Anyone successfully eradicated ground squirrels??

[Calvincrowe]

These are California Gray Ground squirrels. We were invaded by an advance party of 2 last summer. Our reaction was “oh how cute!” Boy were we stupid! Yeah…not anymore! We saw their growing family this spring–6 freaking babies!! They’ve burrowed under our barn, excavating masses of gravel. They’ve since progressed to our house and are under our front cement porch and the cement back patio. I am assuming that flaming death…er…extermination is the only course of action at this point. I am calling various pest control companies but thought I’d check in with the collective wisdom of the COTH family to see what we can or should or shouldn’t do.

Yes, DH has a rifle, but we’ve yet to figure out how we could safely shoot the little sh**s without hitting a horse, chicken, house, neighbor’s cows, etc. We slightly suburban in our location and the state has asked everyone to NOT engage in any activity that can spark a fire…like shooting. Traps?? A vicious Jack Russell?-- our Doodle and small terrier mix try valiantly to catch the little bas****s but no luck so far. I’m ready to buy a ferret and put it on a leash!

[clanter]

we are also suburban but have a bunch of hawks (which is a cast) that seem to have eaten everything small that once ran about here… plus some kitty cats

[Christa_P]

Used cat litter down the holes can be a deterrent.

[stressgirl37]

I’m in CA also. We live on a ranch and they were everywhere! My horse was injured from one of their treacherous holes. My neighbor (owner of the ranch) bought some squirrel traps. He kept track of how many and where he caught squirrels. In one year it was 1,000. They get in the trap and can’t get out and quickly die, no poison needed! The trap can catch several. He used safflower seed for bait. Here is what the traps look like.
https://north40.com/rugged-ranch-squirrelinator-squirrel-trap?utm_source=google_shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5NnbBRDaARIsAJP-YR89ZOfBsZYX1qqe7sify7mN8YP2GiT3A49MOQRmswx-s5DXH3z6LPkaAn5kEALw_wcB

[PeteyPie]

I highly recommend a Weimaraner for ground squirrel eradication – and because they are loyal, courageous, athletic, beautiful dogs. However if you can’t tolerate seeing small animals killed quickly and enthusiastically (which is understandable), don’t get a Weimaraner.

[SusanO]

Well Gremlin did at my house. " No Gremlin. Not a chipmunk! You are supposed to kill rats and mice! " They are so cute. But apparently chipmunk tartare is quite a feline delicacy. No squirrels at my house either. Both totally eradicated.

[goinghome]

There are smoke bombs that will eliminate them. You have to close all the entrances to their burrow except for one, have something at hand to cover the final entrance then you light the fuse and place the smoke bomb down the hole, cover the hole and pile plenty of earth on top - until you don’t see any smoke escaping. I have battled ground squirrels here in southern AZ for years and this is the most effective method I’ve found.

Couple of problems with this method though; the first is that you kill everything that happens to be in the burrow and that can include natural predators such as gopher snakes. The second problem is eventually new ones will move in.

[Calvincrowe]

As much as I love a good dog, we can’t add another to our household (and Weimaraners are awesomely cool!!). There are so many holes…so many… I’d never be able to smoke the turds out. Our place would look like a scene from Yellowstone, with fumaroles erupting from house…barn…under trees…the woodpile…the manure bin…sigh… The hawks seem to prefer my chickens to squirrel, darn it! Our cats find them amusing, but these terrorists are BIG–it’d take two cats to get the adults. Our weasels (yes, we’ve spotted those puttering around) seem to have an live and let live agreement with the invaders, much to our disgust.

The traps look interesting, thank you for the link. But your story of killing a 1,000 of them is scaring me. I’m waiting for a call back from a couple of exterminators. Hoping to hear the news that they’ll be able to handle our infestation. This almost makes me wish for our rats back instead of these horrors. Did I mention they chew through Rubbermaid tubs? and stall mats? And bury grain/acorns/seeds in every conceivable place they can find? I had wheat growing in my manure bin. Oh, and they ate my pumpkin patch! That meant war…

[stressgirl37]

OP- 1,000 in a year on a 300 acre ranch plus some in the neighboring walnut orchard. I was thankful my neighbor didn’t use poison. We had a dog that got into poison from a trap and it was devastating. He recovered but took a long time.

[TCA_Arabians]

Oh Calvincrowe - Can’t tell you how hard I’ve been laughing at your post. It so perfectly describes what I think about the little darlings - particularly the epi*&^ts.

I was really hoping that someone would post something that truly makes a difference. I’m still hoping for that.

True story - Guy decides to pour gasoline down the burrow holes on his property. Guy lights the gasoline at one hole. Suddenly, there is fire shooting out of many, many holes all over his property and it starts to erupt from holes on his neighbor’s property - even though there was no gasoline in those holes. The little sh**ts have a highway system that rivals the Incas.

One day I come upon housemate pouring ammonia and chlorine bleach down a hole in the driveway. I’m fairly certain I shrieked with visions of his prostrate body … lying in the driveway … and squirrels dancing on it.

We’re now trying chili powder around a new 5-ft. Peruvian cactus we just bought. Seems they also like mescaline which is supposedly is in this cactus. They don’t eat daffodils, roses, zinnias or iris. They destroy mums, marigolds, dianthus and some succulents. They particularly like Christmas wrapping paper. They can knock the lid off of a galvanized trash can with feed in it. We now use rocks.

They are clearly part bat or have suction cups on their feet… because they can hang upside-down and crawl across the underside of a roof to get to a hanging plant. Aside from that and all the holes … they’re cute as all heck.

[PeteyPie]

My sweet Weimaraner, Pete, started to fail a few months ago and at the age of 14 passed away. We miss him every day, but this thread delights me a bit, not at the memory of the sad and gruesome (albeit quick) end to the squirrels, birds, lizards and rats which dared to venture into our yard, but at the memory of Pete’s antics, at the fact that he kept our yard free of vermin, and at what is happening now with my husband with no Pete to do that job.

So a ground squirrel has started coming into our suburban back yard because our remaining dog is old and totally oblivious and ineffectual. Many mornings, my husband will come into the family room, narrow his eyes as he stands gazing at the lawn and announce, “There’s that squirrel.” Then (spoken forcefully and with conviction), “Okay, I’m going to do something about that squirrel.” He goes into the back yard and returns a few minutes later holding a small avocado with tiny teeth marks in it.

“Look! He’s eating our avocados! That squirrel has got to go. I think I’ll put this avocado back near the fence because it was too big for him and he was having a hard time carrying it. Or should I put it outside the fence? That way, he doesn’t have to come all the way into our yard to get the avocado.”

My response: “Way to handle the squirrel. That’ll teach him – and all of his little relatives. Good job, Honey!”

I miss Pete. He was so much better at this than my husband.

[Equibrit]

This is who you need ! https://themongrolhoard.com/index.php/stock-information/

[Unfforgettable]

I live in sand country in central WI, and am overrun with ground squirrels (13 lined ground squirrels…but we call 'em gophers because it’s easier to say). There are holes everywhere!! I’ve used all sorts of methods, from air rifle to .22 pistol (they will sit right up and look at me when I’m on the lawnmower, so I do “drive-by shootings”).

But what is really working great this summer are plastic rat traps, baited with a little grain. So far, with four traps in one area I’ve caught over 180 of them.

[Fillabeana]

Maybe somebody has terriers (or any dogs, really, that like to hunt) that would bring them to your house/yard a few times.

Two springs ago, we were branding…when we were done, one fellow let his border Collies out of the pickup. One of them then proceeded to murderize a whole bunch of packrats living in the cow barn…mother packrat and four babies. We invite that fellow and his border collies back a lot.

My own border Collies were herding a Golden Mantled ground squirrel the other day. They’ll eat the little buggers if they are hunting one on one, but if there’s two it seems squirrel herding is the better sport.

[TCA_Arabians]

I plan to attend a community workshop in Sept. on ‘critter control.’ Hopefully, I will hear a new tip. If so, I’ll share it here.