Da Squirrels, Da Squirrels!

Well, I have pretty well confirmed that it's squirrels that have been pulling up my bean and corn seedlings.  The past 2 mornings, I have slipped out of the house quietly in the morning and rousted several squirrels from my garden at the right spots. 

They all run away in the same direction.  There is a grove of trees in the east neighbors' yards that direction that don't seem to produce much that a squirrel can eat.  They seem to be aspen and birch.  The trees on the west side are oaks, and I never see squirrels from the garden run in that direction.

Squirrel families are territorial, so I gather that the East Side squirrels are outcasts who are starving.  I ALMOST feel sorry for them.  Still, they pulled up 10 of my 12 bean seedlings, 18 of my 18 corn seedlings, and 6 of my 12 cucumber seedlings.  It may also explain why most of my crocuses on the east side of my lawn have been dug up.  Maybe I've been blaming the voles overly much (not that they are innocent either).

But the point is that there seems to be this one group of squirrels that have learned to get their food from my garden.  I have been here 26 years  and only started having a problem with squirrels 3 years ago.  At first they only took the green apples from my 2 dwarf espaliered trees.  I didn't mind that much because I never remembered to spray them and the insects always ruined the apples anyway.  Last year, they started taking the green tomatoes.  This year, its even the various seedlings.  I have to stop this group before they teach others squirrels these damaging habits!  I know that sounds silly, but local groups animals do learn successful feeding strategies not common throughout the species.  So I am after one small group of squirrels.

I tried using a live trap several times, but I haven't caught a squirrel yet.  I tried it on the ground next to the beans, on the ground just before the beans, and finally on the top of the fence where the squirrels run along.  No luck!  Well, I caught a young possum, and it won't be tripping my trap any more...

Well, maybe my bait was bad.  I tried cashews, I tried a slice of peach, I tried a small apple picked from my tree.  A couple of times the bait was simply gone with the enclosure doors closed, but most times the doors were shut with the bait still inside.  I assume the squirrels ran over the top of the live trap and triggered the release lever.

So I went to a site that discussed the right bait for attracted squirrels into live traps.  It said the best was peanut butter with peanuts in the shell stuck down onto it.  I didn't have any of either.  But I did had some dried corn on the cob.  I bought a cheap bag of it to bribe the squirrels away from my garden, but hey if they like it that much, it should get them in the trap, right?

I sure hope so.  One web site I found said that squirrels are gluttons and easy to trap.  Right...  I'll settle for ONE first.