Ground squirrels

[Nikkorott]

I tried something today that I have a feeling could be a cross between an Elmer Fudd and Wiley Coyote plot. I have had an issue with ground squirrels for awhile now. Our muni folks put poison out once in awhile. I've never to thrilled about that. Some neighbors will use those poison gas/flare things. I've used dry ice but that gets expensive. My newest idea is using a leaf blower and cayenne powder.

Has anybody on this board tried this before? I put the end of the leaf blower in the hole. If it's not blowing gobs of dust & dirt back out at me, I pour a little bit of the cayenne powder into the suction. When I'm doing this I'm wearing safety glasses and a mask. If you try this make sure that you know your pepper tolerance! You WILL get some blow back.

Good luck!

 

[sea2summit]

I'd be pretty shocked if you could get it in far enough to have a real affect on them...if they reacted to it at all.

 

[Paddy]

I like it, but they have so many exists you might get hit from behind! My trick requires a helper, my 10 year old jack Russell.

I have a few 4 inch pipes under my deck. When I let my dog out, he checks to see if there are any critters in the pipe. If yes, he barks. I then go down to do my part. I carefully pick up the pipe and quickly stand it on end. Then with my dog's nose at the end I slowly tilt it back. squirrel nose pokes out and he crushes their skull!

He has killed 5 this week alone...

In my mini orchard I set rat traps. A smear of peanut butter topped with sun flower seeds, also very effective

 

[Nikkorott]

I'm wondering if I'll have taco flavored pomegranates for Thanksgiving.

 

[tradosaurus]

If by ground squirrels you mean gophers the best way to rid yourself of these rodents is the cinch trap.
I tried various methods but with the cinch trap I was able to rid myself of all of them. Easy to use and works quickly.

 

[Nikkorott]

No. Ground squirrels are different. For gophers I've had really good luck with a trap called a Gopher Hawk.

 

[JethroB]

I tried pouring Dollar store black pepper, cayenne pepper, and chili powder down chipmunk holes. Don’t know if it did any good but was fun thinking about their effects. I finally live trapped 4-5 and gave them a 30 mile ride to work. In North Georgia back then.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

We have chipmunks. They burrow everywhere. I tamp down the burrows when they pop up and count it as free lawn aeration. Never kill a snake.

 

[MossRoad]

I don't know about California ground squirrels. Here, we have 13 lined ground squirrels. As kids, we'd take a couple quart canning jars full of water and chase the ground squirrel until it ran into it's hole. Then we'd dump one, then two jars of water down the hole and put the last jar over the hole. Give it a couple seconds and the ground squirrel pops up in the jar. You quickly tip the jar and put the lid on it. Worked surprisingly well. But, then you have a squirrel in a jar. Then you wondered why you did that. Then you felt kinda bad about that and let it go and went and found something else to do.

 

[jaxs]

Ok I've heard others complain about ground squirrels so I must ask if we are talking about the same thing.

We call these ground squirrels and they don't cause noticeable damage to anything. Ground dwellers that cause damage are called gophers and prairie dogs.

 

[Nikkorott]

California ground squirrel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[JethroB]

GROUND SQUIRRELS:

The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones are more commonly known as marmots (genus Marmota) or prairie dogs, while the smaller and less bushy-tailed ground squirrels tend to be known as chipmunks.

Thanks Wikipedia

 

[MossRoad]

 

[jaxs]

I don't know about California ground squirrels. Here, we have 13 lined ground squirrels. As kids, we'd take a couple quart canning jars full of water and chase the ground squirrel until it ran into it's hole. Then we'd dump one, then two jars of water down the hole and put the last jar over the hole. Give it a couple seconds and the ground squirrel pops up in the jar. You quickly tip the jar and put the lid on it. Worked surprisingly well. But, then you have a squirrel in a jar. Then you wondered why you did that. Then you felt kinda bad about that and let it go and went and found something else to do.

You little ignoramuses , shame on you.,,,,,wait a minute,we did something almost that stupid one day.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

You must have ran around with some weird kids.,,,,,wait a minute,we did something almost that stupid one day.

I was known as "that kid" in our neighborhood.

 

[JethroB]

You must have ran around with some weird kids.,,,,,wait a minute,we did something almost that stupid one day.

We did it with carpenter bees when the azaleas bloomed.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

We did it with carpenter bees when the azaleas bloomed.

Please feel free to kill all the carpenter bees.

 

[deserteagle71]

Ground squirrels are a HUGE problem around here. Their mounds, hidden in tall alfalfa for instance, tear up a lot of equipment. Some of the big farms around here offer a bounty of $1 a tail and invite shooters to come out and shoot all they want. They even put ads in the paper, asking people to come out and shoot the darn things. I also see workers out using the propane injectors in the fields.

Every year, early spring, I mount my box scraper on my tractor and go out and level out those mounds as best I can to make mowing easier come June. (The squirrels come out right around Christmas, and then disappear - hibernate - around the 1st of July. It's not unusual for me to sit in my Jeep with my .22 and shoot 100 at a sitting, yet it doesn't seem to hurt the population at all.

Early spring photos of the mounds. I bet there's 100 holes per acre if not more.

Some of the mounds can be huge - who'd think a tiny squirrel could move that much dirt?

 

[Nikkorott]

Ground squirrels are a HUGE problem around here. Their mounds, hidden in tall alfalfa for instance, tear up a lot of equipment. Some of the big farms around here offer a bounty of $1 a tail and invite shooters to come out and shoot all they want. They even put ads in the paper, asking people to come out and shoot the darn things. I also see workers out using the propane injectors in the fields.

Every year, early spring, I mount my box scraper on my tractor and go out and level out those mounds as best I can to make mowing easier come June. (The squirrels come out right around Christmas, and then disappear - hibernate - around the 1st of July. It's not unusual for me to sit in my Jeep with my .22 and shoot 100 at a sitting, yet it doesn't seem to hurt the population at all.

The critters may be the same but you're situation is a whole lot different than mine. I'm trying to keep them from tearing up a thousand feet of gravel driveway. How many acres are you looking at there?

I'm guessing that it's to rocky to disc or you don't want to reseed or both? If I were in your spot I think that I might try diesel exhaust. Hook up a hose to tractor exhaust and have someone drop the end into the burrows as you drive around, stop for a bit at each burrow. Also, if you have a source, dry ice works real well also. You can get it in pellets. Drop a hand full of them into each burrow.