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Squirrels are small rodents that love to gather and store food while causing damage to fruits and vegetation in your gardens and lawns. They eat small portions of fruits and vegetation leaving wasted vegetation that has been damaged from their feeding, eat food from bird feeders, spread waste from trashcans all over the house and may even damage wires. The noise of their running throughout the night can disrupt sleep and can prevent you from concentrating on work during the day time. If you have a squirrel problem, there are steps you can take to help you get rid of the creatures.
Ways to Kill Squirrels
1 - Cage Trap, Then Euthanize: If you've caught a squirrel in a cage, the two humane methods to kill it are by using a Co2 chamber, or injection. Do not drown the animal. If you do that, you are an asshole.
Since you most likely lack the proper equipment, why not relocate the animal at least ten mile away, or shoot it through the cage?
2 - Lethal Body Grip Trap: These traps are used by fur trappers. They are dangerous and hard to set. A novice is not meant to try this.
3 - Shooting: This is pretty self explanatory. If you're a good shot and own a legal firearm that you can legally discharge in your area, this will work. A 1000 FPS air rifle is sufficient.
4 - Poison: Never ever try to poison a squirrel! It usually won't work, it's not legal, there's no such thing as squirrel poison, and if it does die, you'll have a stinking carcass in your attic or walls.
How To Kill Squirrels In Home -
Killing a squirrel may seem like something drastic, but people who never had a squirrel make a nest in their house do not know the damage they can make. Before you go for the kill you should probably try to trap it with a non-lethal trap and release it far from your home. Keep in mind that lethal traps are not legal everywhere so you may not be able to get one in your area. If you can then you could use one that will make killing the squirrel easy and as humane as possible.
One thing that you should avoid doing when learning how to kill a squirrel is the use of poison. It may look like a good idea especially if you want to go for the kill. The problem with poison however is that poison does not kill right away. It takes in some cases a few minutes which is enough for the squirrel to suffer and go into hiding. Some people think that rodents go outside to die, but that is a myth. They will more than likely die somewhere inside the home, and if that somewhere is a place where you cannot find it and dispose of it you will have a very unpleasant smell for a few days.
Here are some other ideas to solve a squirrel problem without having to kill them at all:
Important Steps to Take
The first thing you need to do is to cut off the sources of food which attracts them to your area in the first place. Replace the trashcans with those made up of metals or with thick plastic so that they cannot chew through the material. Make sure the trash cans have lids that can be tightly sealed so that the squirrels cannot find a way into them. Bird feeders are another excellent source of food for squirrels. If you have bird feeders on your property, you can try to move them to a location that the squirrels will not be able to reach, remove them completely, or find a way to secure them that will keep the squirrels out yet still allow the birds entrance.
Squirrels usually nest in the trees that have low branches. Cutting low branches back would help to deter them from making their homes around your area. If the trees are fruit or nut-bearing trees, there’s not a lot you can do aside from trying to keep the produce picked when it is ripe and remove fruits and nuts that have fallen from the trees to the ground.
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Squirrels move into your house using poles or plastic pipes. Installing Squirrel baffles can help to prevent them from gaining entrance in this way. A squirrel baffle is a device that has been specially designed in a way that once installed on a poll or a pipe it prevents the squirrel from climbing up them.
Squirrel Repellents
There are a number of squirrel repellents available in the market and are mainly composed of one or more types of pepper. Spraying them on the trees and around vegetation deters the squirrels from coming in the area. Mothballs can be used as repellents inside the home in the case that the squirrels have made a home in your attic. However, mothballs are toxic and may harm children and pets in the house.
Ammonia can also be used as a repellent. Dip pieces of fabric or towels in ammonia and place them in the desired areas to keep the squirrels away. However, before using Ammonia or mothballs, you need to observe for a few days and figure out the entry and exit points used by them. Place mothballs or cloths soaked in ammonia on all the entry and exit points except one which would be used by the squirrels to move out. Also, place them in areas where you think they are residing. This would force them to look for a new place to nest. Once they are gone, plug the openings and clean the area.
You can also create homemade repellents by boiling together yellow onion, cayenne pepper, paprika and jalapeno pepper in water. There are also ultrasonic squirrel repellents; the sound waves produced by them are not audible to humans but are irritating for squirrels.
Trapping the Squirrels
Trapping the Squirrels is probably the best and sure way of getting rid of the animals. You can do it yourself; however, hiring an expert makes the process more efficient and risk free.
Single Animal Cage Trap: These traps have a trip pan and bait is used to lure the squirrel. As soon as the animal presses the pan, the door closes and it is trapped.
Repeating Live Cage Trap: This type of trap has a specially designed door that allows the squirrels to come in but do not allow them to go out. In this way, one cage can capture more than one squirrel. Bait is used to lure the animal.
Once the squirrels have been trapped, it’s time to remove them to a far enough distance from your home that they will not return yet also in an area that they can survive and thrive in. Trapping squirrels may not be legal in your area so be sure to check with the local and state laws before attempting this. A wildlife expert will have the license, experience and abilities to get rid of the squirrels in a humane way with efficiency and in a timely manner.
