Ground squirrels

[Bill Guenthner]

Last year I live trapped over twenty ground squirrels from my barn, garden and chicken pen. I relocated them a mile away. They are suckers for peanut butter on a cracker. These are the critters we have where I live.

… in a squirrel cemetery.

 

[Torvy]

… in a squirrel cemetery.

Lol. Otherwise, it may have been the same 4 caught and relocated 5 times.

 

[WVH1977]

If you know what a 'squinny' is, you're probably from Des Moines​

In Des Moines, a “squinny” is what the rest of Iowa calls a ground squirrel. The origins of the term have been lost to history, forgotten like an acorn buried under the back porch.

Moss....squinny (ground squirrel) jugging looks like fun. Thanks for the videos.

You should post this over in the "Tell us something we don't know Post".

 

[jyoutz]

Lol. Otherwise, it may have been the same 4 caught and relocated 5 times.

Could be, but I assumed they didn’t travel a mile away.

 

[arizona98tj]

Ok I've heard others complain about ground squirrels so I must ask if we are talking about the same thing.
View attachment 745221 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.

Here on the farm, we call them striped gophers. And they do considerable damage in the garden until they no longer breathe. The ones we have will go from one plant to the next....say....cucumbers. They will take a bite or two out of a cucumber, move to the next, bite that one a few times, move to the next, etc. They eat melons, cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, anything growing, etc. They don't ever sit down and just eat something....it's like they have to sample everything at the buffet. I have a Smith & Wesson M&P15-22 and its only job is to eradicate these little rodents.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Argon down the hole works but is expensive.

Watched a show one night about moving some that were an endangered species out of the way for a construction project. They used a Vactor truck like the safe dig guys use, and sucked them out of the burrows, then drove them offsite and turned them loose.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[AchingBack]

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!

I have the California digger squirrel plague, and I've used bait and flares. I hope the cayenne does the trick.
What I've also done is to shove bird or deer netting, or chicken wire into, or over the entrances. In a digger squirrel colony, each squirrel has it's own entrance. You have to find all of them to be successful.
I put the bait in the hole before plugging, covering entrances.

 

[Nikkorott]

Just a quick update. My leaf blower / pepper plan only got the ground squirrel problem so far. Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, I blew pepper into the holes in the morning. After lunch I would level their mounds and fill the holes with a straight blade. There were still some hold outs so yesterday the ones that were left I dropped some dry into each hole. I haven't seen any today. Hopefully I'm done with them for the season.

 

[AchingBack]

What does dry ice do?