Wildlife Depredation - squirrels

beamernc

beamernc

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This is the first year that my pecan tree has had more than a couple pecans and the squirrels are tearing them up, way before they are ready. Went out a little while ago and 6 squirrels were in the tree and the ground is absolutely covered with cut up green pecans. If I were to wait on squirrel season to open, Oct. 17, I won't have any pecans left. They have already stripped the pears and apples off my trees and chewed holes in my drip irrigation on the blueberries. So I'm tired of the tree rats.

I found this info on the NC Wildlife website, called Raleigh and then our local game warden, and I can start killing them when I catch them "in the act" without needing a permit. If they are on the ground, then I need a free permit. Or if I want to eat them I would need the permit, but it is too early to think about eating them.

So squirrelmageddon starts now!

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Wildlife Depredation

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
www.ncwildlife.org
 
Bloodyhands said:
Throw the legally dispatched squirrels up in the trees for the birds of prey.
Sometimes they need a little reminder they are supposed to be eating those little tree rats.
Hope All goes Well!
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A couple relatives have pecan trees on the properties and have always shot and hung the carcasses near the trees by their tails. They do not stay there very long (hawks hang around) … or over night (they’re not sure if it’s owls, possums or what) … and it does make the crack rats more nervous. They will bark at almost any movement.

I love hitting them with my little CZ wearing a little suppressor using CCI Suppressed (45gr LHP). I’ve actually shot a squirrel with another a foot or so away and he looked over like “WTH?” until I popped him in the head. I swear the hawks actually know what a suppressed .22 sounds like and come in for dinner.
 
Make these. https://carolinafirearmsforum.com/index.php?threads/home-made-squirrel-traps.118158/

I've taken out a crap load of them this year. Most were flea infested and a few had worbles. My record is 6 in one day, but with 6 traps I generally got 2-4 a day. Bait with birdseed. The game warden I talked to told me if they are doing damage to my property, "do it safely".

Remember, assuming they're set, traps work 24/7, your smoke pole only works when you're looking for them.

After 2 weeks of removal my pecans have yet to be touched and it looks like a bumper crop this year.
 
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tod0987 said:
Make these. https://carolinafirearmsforum.com/index.php?threads/home-made-squirrel-traps.118158/

I've taken out a crap load of them this year. Most were flea infested and a few had worbles. My record is 6 in one day, but with 6 traps I generally got 2-4 a day. Bait with birdseed. The game warden I talked to told me if they are doing damage to my property, "do it safely".

Remember, assuming they're set, traps work 24/7, your smoke pole only works when you're looking for them.

After 2 weeks of removal my pecans have yet to be touched and it looks like a bumper crop this year.
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Just be careful trapping squirrels. When I couldn’t shot ‘em I trapped ‘em and more than once a male would try to piss on me. Bed of a truck transporting is okay but in a trunk or even worse back of a SUV the musk stinks.
 
NCFubar said:
Just be careful trapping squirrels. When I couldn’t shot ‘em I trapped ‘em and more than once a male would try to piss on me. Bed of a truck transporting is okay but in a trunk or even worse back of a SUV the musk stinks.
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I don't doubt the males do. The alphas go completely apeschit more so than the others. Those tree rats are not around long enough to smell.

In NC it is illegal to trap AND transport mammals. I'm sure there are ways around it with permits etc. I was once kind-hearted and used to take them for a ride down the road in big, galvanized trashcan (5-6 pissed off squirrels in a can was half way to a can of woopazz) but I was corrected by the game warden in a conversation I had one time. Now I practice the three S's with a T in front of the SSS
 
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NCFubar said:
I swear the hawks actually know what a suppressed .22 sounds like and come in for dinner.
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Well, I think you have better hawks than we do. Ours spend hours flying around at high altitude and scaring things, or sitting in the trees so they can poach little birds (which they seem to favor). I have seen them take a dead squirrel offering, but they don't seem interested in many of them. And they don't seem interested in any role in squirrel population control.
 
Bloodyhands said:
Throw the legally dispatched squirrels up in the trees for the birds of prey.
Sometimes they need a little reminder they are supposed to be eating those little tree rats.
Hope All goes Well!
Click to expand...
OP has previously talked about Ospreys swinging through his property, where he has chickens and other livestock. I don’t think he wants to give them more reasons to hang out there.
 
This post reminds me of my late mother and her war against the squirrels and blue jays who were eating the pecans from the trees in our front yard when I was growing up. One early autumn afternoon I came home from school and noticed several dead squirrels and a few birds of varying species lying dead near the soft shelled pecan tree in the yard. I went in and asked Mom why there were dead squirrels and birds in the front yard. She had loaded up my dad's Browning semiauto Sweet Sixteen with bird shot and went to war against the pests who were cleaning out the pecan trees. From the looks of things she had done a pretty good job of it too. Then she showed my a half dollar sized hole in the den floor where an accidental discharge had occurred. She confessed her violation of the gun safety rules that had caused the damage to the floor when Dad got home and got a mild scolding for it but nothing else came of it. To my knowledge that was the only time she had ever handled a firearm.
 
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Meh, if they are destroying stuff. Eliminate the bushy tailed rats. They are vermin.... I have an understanding with the ones around here. Stay away from the house and the gardens. You live.

Tree rat is tasty though. If it's still flea and worvil season. My mamaw would just toss em in a pot of boiling water with a lid for a few minutes. Then process as usual. Squirrel dumplings in June makes me smile.
 
Snal~ said:
What's the "too early to eat them"?
Here in the mountains I usually wait till the second frost, or first if it's a heavy one, to kill the mites.
Does it frost down there.
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Usually by Halloween
 
Snal~ said:
What's the "too early to eat them"?
Here in the mountains I usually wait till the second frost, or first if it's a heavy one, to kill the mites.
Does it frost down there.
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Yeah, they have fleas and worvils right now.
Tailhunter said:
Poor squirrels.
They have every right to those nuts.

Did you post any signs to alert the squirrels to the fact that those nuts are owned by you.

No? Where there you go. Case closed.
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The two I shot today both had their "own nuts". ;)
Climberman said:
Suppressed .22lr is too fun. Especially if you have room to shoot long range and adjust for drop.
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I'm currently in a sling from shoulder surgery, but I was able to use my old Winchester 67 with .22 CB shorts with one arm and got 2 head shots up in the tree. I'm going to try using the .22 CB shorts, single shot, in my Ruger MKII pistol and see if I can hit them.




tod0987 said:
Make these. https://carolinafirearmsforum.com/index.php?threads/home-made-squirrel-traps.118158/
Click to expand...

tod0987 said:
I've taken out a crap load of them this year. Most were flea infested and a few had worbles. My record is 6 in one day, but with 6 traps I generally got 2-4 a day. Bait with birdseed. The game warden I talked to told me if they are doing damage to my property, "do it safely".

Remember, assuming they're set, traps work 24/7, your smoke pole only works when you're looking for them.

After 2 weeks of removal my pecans have yet to be touched and it looks like a bumper crop this year.
Click to expand...
If I catch them in a trap, then I'll need the permit, since they are not in the "act of destroying property".
 
I have just declared war myself. Little bastards ate a hole in my soffit and are packing my wall with nuts.

I'll be on patrol with the 410 and bought a live animal trap. I have neighbors close enough that I would be nervous shooting a 22 but a shotgun would be ok as long as they aren't on my fence or roof.
 
Sp00ks said:
I have just declared war myself. Little bastards ate a hole in my soffit and are packing my wall with nuts.

I'll be on patrol with the 410 and bought a live animal trap. I have neighbors close enough that I would be nervous shooting a 22 but a shotgun would be ok as long as they aren't on my fence or roof.
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Don't use up all your .410 shells as you might not find any replacements. No one has any in stock. I switched to a single shot 12 gauge as I have plenty shells for it.
Walkabout Dan said:
I relocated 18 this summer.
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I relocated 3 this week, from this life to the next life.
 
beamernc said:
Don't use up all your .410 shells as you might not find any replacements. No one has any in stock. I switched to a single shot 12 gauge as I have plenty shells for it.

I relocated 3 this week, from this life to the next life.
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Lol I took them to the cemetery, literally. Big oaks lots of acorns and no squirrels till I left them there.
 
beamernc said:
Don't use up all your .410 shells as you might not find any replacements. No one has any in stock. I switched to a single shot 12 gauge as I have plenty shells for it.
Click to expand...
I see the Winchester PDX stuff, slugs and the occasional buckshot load … but the last time I saw a box of 25 #8 .410 was at a LGS and it was marked $24.95 … and it was the Sterling Estate stuff not even Winchester, Federal or such.

ETA … I just looked at Midway and when they had .410 in stock it was $15.99 to $19.99 a box from them. Damn, .410 was not cheap before but now I guess I need to rethink what I thought about the LGS’s owner.
 
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Thanks for the heads up on .410. I found this box in walmart probably a year ago and grabbed it, the only box they had. I'll go 20 or 12. I have a 20ga I haven't shot yet.
 
Stable we used to keep our horse at had a problem with raccoons getting into the feed room. He used to trap and relocate but always had raccoons. Started spraying green paint on their back before releasing. Next raccoon 2 days later had a green back.

He took them about 8 miles away over 2 bridges and they were back a day later. After that if they had paint they got popped. If not they got painted and relocated.

Always came back, so he finally quit wasting paint.

SSS. done
 
How does this fit in with nosey Karens and Meck County? Presumably it doesn't. If I can shoot squirrel on my .33 acre slice of paradise, whooeeee, I'm starting tomorrow. Those little bastards ruin all kinds of stuff in the yard.
 
Its funny, since I started my squirrel eradication program a couple years ago, there are none in my yard but many in my next door neighbors yard. They will not come in my yard and go up and down my trees. I leave where they lay when I send them to squirrel heaven. Wild things in the night come and take them away.
 
Timfoilhat said:
How does this fit in with nosey Karens and Meck County? Presumably it doesn't. If I can shoot squirrel on my .33 acre slice of paradise, whooeeee, I'm starting tomorrow. Those little bastards ruin all kinds of stuff in the yard.
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Air rifle. When I was in suburbia. Tree rats were all about my soffit. If they paused in front of one of many safe backstops. They were drt. One nosey retired lady and one full on liberal were close neighbors. Never noticed a thing.
 
Trevillian said:
Air rifle. When I was in suburbia. Tree rats were all about my soffit. If they paused in front of one of many safe backstops. They were drt. One nosey retired lady and one full on liberal were close neighbors. Never noticed a thing.
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I am not in suburbia but I have folks close enough that I wouldn't feel comfortable shooting a .22 in most directions. ALL my neighbors are also law enforcement. So that may not end well. Gun fire is not odd around here. I just have to get in hunter mode.
 
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