Squirrel Trouble

Last year Kris had problems with chipmunks digging up her flower pots.  This year we had an issue early in the summer seeing a couple sneaking around, so I set out the traps and actually caught a couple, though they didn't do a lot of digging around in the flowers.  What was digging around was the squirrels.  Kris actually had to replant a couple of her flowers more than once this year.

So I set out the chipmunk traps in hopes of catching squirrels.  I actually caught a couple.  The first one Kris let loose in the yard because it was freaking out in the cage.  Kris called me at work to tell me that we caught another one, and I told her to just leave it and I would be home in a couple of hours to release it.  However, about a half an hour before I got home, the squirrel broke out.  I was looking at how with Sarah when I finally got home.

Apparently it was freaking out and ended up tipping the trap over, off the bricks around the patio.  When it flipped, the bar holding the doors shut swung out of the slot locking it in place, so once it was over, the squirrel was able to get out.

I reset the trap, this time in the ground, figuring it wouldn't be long before I caught it again.  I was sitting in the house as I watched a squirrel climb down one of the trees and make its way over to the trap.  It slowly poked its head in, about halfway into the trap, then ran out.  This happened about 4 or 5 times.  It was then I realized what it was doing.  It was crawling in, and grabbing a peanut (I was using full peanuts in the shell as bait), and would then retreat out and eat it outside of the trap.  And then go back inside and get another one.  This went on until the trap was picked clean.  I suppose this is the difference between having a trap specifically for a squirrel, and one that is for chipmunks.

Since we couldn't catch the squirrels in the chipmunk traps, Kris put some mouse traps in her flowers pots.  The thought was that if they went into the pots to dig, the trap would catch them, and at the very least they would deter any more squirrels from digging up her plants.  Well that didn't last long, because after about a week, the squirrel figured out how to get around them. 

I have to say, it is a little bit humbling being outsmarted by a squirrel.  The one true way to get rid of them is to get an air rifle and just shoot them from the window, but since the girls won't allow me to do that, I will have to live with trying to keep them out of the plants and refilling the pots with dirt as it happens.