Catching a squirrel

sandhills · February 18, 2011, 03:46:59 AM

I don't know if this should be posted as an outdoor topic or indoor topic but think it's rather comical either way. Yesterday i get a call from my aunt and it seems one of her dear friends had a squirrel fall down her chimeny and was trapped in her fireplace and can I help with removal, ok easy enough I think to myself, ha ha ha. My wife and I head up there, just took a heavy blanket to throw over it and carry it outside, well the police had already been there and missed catching it with a fish net so it had made it up into the ducts behind the fireplace. I tried to find a live catch trap that would fit inside the fireplace but no one had one so on to day 2. Go to bomgaars this morning $42 later got a squirrel trap (can't hurt the poor thing you know :

) and go to place it but she's not home. Come back later and she's there, I knew she had a black eye from a fall a few days earlier but didn't know she also broke a rib in the same fall (she's in her eighties by the way) so here I am dismantilling her fireplace with her laying on the floor banging on the tin work with a curtain rod telling it to "come out, come out" it took a long time to convince her to get off the floor and out of the way, I really wasn't sure where he was going to come out of but knew the state of mind he was in and really didn't care to see him tare skid marks over her face when he left. I tore the fireplace down just shy of taking the bricks out of the wall and still hadn't got to him. I had planned on just setting the trap and didn't have any tools with me so I didn't get much accomplished other than irritating the heck out of the squirrel. Went back tonight with the wife and girls, hoping they could occupy her long enough to keep her out of harms way and keep her from getting on the floor again and told my wife I didn't care if it cost me 50 stitches, if I can get a hold of him I'm not letting go till he's at least 50' out the door. When I looked under the fireplace I could see everything but his head, no lie ask my wife, at that exact same moment my cell phone in my pocket started vibrating, scared me plumb to death, I didn't have my welding gloves on yet but had already started reaching anyway cause I saw my chance :D. Well that's it for day 2, he went flying back up into the duct so I set the trap, see how tomorrow goes, my little pellet gun would have went a long ways tonight.

Norm · February 18, 2011, 08:21:55 AM

If you'd asked yesterday I'd of made this so much easier....just light the fireplace up.

Problem solved. digin_2 :D

Autocar · February 18, 2011, 08:33:18 AM

:D :D :D

ely · February 18, 2011, 08:41:25 AM

its all about the food here norm. ;D

Woodwalker · February 18, 2011, 08:57:21 AM

I have a Jack Russell that would love to get in on this act :D

sandhills · February 18, 2011, 11:48:14 AM

Quote from: Norm on February 18, 2011, 08:21:55 AM
If you'd asked yesterday I'd of made this so much easier....just light the fireplace up.

Problem solved. digin_2 :D

Norm, that was my first thought, but the little old lady didn't want it hurt, and seriously thought this thing was gonna walk out of the fireplace, look at the open patio door and just walk outside. I couldn't convince her he was one pithed off unit and was gonna come out of there 100mph no matter what she said to it, then we'd be chasing it around her house. The trap actually worked and he was successfully caught and disposed of today 8) That thing cost me about 5 hours and several trips to town :-\ did get a big loaf of banana bread out of the deal though

Oh yeah, one of my neighbors had the idea (not knowing he wasn't actually in the fireplace) just drop a bowling ball down the chimeney. He couldn't stop laughing when I told him why I needed the trap.

ErikC · February 18, 2011, 11:56:35 AM

It's just one adventure after another, right sandhills

sandhills · February 18, 2011, 08:29:56 PM

Story of my life Erik, keeps things entertaining though

sprucebunny · February 18, 2011, 08:33:59 PM

I like the bowling ball :D :D That cracked me up !!!

Much as I like squirrels, once they get indoors, the gloves come off. Just ask the one that stood on my laundry pile and yelled at me ;D

Norm · February 19, 2011, 07:52:10 AM

You must have friends just like mine to think up the bowling ball. :D

Will we be seeing a thread on the food board about squirrel for supper. ;)

semologger · February 19, 2011, 11:43:40 AM

I never have had squirrel Pancakes.

sandhills · February 19, 2011, 04:06:04 PM

Quote from: semologger on February 19, 2011, 11:43:40 AM
I never have had squirrel Pancakes.

:D :D :D
Sorry guys no thread on cooking squirrel, flattened or otherwise ;), she wanted to see him released so I had to do it. Funny thing was she told me take him clear back in the alley and point him away from the house, he came out of that trap like a rocket sled on rails, did a 180, under her fence, and right up the tree beside her house :D :D I really couldn't help but laugh. By the way she has a few really nice black walnut trees in her yard ;).

SwampDonkey · February 19, 2011, 04:27:34 PM

Rat trap with peanut butter and a sherbet on top. End of that foolishness.

beenthere · February 19, 2011, 07:54:58 PM

Hmmm?
Our squirrels have bushy tails. What is in that trap?

doctorb · February 19, 2011, 08:02:23 PM

Did you consider placing a length of 1/2" rope down the chimney to the flue and then starting a small fire? I think he would've survived, but I don't know which way he'd come out.

sandhills · February 20, 2011, 01:52:31 AM

Doctorb, I thought of a lot of things I could put down the chimeny that he could use to climb back out but was at the mercy of one little old lady who owned the place and really didn't know better, and that pretty much says it all. ;) The chimeny had a vent that only opened up to about 4" and she was sure he couldn't get through that, but yet he could get through an opening about 1.5" into the duct work. :

I don't care, he's gone and she's happy, life is good again ;D.

SwampDonkey · February 20, 2011, 05:17:42 AM

Red squirrel beenthere. I've caught them by rat trap and box trap as well. Have to clean up on them every so often. ;D

clww · February 22, 2011, 06:56:15 PM

How about a trip to the hardware store for an early Mothers Day gift of a chimney cap? So you don't do the same thing all over again when that squirrel has a litter and they find out what a neat place that chimney is for hide-and-seek. ;)

isawlogs · February 22, 2011, 07:03:18 PM

Sheeesh, don't tell him that , we may be able to get a sequal out of this for next fall. !!!! :D

CX3 · February 22, 2011, 09:57:52 PM

I couldnt help but laugh. I would like to see how long you hung on to that squirrel when he was chewing your fingers off like hotdogs :D 50 feet would have been a long stinking ways :D :D

sandhills · February 23, 2011, 12:29:14 AM

Quote from: CX3 on February 22, 2011, 09:57:52 PM
I couldnt help but laugh. I would like to see how long you hung on to that squirrel when he was chewing your fingers off like hotdogs :D 50 feet would have been a long stinking ways :D :D

Oh no, I wasn't gonna be running with him, he was gonna turn into one of those flying squirrels, all I had to do was hang on until I got it to her patio door. Trust me, by this point in time I could've done it (it very possibly could have been suffering from lack of oxygen by then though) ;D.

SwampDonkey · February 23, 2011, 06:33:45 AM

Mississippi Squirrel Revival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16fG1sDagU

clww · February 23, 2011, 08:51:03 AM

:D :D :D :D
Ray Stevens-Always funny!

doctorb · February 23, 2011, 09:01:52 AM

Swamp-

Could be one of your better posts! :D :D Never seen that one before. Very appropriate for this thread. Doctorb

sandhills · February 23, 2011, 11:51:26 PM

SD, I can't tell you how many times I thought of that song while I was trying to dig him out of that fireplace, thanks for posting that, I'd never seen the video. Here's a picture of the end result.

SwampDonkey · February 24, 2011, 08:31:06 AM

I agree with your aunt, that little guy should be let go. I know they are a pain in the butt. But the little buggers have to fight starvation and find a secure spot to curl up every night. I have box trapped a good many squirrels and taken to the woods. I have also trapped a few by rat trap so don't confuse me with the PETA group. ;) We have very few gray squirrels in rural areas, they are most concentrated in towns. Any squirrels I have caught were reds and I took them where there was lots of spruce cones and hazels bushes to forage in. ;D You should have seen all the cone shelling spots on the snow on my woodlot last winter. Must have been a bumper crop of cones, and the squirrels can have all they can eat. ;D

pineywoods · February 24, 2011, 09:47:17 AM

Yeah, the Ray Stevens song is a hoot, but the video just adds a bunch to it.
Mississippi Squirrel 8)

Chuck White · February 24, 2011, 11:12:38 AM

I once had a minnow trap assembled and hanging on the wall in the garage and one day I walked into the garage and the trap was moving around and there was a lot of noise. As it turned out, there was a red squirrel in it! He'd gotten in and couldn't get out!

I've since taken the trap apart! But, I have assembled temporarily and caught other squirrels. It's easy if you just place some bait inside!

clww · February 24, 2011, 11:55:05 AM

Quote from: Chuck White on February 24, 2011, 11:12:38 AM
I once had a minnow trap assembled and hanging on the wall in the garage and one day I walked into the garage and the trap was moving around and there was a lot of noise. As it turned out, there was a red squirrel in it! He'd gotten in and couldn't get out!

I've since taken the trap apart! But, I have assembled temporarily and caught other squirrels. It's easy if you just place some bait inside!

That trap is a keeper! Don't even have to try to catch anything, yet it still works! Awesome!

SwampDonkey · February 24, 2011, 12:52:37 PM

They sure like sliced apple. Also in the fall when I peel apples for sauce, often a squirrel had carried a piece of peel onto the steps and scraped the apple flesh from the peel. Now that just shows ya the little buggers are always looking for an opportunity for nourishment. ;D

Jeff · March 01, 2011, 12:57:46 PM

Well, it looks like it's my turn. My neighbor called last week and said he was looking out his window and could see a Grey squirrel chewing a hole in the back of my barn. 25 years that barn has been out there and I never had a squirrel do that. Anyhow, I go out there to look, but the wind is blowing over 40 miles an hour. The hole was on the backside, above the loft. On the inside, the loft is chucked full, the barn in front is full, and there is not good way to get in there until good weather. So, I took a rake and banged around on the loft, hoping I would chase him outside. I then went out and around back, the wind dropped a dead branch out of an oak that about hit me. I looked at it, and with a flash of brilliance, stuck it, tightly, in the hole to keep the squirrel out until I could make a better repair.

Two days later the neighbor called and said "Jeff, you need to come out and look at the stairway you built. I said Huh? He said, just go look at the back of your barn. I got my boots on and went out there. Steve came out too. My temporary fix was being used as a stairway now for the danG thing to get up there. It simply stood on the branch and chewed the hole wider, and now, instead of jumping out, he could come out and sun itself in the southern sun.

beenthere · March 01, 2011, 01:03:00 PM

We'll stay tuned, as I wanna see how this plays out. ;D

SwampDonkey · March 01, 2011, 01:45:48 PM

When I lived in Fredericton the house next door had the corners of the roof at the bottom chewed out in the boxed in ends. One end had a family of gray squirrels and the other end had pigeons. An in our back yard was half a dozen big old butternut trees for the squirrels to stash nuts in the fall. :D

SwampDonkey · March 01, 2011, 01:50:07 PM

That squirrel was making his home there no matter what. :D

I was visiting a place one time. There was an old shed out behind the house. I looked and there musta been 25 red squirrels coming and going out of every corner, window and door (they were long gone) and holes chewed through board and cedar shingle and eves. The worst infestation of bushy tailed rats I ever saw. :D

beenthere · March 02, 2011, 08:26:37 PM

Church Squirrels

There were five houses of religion in a small town:
The Presbyterian Church,
The Baptist Church,
The Methodist Church,
The Catholic Church and
The Jewish Synagogue.

Each church and Synagogue was overrun with pesky squirrels.

One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn't interfere with God's divine will.

At The Baptist Church the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week.

The Methodist Church got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creation. So, they humanely trapped the Squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.

But, The Catholic Church came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church.
Now they only see them on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter.

Not much was heard about the Jewish Synagogue, but they took one squirrel and had a short service with him called circumcision and they haven't seen a squirrel on the property since.

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