Snaring Squirrels

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First off I spent a long time with Joe Carty, prior to his passing, discussing red squirrel snaring. Joe had winters of over 5000 snared squirrels. Secondly I spent some time with Wayne Sharpe one February to observe about 20 of his poles and discus his methods (probably Wayne was one of Joe's squirrel snaring students). Not sure how many he had that day but it filled his pack sack.

 

Pictures by the author of the article linked to at the top of this post

Key points:

• Squirrels are snared on a horizontal pole between to trees at a squirrel midden with 24 gauge brass wire or with 26 gauge stainless steel wire (stainless fishing wire). Wire size is of the utmost of importance.
• (The) pole, preferably with the bark still on it, approximately 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter to fit from one tree to another. Clean the pole of all limbs and knots. A thinner pole makes the position of the squirrel's head more predictable as it travels along the pole.
• The pole should be positioned horizontally between five and six feet above the ground.
  
• For a long span you can use a forked stick in the center to rest the snare pole on so as to take the bounce out of it.
• The wire is cut from a roll into 16 ½ inch lengths and a 1/8 th inch eye is twisted in one end. 
• Make 1 ¾ inch (diameter) loop and twist the wire onto the pole so the wire comes up the side and the snare eye is near the top or even past the center of the top
• The height (bottom of the loop) of the snare should be about 3/4 to one inch above the pole.
• Multiple snares can be placed on the pole but they must be far enough apart that the snared squirrels will not get tangled up with each other, i.e. at least 16" apart and at least 16" from supports. The squirrels can twist themselves off if they can reach a tree or another, dangling squirrel.
• Snare wires are a one-time-use item. Kinks make them weak.
• You do not need bait to snare squirrels

ERJ notes: The author talks about finding where the squirrels cache their food and to use the trees closest to the cache. As a small land holder who tries to grow nuts I might not have a cache on my property but I certainly have a lot of squirrel traffic.

Squirrels avoid traveling on the ground, presumably to avoid predators (feral cats, rattlesnakes, foxes) and getting their fur soaked by the morning dew. While they can jump from branch-to-branch they prefer to travel on horizontal "connectors". Who has not seen a squirrel traveling on electrical distribution wires or along top-rail of a fence?

Since the nut-grower probably has a pretty good idea of the cover where the squirrels nest and he knows where his nut trees and bushes are located, he could build a temporary "fence" topped with 1" to 1-1/2" diameter poles between the squirrel's bedrooms and the dining room. Locally, Staghorn Sumac and second-year Hazel suckers are about perfect for the toprail. Farther south, perhaps bamboo would be acceptable. In other places 1-by-3" furring strips turned long-side vertical would probably work just fine.

Since the "fence" is temporary and since no chain-link or woven fabric or electric fence wires will be hung from it, it can be flimsiest of "X"s for the vertical posts with a single tripod on the end to keep the entire she-bang from collapsing. 

The layout of the ERJ ranch. Red, dotted line indicates a reasonable place to put a faux-fence to funnel squirrels and create a snaring opportunity

I doubt that the nut-grower would even need to build the squirrel super-highway the entire distance from the woods to the nut plantation. A good twenty-or-thirty feet would starting at the "bedroom" and pointing toward the nearest extent of the plantation would probably suffice as the squirrels would stay elevated as long as possible.

Or, you probably already have a preferred route between the bedroom and your nut plantation. Filling a gap in the elevated travel along the route should be a no-brainer.