Red squirrel deterrents?

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Good morning guys, my elderly neighbor is having trouble with red squirrels chewing the wires on her vehicle. What non-lethal deterrents would ya'll recommend?

 

[Bugger]

Traps. Likely just one squirrel that’s obsessed with cars for some reason. If it’s more than one then they’ll probably change their mind on the non-lethal mode pretty quick!
Remote start makes quick work of em if they’re hanging out near the radiator fan..

 

[TSAMP]

Red squrriels? We talking fox squrriels i presume?

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

The funny thing is, she has one mature nut tree and besides this lives on a bare knob in farm country. We have lots of trees a mile away, but none of ours are nut trees, so no squirrels. The river bottom is a couple miles south, and they migrate from there north.

The snare shop has live squirrel traps and I may go that route with some ear corn. Thank you!

 

[5MilesBack]

That's going to be tough without lethal means. People would be shocked at how many squirrels are actually in a single area. Back in 2006 I put in a garden. There were so many squirrels that I started a log book. A couple years later I stopped counting at 700. We used to joke that they must just keep bussing new ones in. Kind of like wolves will be here soon. It's still a little crazy, but not quite as bad as then.

 

[roosterdown]

Red squirrels (small) are not Fox Squirrels (big).

I just dealt with one living in the wall of my house. Live traps failed, dog could not catch it. Finally solved the problem with #8 pellets.

My dog does not catch many, but every spring we usually find a few frozen squirrel-cicles in the yard.

A buddy in CO had a bunch of bird feeders out - he's still a serious birdwatcher - and of course the squirrels would eat most of what he put out. So he'd shoot 'em with a .22; however that squirrel would be quickly replaced in the ecosystem. So he never put a dent in the local population even though he was killing dozens.

He ended up getting a BB gun and shooting them in the ass when they got on the feeders. So they lived, but learned to eat off the ground rather than getting on his feeders. And they are territorial as hell, so those educated rodents kept the uneducated ones away.

Good luck with the vehicle wires...I'd try live-trapping but others may step into the gap...

 

[dtrkyman]

Peppermint oil works for many rodents.

 

[lyingflatlander]

Cayenne pepper to anything.

 

[S-3 ranch]

Peppermint oil works for many rodents.

Yeah a healthy amount of peppermint oil sprayed under the hood will help
Also get some blocks of rat poison and string then on a wire or coat hanger and hang a couple around in tree branches to make sure they don’t do it again
Rats are more typical than a squirrel on wire damage

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Thanks for the recommendations guys. These are garden variety (jumbo this time of year) Iowa fox squirrels. We're going to try live traps and peppermint oil for starters and see how that goes.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Rats are more typical than a squirrel on wire damage

in this case she's seen the buggers climbing under her explorer. It was in the shop for a week, and the day after she got it back she spotted one under there again. She hits her remote start when she sees them, but can't watch 24/7.

 

[S-3 ranch]

in this case she's seen the buggers climbing under her explorer. It was in the shop for a week, and the day after she got it back she spotted one under there again. She hits her remote start when she sees them, but can't watch 24/7.

Yeah they are a pain , peppermint oil has helped with that
Rats and squirrels got me twice , insurance covered it second time, 6 days in shop total

 

[5MilesBack]

We're going to try live traps and peppermint oil for starters and see how that goes.

What's she going to do with them once trapped? They'll just come back if you release them.

 

[Yung6ix]

You need a good dog. Mine has killed all the squirrels around the house. I liked watching/feeding them.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

What's she going to do with them once trapped? They'll just come back if you release them.

Throw the whole trap in a garbage can full of water. Then eat them.

 

[S-3 ranch]

Red squirrels (small) are not Fox Squirrels (big).

I just dealt with one living in the wall of my house. Live traps failed, dog could not catch it. Finally solved the problem with #8 pellets.

My dog does not catch many, but every spring we usually find a few frozen squirrel-cicles in the yard.

A buddy in CO had a bunch of bird feeders out - he's still a serious birdwatcher - and of course the squirrels would eat most of what he put out. So he'd shoot 'em with a .22; however that squirrel would be quickly replaced in the ecosystem. So he never put a dent in the local population even though he was killing dozens.

He ended up getting a BB gun and shooting them in the ass when they got on the feeders. So they lived, but learned to eat off the ground rather than getting on his feeders. And they are territorial as hell, so those educated rodents kept the uneducated ones away.

Good luck with the vehicle wires...I'd try live-trapping but others may step into the gap...

Natural recruitment of squirrels is incredibly difficult to control, the idea training the dominant ones is probably not a bad idea, unless you poison the whole area and keep it poisoned with wired up rodent cubes

 

[E.Shell]

I put out a bunch of those little metal ant baits once when I lived in a community. Grey Squirrels stole every one, but for the next few weeks, I kept finding dead squirrels laying around. Mysterious.

 

[cnelk]

Have her park on a tarp for awhile.

That’s seems to be a good deterrent up in the mountains for critters.