After rat poison/antifreeze...How do i rid my yard of squirrels?

Question

I've crushed rat poison into peanut butter/cracker balls. I've mixed antifreeze with peanut butter/crackers/sugar. Soaked pecan halves in antifreeze...they have chewed through a brand new garbage/storage bin, lid and inner rim to get to bird feed/seeds. I'm in a suburban area. I'm not sure a BB/pellet gun would be wise/safe. I can only think of one other method, extreme amounts of sleep aids. OD them, or the last thought, rat traps. Not wanting to go that route if not necessary. I LOVE the vast amounts of Cardinals, Robins, BlueJ,Finches, etc. that come to feed each day. I'm worried the birds will also go to the bait on traps, no need for explanation of possible outcome. Does anyone have any ideas or personal home remedies they can share with me? It's become more like living in a big city with sewer rats. There are multiple dozens of squirrels in my FRONT&BACK YARD. Also, my surrounding neighbor's yards as well. I'm trying to take in consideration that some of my neighbors may enjoy watching the tree rats. As a kid and adult, I too, find them funny, interesting, and sometimes, extremely smart. Smarter than the credit given. So, with as much information I can give, but also, taking into consideration...**WHAT CAN/DO I DO TO BE ABLE TO HAVE MY FRUIT TREES, BERRY BUSHES, BIRD FEEDERS, FLOWER GARDENS, PEACEFUL, CLEAN, PLEASANT FRONT/BACK YARD FREE OF THESE CREATURES? one more thing, they literally sit in the trees of both front/back yard and chews LARGE branches in half, which then, falls on my roof, in my yard, on my flowers, on my car, etc... #DEADSQUIRRELADVICENEEDED **

Answer 1

You cannot selectively rid your garden of squirrels. It's not possible.

• As noted by others, poisoning them also poisons everything else including large birds of prey that feed on them. If you see any dead hawks, owls, or eagles within a mile or so of your property assume you did it. You may also be killing your neighbors' dogs and cats.
• Trapping / Shooting or other forms of killing squirrels in a suburban environment is a bad idea. First of all, squirrels breed and they move around. Unless you kill all the squirrels within about 100 square miles of your house (and almost all other wildlife with them) you'll be unsuccessful. And there are animal lovers who would unhesitatingly kill you if they see this stuff. The normal thing to do with squirrels after trapping them in a cage is drown them in a bucket. Are you going to do that in front of your neighbors? It's not worth it.
• You can make your garden less attractive to ALL wildlife be removing things that attract them. Don't feed birds. Cut down trees. Don't plant anything. Each step you take towards making your garden look like the inside of a concrete prison cell, the less you'll attract wildlife.
• Or go the other way: Embrace it. It's very hard to make bird feeders squirrel proof, and squirrels will always feed on the stuff dropped by the birds on the ground. But you can make the feeders more difficult for squirrels to access, and by doing that, you can arrange that the birds get 75% of the food and the squirrels 25% rather than the other way around. Then enjoy watching it all unfold like a scene from an old Disney movie.

My advice: Learn to love them.

Here: Here's a deer, a turkey, and a cardinal. I hate squirrels too, more because they get into my attic than my garden but anyway ... it is worth enduring all their mischief for rare moments like this.

Answer 2

You should remove and dispose of (securely) all the poisoned bait, before you kill (or kill more of) your neighbor's pet animals, directly or through ingesting poisoned squirrels. Likewise the predators that would help you by eating squirrels, if eating squirrels didn't kill them because the squirrels were poisoned.

Removing the food source is the very first thing you should do to reduce squirrels.

The only "reasonable" approach to killing them (other than selectively hunting them) is to trap them in a live trap, so that you can release any birds or your neighbor's dogs/cats that inadvertently get trapped, and then kill the trapped squirrels as humanely as possible. [Transporting them elsewhere is often strictly illegal, and generally does not work.]

Answer 3

Kill traps are the best next to shooting them. If city orderances prevent you from doing the above options then live trap them in a large 1 door cage trap and then submerge into water. Lastly, the best posion (which is still a crapshot) is Tomcat rodent bait blocks...stick blocks in thick plastic bag(s) break it up with hammer outside add peanut butter to the powder and make soft peanutbutter posion balls...bait in areas of activity. Good-luck!

Answer 4

All BS answers! Just a bunch of rodent lovers that are cool with it when it's their neighbor's house and property damaged. Kill them all!!! Posion, kill traps and an air rifle works best...happy hunting!!! And get those numbers up!!!