Amber asked:
So, we are keeping poultry in the coops at the 4H farm. The kids pay for the feed for the animals. The problem is that it is costing an arm and a leg to feed the few chickens and ducks in there because the ground squirrels keep getting in. They eat more food than the hens do. I’ve been working on fixing the coop but can see I may not be able to keep them out as it is a very large coop and (well, no need for all the details. Sufficeth to say, I see no solution but to kill the little buggers.
So, we are keeping poultry in the coops at the 4H farm. The kids pay for the feed for the animals. The problem is that it is costing an arm and a leg to feed the few chickens and ducks in there because the ground squirrels keep getting in. They eat more food than the hens do. I’ve been working on fixing the coop but can see I may not be able to keep them out as it is a very large coop and (well, no need for all the details. Sufficeth to say, I see no solution but to kill the little buggers.
Can’t shoot them, can’t sick a terrier on them, not sure if poisons are allowed on the farm. Any suggestions? I REALLY need help!
One more question. Does Juicy Fruit gum really kill gophers and prarie dogs? And would that work with ground squirrels?
La Vie Boheme- If you eat food at all – animal or vegetable, set out ant or coachroach bates, or decorate your home with flowers, killing is part of your philosophy.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Club them!!!!! That’s how I wish I could do it. They are bothersome pests.
I use “One Bite” blocks. A parrafin base with tastee bait and blood thinners or something. They are poison, but specific for rodents and do not cause seconndary deaths of predators and scavengers. And won’t hurt the birds.
Use a bait tube “T” so other animals don’t get to it if you use other poisons.
Or you can get them with rat traps. Put the trap in a box or tube so the squirrels (I want to type bushy tailed rats. That’s how I thin of them.) Tehre are also traps made or burrowing animals and they can be used in a baited tube too. “conebear” traps.
It is possible to live trap them. But then you have a rodent in a cage. Still need to kill it. In California it is illegal to transort wild animals. And releasing them doesn’t solve the problem, just moves it. Harder and stressful on the animal too.
Sounds like a call to the local Agricultual Extention is in order. County Extension Office. Local University.
Is any animal safe on your farm? Suggest you get an alligator – that’ll get rid of the ‘little buggers’!
A friend of mine bought a decorative windmill for his yard. To his surprise all the moles and chipmunks (ground squirrels) soon left. Apparently they don’t like the vibrations of the windmill. You may wish to consider experimenting with devices that vibrate around the coops.
For your second question, I really think someone is pulling your leg as to the Juicy Fruit gum.
Good luck.
Those darn squirrels will do acrobats and contortions to get in to my bird feeds. How about a pellet gun? They are pretty cheap. Or a dog that likes to hunt em?? lol
Trap them with a live trap and move them far away.I do it every year with red chipmunks.A trap is available at most feed supply stores.
Is killing a part of the 4H philosophy?
One of the several types of traps would be your best bet. If you do put out poison bait make sure it is well down the squirrel’s hole so other animals won’t get into it. Don’t use it in the chicken yard. If you use a conibear or other leg trap take care that the chickens or pets can’t get into them. Again, put them well into the mouth of the squirrel’s hole and you will catch them almost every time. Make sure you have the trap staked to the ground since a ground squirrel can drag a good sized trap down the hole I have read many times that Juicy Fruit will work on regular gophers but don’t know about ground squirrels or prairie dogs.
Chipmunks are not the same thing as a ground squirrel. And most 4H chapters have a Shooting Sports project which includes hunting so I would guess that killing is at least not forbidden. Good luck with the little pests.
I too have a problem with those pesky ground squirrels wrecking my mound system. My sons have been out nites with a BB gun but have not got any yet. They keep it up with the burrowing, I’ll need the mound replaced in order to fix the damage done already.
I stick the hose down their hole, wait for them to come out, and either let my Golden Retriever catch and kill them, or I club them with a shovel.
In Colorado, a friend of mind was telling me that the local ranchers were paying kids to feed the Prarie Dogs bubble gum because they can’t take it and it kills them. We have a ground squirrel problem at our lake house in Texas so I wondered if that might work for them. I Googled ‘ground squirrels bubble gum’ and yes, it seems it can be effective against ground squirrels too! Haven’t tried it yet but thinking of giving it a try.
The Answer is that bubble gum does kill very efficiently, they ground squirrels or prairie dogs love the sweetness, they start to chew and it gets stuck in either their throats or stomach and it will swell and blow up. That is what we use in our hayfields and around our livestock because these little rodents carry so many diseases..
Also 4-H members in our area are very aware of killing animals, mainly for food since they raise livestock to sell at the fair, and they are accustomed to their own families living on farms and ranches and hunting themselves up here in the mountains.