Fat squirrels are raiding my run for scratch grain and it's getting on my nerves.

[danceswithronin]

This dray of squirrels that lives in the backyard next to mine has figured out that broadcast scratch = free food, and has begun systematically breaking into my run Mission Impossible style to get eats. I have the top of my run netted over as well as all sides of it, but there is netting cut around the trunk of two pear trees in the run to allow them to come through, and it is through these cuts (down the trunk) that the squirrels are getting in. I'll get pics tonight if I can to show my setup.

I wouldn't mind it so much except I don't like their dirty feet touching my hens' food because of biosecurity, they get the hens all riled up when they're in there (which in turn riles the dogs and makes me have to go out there to see what they're barking at). I'm also afraid the squirrels are going to start getting bolder since they totally ransacked a feed bin I forgot to close the lid down on tightly the other day. These squirrels are getting physically fat off my grain, the one watching me from the fence yesterday looked as round as a fuzzy gray melon.

The last straw was Saturday night, one of the squirrels pulled back some loose netting on the top of the larger half of the run to get at THAT side where I had just put down a bunch of treats and grain right before twilight, and my Polish pullet flew loose through the gap they left trying to roost and got killed by my dogs. So this is becoming an untenable situation for me. I loved that bird and it was my dad's favorite. I also found out yesterday they are tearing a hole in the side of the house too.

Any suggestions or trap recommendations? I don't mind using deadly traps as long as there is minimal or no risk to my birds, Lord knows there is no shortage of squirrels in my neighborhood so it won't miss one or three. I also have the option of laying the traps in the larger run (which is under construction/unnetted right now) and keeping the chickens confined in the other half of it for now. I don't want to use poison at all. I do have an air gun and I am considering using it.

 

[PirateGirl]

A few things, one I totally sympathize, I looked at the window to see this entire family in my garden bed

two, sometimes when they get out of control i put the feed in the coop so there is no more feed scattered on the ground

three, i have made attempts with my own pellet gun and its such a small target that moves so quickly and you can only get one at a time that it's not really efficient

perhaps look into a treadle feeder? minimizing feed access is key here

also I got a cat to help take care of it, but he struggles with the larger ones and even though he catches things, he sometimes can't kill the fatties

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I have something similar to this that catches common gray squirrels well...

https://www.ruralking.com/squirreli...MIkbXmr4XO4gIVULbACh1UDgHIEAQYASABEgLoe_D_BwE

 

[Ms Biddy]

Squirrelinator. Hopefully they aren't too fat to fit through the doors. I can't stand squirrels. They carry fleas, worms, ringworm and plague.

 

[twendt]

My mother has personally "Terminated" 1000 squirrels, she bought a Kania trap, it's online around $90. I had squirrels eating my feed in winter, I chased them out a few times, I didn't use her trap, they don't seem to be a nuisance now that the weather is nice. However, if they do it again next winter, I'll ask for one for Christmas!

 

[Biddybot]

My experience is that squirrels are extremely easy to catch in a live trap. Just scatter a few sunflower seeds near the entrance of the trap to catch their attention and bait the trap itself with peanut butter and they cannot resist. They're so crazy for the peanut butter that I've been watching from a window as the trap door slams down on them, the caught squirrels bounce from one end to the other a couple of times, and then they go RIGHT BACK TO FINISHING UP THE PEANUT BUTTER BAIT, oblivious to all else! We had a red squirrel population explosion some decades ago and they were everywhere and my immediate neighbour was very concerned because they were getting in his garage and chewing wires, not to mention that they were ravishing our feeders and bothering our critters. We shared using the single small live trap I had then and between us we must have caught over fifty squirrels just that one summer alone, sometimes two or three a day. The right size trap for such a job isn't big enough to admit a standard sized chicken...might admit a teeny bantam. Good luck with your problem, whatever you do! And never forget...cute though they may be, squirrels are just climbing rats with fluffy tails when it comes to the damage they can cause.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Treadle feeder, no food available, no squirrels coming in the coop.

 

[WthrLady]

Squirrelinator. Hopefully they aren't too fat to fit through the doors. I can't stand squirrels. They carry fleas, worms, ringworm and plague.

I second the squirrelinstor!

 

[mowin]

I use my .22 or .17 hmr. Accurate out to 100 yrds. The little ba$πards chewed through the soffit in my shop. I keep a bird feeder about 60 yrds from the house well stocked. Snipper every single tree rat I see off the top of it.

 

[Fairview01]

Yum, squirrel stew.