Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Trap for ground squirrels?

My sister has ground squirrels tunneling under her concrete driveway causing cracks and cave-ins.
What trapping method would work best?

Thanks,
Fenton

.22LR

Ha, that was my first thought too.
They can’t shoot firearms on their property.

I use a #0 or #1 long spring, clear vegetation away from the hole and place the trap upside down with the pan over the hole. Ideally the gopher will try to push past the pan and you get a perfect neck hold.
It also works when the gopher is outside the hole and tries to get back down the hole. The key is having cleared away any stone or vegetation that would hinder the trap closing completely.

Drowning them out works best

I use either rat traps with peanut butter or my favorite is the 2 and 1/2 inch conibears.

Mornin, I use an old trap from a hardware store. It works better if you make the platform a bit wider out of 1/4 inch plywood. Bait the lever or arm on it with peanut butter, they can't resist it. The spring on mine is getting weak with age but it will still throw the squirrel about 20 yds. Funniest thing I've ever done with clothes on. Have a good day guys. (Not kidnn). GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

110 conibear in front of the hole works well.

They cant get caught shooting firearms on their property.

Can she use poison baits?
For ground squirrels, I take 3” light wall pvc drain pipe and a Tee fitting glue a 2’ piece on both horizontals and a 1’ piece on the top and wire it to a fence post with the 1’ section pointing up and drop rat bait or gopher bait down it. Then the dogs can’t get it but the squirrels can. They go in their hole to die and we haven’t had a dog get a poisoned one yet.
I have caught a few with a havaheart medium trap but it they wouldn’t go in until there wasn’t any green grass around and that trap was about the only food for a few hundred feet of the hole. So if there is landscaping around and they have a lot to eat then a trap might not be the most effective option.

A mouse trap. Bait with peanut butter. They run against walls so you can just set them facing into the wall and they trigger the trap as the run across it.

How about making snares out of picture hanging wire? Small loop over the hole with other end tied to a brick.

If you have some free time attach it to your fishing pole.

Have them bass turds around here...

17M2 goes into action

They are just as bad as p/dogs in open fields too

Again...whack every one I see

What variety of ground squirrels?

My kids started their college funds trapping 1000s of them for a farmer friend of mine using nothing but #0 longs set right in front of the hole. Don't make it complicated...just stake it far enough away so the gopher cant drag the trap too far back in the hole.

Dead ones like this

Got one this morning while moving water

Have a lazy Hawk that hangs around for the rifle to crack....

Never go in the fields unless the Ruger 17M2 rides along in SxS

Is that a California ground squirrel? When I was a kid I shot one like that here in South Dakota, never saw one before that or since then. It had distinctive goldish spots. It was different than the regular gophers and ground squirrels in our area.

I use a live trap that has a one way door and have caught several at a time. Tractor Supply and Rural King sell a couple versions and, after looking at them, I made my own out of hardware cloth. Works great, throw an ear of corn or bird seed in it and leave. Come back later and give the critters a soak, empty it and put it back out for more. Mine gets loaned around to friends and family to get rid of the little pests.


TSC squirrel trap