Squirrel Trapping in the Orchard

20 Aug

We have so many squirrels….and you wouldn’t think that those cute, puffy tailed little creatures could really cause that much harm.  Until you’re a farmer who grows nuts.  And as it turns out….do you know what squirrels love to eat?  Nuts.

We have been battling squirrels for years.  It’s sort of part of the territory when you’re raising the food that these guys enjoy most.  But this year for some reason populations have boomed!  I’m not kidding.  So people always ask, do you try to trap them?  And I usually just laugh, because I happened to be married to a very dedicated squirrel trapper.  And this year it’s been so bad that I’m scared to even walk into our orchards afraid I might get hit by the trap line (not really but close!).

Here is just a quick view of the damage that they can do.  Here is an area of our orchards that doesn’t have a lot of activity at the moment. 

The dirt below the tree is very clean and free of debris.  The nuts are all still on the tree where we would like them to stay until harvest this fall.

And here is a tree that has been hit very hard. 

Can you see all that material under the tree??  Can you see all those nuts on the ground, or more accurately all those empty shells where the nuts used to be?

So, “Yes!” is always my answer when folks ask if we have tried trapping, we have about 36 traps out everyday in fact.  And have caught around 43 squirrels this seasons….but who’s counting (haha…it’s us…we are counting!).

If you have any good advice, or even bad advice (we will take anything!)  What has worked, what hasn’t???  Leave you ideas below, I’ll check back in when I’m done checking traps.

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