Squirrel problem- is block salt the answer?

[gbeneke]

Doing my usual fall 3/16 line fixing with some replacements this week. Squirrels have chewed my lines to a frazzle
in some places.
Since everyone thinks this is due to a craving for salt, I bought small cow salt blocks and will put them close but not
near my problem lines. As a bovine vet, I saw cattle eat dirt and lick wood to get minerals and salt so maybe this
will help.
Interested in your opinions and will keep you posted on my results.
Thanks,
Doc Beneke

[Pdiamond]

Hey Doc,
I take care of my squirrels with my 22. Of course it helps that I really like squirrel stew. Knock on wood I have never had them chew on anything I have had up, so far.
This will be my first year with 3/16 lines so we'll see what happens. I'll still reduce the population this fall.

[DrTimPerkins]

We prefer to get them via lead poisoning....high velocity, copper-jacketed lead. :D

[minehart gap]

I agree with Dr. Tim.

The problem is that there is no end of them. You get rid of 25 and there are 30 migrating to take there place.

[amasonry]

well, it is hunting season. i use corn for bait and pick off those little buggers with my 22. a salt block might work too.

[JoeJ]

About 12 years ago, I was having a major problem with red squirrels chewing 5/16 lines and main lines at my sugar house woods. My son and a friend volunteered to give me a hand with shooting the squirrels with pellet guns. My sugar house is in an area of town that is a no shooting zone. In 2 and a half weeks they shot 93 squirrels. That put an end to 98% of my squirrel chews. Since that time, I have used peanut butter baited rat traps to keep the red squirrel population under control. I keep the rat traps in 3 different areas of my woods with more conifers. I get one every now and then, just enough to hardly ever have any squirrel chews. Kind of a pain keeping the traps baited, but I just visit them every now and then and renew the bait and possibly empty a body.

The strange thing about my squirrel issue at my sugar house woods is that at my newer 7 year old remote woods 4 miles away on about 40 acres with 2,300 taps, is that I have literarily had 2 or 3 squirrel chews in all that time. And there is quite a big population of red squirrels in those woods. Must not be in their DNA to chew poly. However to make up for no squirrel problems, I have fishers and deer that chew 200-300 drops and a lot of 5/16 lines every season. During last seasons repair, I used 160-170 coupling on chewed or chopped off lines.

Joe

[TapTapTap]

I have a few squirrel incidents but it's manageable. I think it's partly due to a good balance of predators to prey. We have at least 2 foxes and several barred owls and hawks too.

Earlier this year we saw a fox carrying 2 squirrels. That's a good hunter and it beats setting traps!

[calvertbrothers]

I too have had squirrel problems we got a lot of hickory and beech. I’ve taking out hemlock to open up crowns. And because of that the red squirrel are homeless. And I got 3 sharp Australian Shepherds that get a few here and there when in the bush. The little wolf pack is relentless.

[vtbackyardmaple]

Hammys (name of squirrel from movie) are a nuisance. Thank god I've only got 3 lines and 26 buckets. 3 lines are easy to replace. Sorry for the big boys having to deal with so many issues.

[kudu]

I've had issues with squirrel chewing lines and tried several different ways. I also believe it is a learned behavior that the adults pass to the young. I placed some salt blocks through a couple woods and found that I had less damage in the vicinity of the salt blocks than lines further away. I have to be careful where I place them as it is considered "baiting" when deer season arrives if there is any salt, or mineral blocks or corn placed in the woods within so much distance of a deer stand or hunter.
I have even offered to pay a bounty to the neighbor boys to hunt squirrels and gave them a couple boxes of .22s, but they never got much into it, maybe a half dozen at the most.