually catch a mouse
> > once...
>
> > Thus the squirrel can get into a trap, set it off, and be out through
> > the door before it closes. They can do this even if I turn the trap
> > upside down or put it on its side.
>
> > I can't see any reliable way of catching a squirrel (Ray Mears'
> > 'squashing' trap looked particularly laughable!) other than shooting
> > it - but everyone round here feeds the little b's!
>
> I like the idea of a squashing trap - if only it could be designed to
> squash only grey squirrels! I did once see a clip on YouTube or some
> such site of a squirrel landing on a clay pigeon launcher. It was
> controlled remotely so that when the squirrel landed the launcher was
> triggered, sending the squirrel into space. I nearly wet myself when
> I saw it! Here are the links:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0EzjGqlarw
> andhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3809069422788202691(slightly
> different as it involves a home-made catapult).
> These are not suitable for bunny huggers but if you're made of sterner
> stuff they're quite funny. While you're there, this clip of a
> squirrel tormenting a cat is worth a look and quite bunny hugger
> friendly:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGQ62SgKc8
>
> As for trapping, I find that I need to bait liberally around the trap,
> often for a few days, before I catch anything but that once one gets
> the idea of going in, the others need little encouragement. They are
> then, as I said, given lead sandwiches to eat.
>
> On a related note, if anyone knows where I can get hold of steel .22
> pellets, I'd be very grateful if they'd share the information with me
> as they're next to impossible to obtain here.
>
> G- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Good to see some people have managed to get even!
But that cat piece really does show how persistent and fearless they
are too!

Cheers,

S

	#1
Gwyddno	Re: What do do about squirrels chewing up feeders? > > So the point of this question is ..... what is squirrel's favourite food? > I don't know about the squirrels - they don't tell me what they prefer - but I find lead shot always goes down well with grey squirrels (stainless steel is even better if you can get it). It seems to fill them up to the extent that they never come back for more. The reds (which live further up our valley, hence the necessity to control the greys), eat cones (as in tree cones, not road cones!), seeds and nuts. Greys have a fondness for housemartin chicks, which does nothing to help their cause. They're easier to feed if you set a proper squirrel trap for them (available on-line or in certain hardware shops) baited with a 3:2 or 3:1 mixture of whole maize & peanut kernels. This will also tell you whether you have hedgehogs as they go in after the slugs and snails which in turn go in after the squirrel bait. The traps are live- capture, which means that you can extract the hedgehog & send it on its merry way.

	#2
spamlet	Re: What do do about squirrels chewing up feeders? On Jul 11, 11:42 am, Gwyddno <Ieit...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > So the point of this question is ..... what is squirrel's favourite food? > > I don't know about the squirrels - they don't tell me what they prefer > - but I find lead shot always goes down well with grey squirrels > (stainless steel is even better if you can get it). It seems to fill > them up to the extent that they never come back for more. The reds > (which live further up our valley, hence the necessity to control the > greys), eat cones (as in tree cones, not road cones!), seeds and > nuts. Greys have a fondness for housemartin chicks, which does > nothing to help their cause. > > They're easier to feed if you set a proper squirrel trap for them > (available on-line or in certain hardware shops) baited with a 3:2 or > 3:1 mixture of whole maize & peanut kernels. This will also tell you > whether you have hedgehogs as they go in after the slugs and snails > which in turn go in after the squirrel bait. The traps are live- > capture, which means that you can extract the hedgehog & send it on > its merry way. 'Proper squirrel trap' ho ho! Whether or not the squirrels round here are in league with the devil or not I am not certain, but it must be something like it. Certainly, they make Houdini seem pretty useless. I have redesigned both conventional rat traps and a 'purpose built' live squirrel trap, over and over again. I caught one, once, but it was obviously one of the dumber ones! I am quite sure that both rats and squirrels simply hold the plate of conventional traps while they eat at their leisure. They did this even when I rewired traps to work on being lifted rather than pressed down. At the moment, I have my live-cage trap redesigned so that its trigger is actually an almond with two holes drilled in it. One end attached by a wire to the cage body: the other to the cage door spring. The nut thus takes the whole tension of the spring and it is impossible to eat it without slamming the door. First time I tried this design I caught a squirrel. Never again: door is always shut, nut gone, no squirrel. Also, the mesh of the cage as standard comes much too wide as well, so that mice can get in and take the nuts without going through the door at all. Upgrading this to 1.5 cm mesh, I did actually catch a mouse once... Thus the squirrel can get into a trap, set it off, and be out through the door before it closes. They can do this even if I turn the trap upside down or put it on its side. I can't see any reliable way of catching a squirrel (Ray Mears' 'squashing' trap looked particularly laughable!) other than shooting it - but everyone round here feeds the little b's!