Grey squirrel management

[gary112]

I find Fenn traps pretty effective,had 33 last week,had 8 traps down over seven days in 30 acre wood.A lot of young Oak have been ruined where they,ve barked them about 3/4s of the way up

[drinksloe]

2 hours ago, Squirrely said:

Many thanks to all of you who have replied. My son and I would be happy to travel say a 60 mile radius from Loughborough, Leics. To date we have cleared greys from a five acre wood (22 in three visits), a wood 150m x 200m (48 over approximately 8 visits), and an 8 acre wood (10 one visit). Apparently, squirrels make good eating and are seen as a delicacy in London restaurants. In my previous life, I have carried out squirrel dissections and there seems little meat on them. Currently, I freeze them and they are drip fed to a pet fox but maybe as a community we should try them. There are no secrets to our methods of control, we shoot with short range silencered guns and low noise ammunition. The combination is very effective and any passer by would not recognise the noise. We have not received a single complaint despite shooting near houses. If any of the Forum members would like us to lend a hand with control we'd be delighted to help. As mentioned in my previous post, we do this control for free. You might consider making a donation to the Red Squirrel Survival Trust which initiated my interest in the removal of the greys. You can contact me on [email protected]  

 

Fair play to u, wish more folk would do it.

 

No offence but are u entirely sure u have wiped out every squirrel in only 3 visits??

Usually a lot harder than that to wipe out, esp just by shooting.

I'd guess just lowering the population a bit, esp when shooting fairly large numbers in a visit..

Generally squirrels or any other animal it will be a continual control plan, as even if u have wiped hem out will soon repopulate again from elsewhere.

Nature hates a vaccum

 

Wot u shooting them with airguns, fac airguns or 22lr? Or even 22lr with low powered bullets forget the name of them now?

[the village idiot]

Too far from me unfortunately.

[gary112]

6 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

 

Fair play to u, wish more folk would do it.

 

No offence but are u entirely sure u have wiped out every squirrel in only 3 visits??

Usually a lot harder than that to wipe out, esp just by shooting.

I'd guess just lowering the population a bit, esp when shooting fairly large numbers in a visit..

Generally squirrels or any other animal it will be a continual control plan, as even if u have wiped hem out will soon repopulate again from elsewhere.

Nature hates a vaccum

 

Wot u shooting them with airguns, fac airguns or 22lr? Or even 22lr with low powered bullets forget the name of them now?

As you say,its almost a continuous effort to keep numbers down.I pull my traps up after a week of catching and then reset them a couple or three weeks later and can catch as many again

[Squirrely]

Thanks again for the replies. I've always been a little bit worried about Fen traps because I'm not 100% certain what I might find in them and secondly I'm not in a position to monitor the traps on a regular basis. It's true you can't guarantee a 100% eradication and there's always the problem of re-population. However, having removed the best part of 50 squirrels from an area of 150 x 200m, we are confident there are very few if any left and we have checked this over a couple of visits. At the very least the population has been massively dented and songbirds are starting to appear whereas previously the wood was like a morgue. Removing the greys is an uphill battle for all of us but I feel that I must do what I can. Anyway happy to help Forum members with grey squirrel removal and we are insured.  

[shillo]

50 squirrels in one wood...  ive only shot one squirrel in 50 years!  too clever for me!

[Patrick goulding]

They taste 👅 beautiful fenn traps in a box on the tree or on the ground Or shooting them on a bait station is the way to go  but will always be a on going battle. But I wouldn’t like to see everyone eradicated. We wouldn’t have anything to watch and wouldn’t ever have anything to hunt and eat. 👍 

[Stubby]

22 minutes ago, Patrick goulding said:

They taste 👅 beautiful fenn traps in a box on the tree or on the ground Or shooting them on a bait station is the way to go  but will always be a on going battle. But I wouldn’t like to see everyone eradicated. We wouldn’t have anything to watch and wouldn’t ever have anything to hunt and eat. 👍 

I know it wont happen but just suppose you could eradicate every last man jack of them would that not allow the reds back in ?

[Khriss]

20 minutes ago, Stubby said:

I know it wont happen but just suppose you could eradicate every last man jack of them would that not allow the reds back in ?

I would like that. Hate Greys. K

[Mark Bolam]

You is well racist.

 

GLM.