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Squirrels in attic

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2003-08-03          60862

Anyone have any tips for dealing with tree squirrels who have taken up residence in the attic? They are in a very difficult place to get to, either from the inside or outside, due to a complex and steep 12/12 roofline. I suppose I could stand on a ladder and wait for 'em to show then pop 'em with a CB cap or pellet gun but I don't like the idea of shooting a whole in the shingles if I miss :)


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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2003-08-03          60863

Two words: Rat Zapper ....


Link:   

Click Here


 
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Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 4297 Southwest MiddleTennessee
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2003-08-03          60864

Either lock the cats in the attic with them or try one of those have a heart traps baited with peanut butter or sunflower seeds. You can always use the giant rat traps with peanut butter too, but the wife and kids will think you shot Bambi if they find out. :-) ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2003-08-03          60866

Thanks for the link, Mark. I saved it and may have to use it in secret - my wife is already telling me "Don't kill 'em, don't kill 'em - they're cute!". I told her if they chew through the wiring and the house burns down the insurance won't cover it, but it didn't phase her. "They're SO cute", she says. Argh.

Maybe the live traps will work - I'll pick one up and give it a try.

Chief, obviously you've never met our cat. All she does is eat and sleep. Hunt a filthy rodent? Never. Heck, when an ant walks in front of the cat she just yawns and watches it go by. Where's a mean barn cat when you need one?
....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2003-08-03          60868

Hey Mark, have you actually used the Rat Zapper on squirrels? I spent some time on their web page and their FAQ says it wasn't actually designed for squirrels but "some customers have reported" that it works on squirrels.
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harvey
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY
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2003-08-04          60870

Rat poison works real well. We live trap 1st, lead poison 2nd and use rat poisin 3rd once there are entrenched.

They do smell for 3 or 4 days but no more problems in the walls. ....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
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2003-08-04          60893

The squirrels are next on the hit list. Right now I am killing a pack rat every night on the perimeter of the house and they are the bigger issue.

Pack rats are very hard to trap and very trap wary but the zapper is pulling them in and whacking them. When I get them thinned out I will try the squirrels in the wood piles or maybe the mice in the shed.

Might have to use a different bait for the squirrels. ....

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AC5ZO
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 928 Rio Rancho, NM 87144
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2003-08-04          60895

I kept squirrels and rats off of my house with an electric fence charger. You just need to run a wire over to where they are getting in. The electric charge is not dangerous to humans or large animals, but it will kill a squirrel.

I would use hardware cloth to cover the holes already made and that same material can be used as a ground mat for the electric fence charger.

Putting cats in the attic is a bad idea. Cat urine may be worse than the squirrel problem. I have a room in my barn that still smells like cat urine from when the previous owner let cats stay in there.

CB caps will work. I have used them for racoons in an attic before. Practice with them a little and don't make a shot until the animal stands still. You need to be able to get the animals out. I used a long fiberglass pole with a thin wire loop on the end. I would loop the wire around some part of the animal and draw it tight with a string and pull the animal out of the narrow part of the attic where I could not crawl. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
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2003-08-04          60912

Harvey, the three tiered approach sounds good. Live trap first, then poison. What is lead poison?
....

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Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003
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2003-08-04          60913

I think Harey was referring to the ballistic type lead poisoning. :-) ....

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kwschumm
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2003-08-04          60914

Thanks AC5ZO, maybe I'll do that after the live trapping. The hardwire would probably be ideal for covering this current hole that is in an odd pyramid shaped covered area where three roof planes come together. It would zap those trying to get in, and if we don't get 'em all out it would zap 'em on their way out (with the associated stench).

You're right about cat urine. Man it stinks.
....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
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2003-08-04          60916

Oh, THAT type of lead poisoning. I'm all for that (when the wife is gone) but I don't want to shoot holes in the roof! Now, picking them off on the driveway slab is another story. These suckers climb right up the side of the house onto the roof. I see 'em in the driveway once in awhile, but they are very skittish - opening the door spooks em and they're off to the races.


....

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Billy
Join Date: Oct 1999
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2003-08-04          60917

You could use chicken wire to cover the hole/opening.

What's that old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! ....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2003-08-05          60972

Rat Zapper update: I have had it about a week and it is killing a rodent every night. Some of the packrats it has zapped are way to big too flush down the toilet(a little extra material for the septic) and I have to bury them or throw the carcasses over the fence.

Actually I bought two Zappers but I have been too lazy to go to the store to get enough batteries for the second unit.

Based on the size of the rats I am getting, I would speculate the it will put down a squirrel too unless it was one of those pre-historic 10 pound proto-squirrels.

....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2003-08-05          60983

Mark, the rat zapper site has a couple of different models. Which one are you using?

There's at least one prehistoric squirrel that lives around here. Sometimes I look out and see a big 40 foot fir tree shaking like crazy and if I look long enough I often see the giant squirrel. This sucker has to be 30 inches long nose to tail. So far the only squirrels I've seen going to and from our attic are much smaller, maybe a foot long at most and half of that is tail.
....

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Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2003-08-05          60985

We had a german made air pistol at my grandfathers in Ont. It would easily take do the monster greys and blacks. That is what we used it for. It was 22 cal single spring cock on the barrel but I don't know what the muzzle velosity was but I think it was greater than my crossman rifle (750 ft/sec).
Now you have me wondering were that pistol went? ....

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DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2003-08-05          60991

I have the RZ 2000. The blue plastic one. ....

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AC5ZO
Join Date: Jul 2003
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2003-08-05          61009

I know some people that seem to have "squirrels in the attic". Do you think that the RZ 2000 will work for them too? ....

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DRankin
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2003-08-05          61011

Perhaps. But not for bats in the belfry.

The challenge would be in figuring out how to get their tiny heads inside to make the electrical connection. ....

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AC5ZO
Join Date: Jul 2003
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2003-08-05          61012

When I was reading the website on the Rat Zapper, I figured that I could make a version out of PVC pipe with little contact wires going to the inside connected to my electric fence charger.

If I slanted the wires toward the food, it would kind of force them in like the old Oriental finger puzzle trick. I would have to make it small enough to keep the Cottontale rabbits from getting in there however, or my wife might just kill me in my sleep. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
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2003-08-05          61016

We use a water trap for squirrels made from a piece of stainless stove pipe (soldered with silver solder) and has always got them, even the wariest of the critters.

It is a piece of 8" pipe about 18" high, with a solid base and no top, there is a 'deck' on one side of the top with a ramp leading up to it. There is a spring-loaded 'diving board' that leads out towards bait which is suspended above the end of the board. When the critter tugs on the bait it trips the release mechanism giving him the last bath of thier life.

As Bill Cosby put it in one of his old comedy routines, "How long can you tread water? Ha Ha Ha"

Best of all it resets itself automatically and holds MANY dead critters at once without any 'fumes' to speak of.

Best of luck. ....

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Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 4297 Southwest MiddleTennessee
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2003-08-08          61209

Mark, I think they need you and your Rat Zappers in New York! LOL! ....


Link:   Firefighters admit defeat in battle against rats

 
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