Well, maybe I am a bit smarter than the squirrels I’ve been trying to catch in my back yard woodpile.
After tormenting our dog Chester and annoying me for almost two months, I finally came up with a way to outfox — oops, I meant outsquirrel — a couple of them.
I had about decided to let them live in the woodpile, where they would continue to be a source of entertainment for our dog, but then concluded that they might start chewing the wiring in our pickup truck, which we park outside. We also are warned occasionally about plague, hantavirus and other animal borne illnesses that squirrels might carry, so I moved ahead with my new plan to capture them.
After applying the diminished amount of logic left in my human brain, I concluded that I wasn’t catching the critters because they were too light to trigger the mechanism that closes the flap on the end of the humane trap I’d been using. It appears that after the mother accidentally died in the trap last week, the only squirrels left in the woodpile were juveniles. I suspect they weighed about half of what an adult would weigh.
Because of their light weight, they could sneak into the trap, scarf down the pecan, peanut butter and club cracker gourmet squirrel sandwich that I had concocted, then escape without pressing down too much on the metal plate which releases the trap door.
I came up with a plan to add two heavy flat washers on the triggering plate that would be just shy of enough weight to release the trap door, then wait for the squirrels to visit.
And voila! It worked.
After setting out my first modified trap mechanism, I caught my first squirrel in about 15 minutes.
I reset the trap and in about another 15 minutes, I caught the second squirrel.
We had guests coming over, so rather than continue my pursuit of other squirrels (I think there are two juveniles still left), I postponed my activity until the next day.
Both squirrels were released in a pecan orchard in the country about two miles away from our home. Both bolted out of the trap and ran toward the nearest tree they could find. I hope they are doing okay at their new home.
I reset the trap this morning and so far have had no success in capturing any more of the rodents. Maybe they moved on after concluding that our backyard was too dangerous, since three of their friends are no more to be found.
Stay tuned.
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