Trap for Big Squirrels from Pieges Ouell traps

Our neighborhood has become over run by the squirrel population. Destroying the garden, ravaging the bird feeders and trying to get into the garage. It was time to take action to prevent any more damage. This trap has been incredibly effective. It is extremely rugged and we'll built. It works, buy it if you have a squirrel problem. For more details, see below.In the last 3 weeks, we have eliminated 15 squirrels and 2 chipmunks with one of these larger sized traps. I'm sure that number would be much higher, had I been home to reset the trap during the day and if I had known about baiting it properly. The count generally goes up over the weekend when I'm home all day and down during the work week when I'm not.My baiting tips. At first I baited as the manufacturer suggested, with a soft granola bar piece on the nail in the trap. That yielded nothing but ants for me. Since the squirrels are going after our bird feeders, I decided to try that. A small pile of peanuts and sunflower seeds in the trap has been very successful. My trick is to make sure the pile is visible with a few accessible where they can be reached. They get a taste and then they are committed. See the attached photo.Make sure the trap is in a safe location. Keep far away from children and pets. This thing will easily break adult fingers, so it could do great damage to children and pets. In my case, I have a fenced in back yard with no kids or pets. If someone came over, I'd be sure to remove the trap. It's a little intimidating setting it the first couple of times, but it's quite easy after only a few tries. Make sure to follow the instructions. I've looked up videos on YouTube and some people were demonstrating it incorrectly. Watch the manufacturer video, if in doubt.Be advised that this trap typically kills the squirrel instantaneous, but not always. I've witnessed it in action. Most of the time it works as intended and breaks the neck of the squirrel and it's over before they know what's happened. I've also seen a squirrel dodge into the trap and get their shoulder into the trap. If that happens, it's not quite so quick, FYI. There have also been a couple of occasions of some blood. Only 2 out of the 15, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. Squirrels don't seem to care about smell, blood or their dead relatives. I've seen squirrels squeeze by a dead one to get the bait. Ruthless little rodents.If you need to reduce your squirrel population, look no further than this we'll engineered beauty.July 2025 update: approaching 80 squirrels that have been taken with this trap. Still functioning great. The only change I've made is to mount the trap on a larger, heavier and wider board, to keep it from getting overturned when a larger squirrel thrashes about for a few seconds if it's not killed instantly. Still plenty of squirrels in the neighborhood, but I'm doing my part to keep the population in check.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I bought this rather expensive trap because fox squirrels take about half my apricot crop a season despite my best non-lethal efforts. This thing is the real deal, hence the price. If you are on the fence about small or large, go large. It’s the perfect size for fox squirrels but would be just as effective on Norway rats, pack rats, smaller squirrel species and other similarly sized critters. I would not recommend it for possums or skunks as it is too small to be effective/humane. Followed all the instructions about anchoring the trap in place (screwed it to a 2x4 and attached it to a fence). This is important since all strikes are not immediately lethal. Do wear gloves when baiting and arming the trap to mask your scent. The trap is simple to set, but requires the upper body strength of an average male or athletic female to set the spring loaded double kill bar. I am reducing from 5 to 4 stars for the fact that it might not be possible strength-wise for some to safely set the trap. Otherwise, this is absolutely effective and sturdy. It should last for years and was not made in China, so I’m not dinging them for charging a fair price. Finally, I have saved at least the cost of this trap in produce realized in one season on one tree. My top day saw 3 squirrels eradicated, so check frequently for animals. Snowflake trigger alert: In case of an animal that has not expired, have a back-up method of dispatching the animal. I use an inexpensive pellet rifle and a single shot behind the ear at point blank because it allows me to dispatch without touching the animal or the trap. For 8 squirrels caught, I had to do a follow-up only once. Do your part to stop the spread of invasive species and wasted food. If you can handle setting it, get this trap!

The media could not be loaded. We feed the birds everyday, which in turn attracted Squirrels. We didn't mind feeding everyone, until the squirrels decided bird seed wasn't enough and started chewing electrical wires. Almost $4000 later, we made the decision to buy a non lethal trap for catch and release and a lethal trap as we weren't sure which trap, if any, would work best. We set up both traps and sure enough, both work amazingly well!This lethal trap dispatches squirrels extremely fast. Once the trap hits, the nervous system of the squirrel reacts for literally less than a minute, which happens to everything on this planet with a nervous system after it passes away.I've read other reviews about this trap that said the squirrel was not "killed" right away. This trap has literally caught 5 squirrels and everyone of them was done quickly. We have a camera out back because it also shows our car as we live in the City. Even if the squirrel entered the trap at different angles, the squirrel did not suffer much, if any, based on how strong this trap is. I captured some video from our out back parking area so you can see how the squirrel died quickly. I take no joy in killing anything, so if it wasn't a fast kill, I would have sent the trap back. Watch the video and make the decision for yourself if this is the right trap for you and your family.Below are some tips on how to use this trap as the first two weeks were a bust until we modified some things:1. Make sure you use the safety hook when setting this trap. This trap will require some strength to set. Once you get the first trap bar pulled back, the second bar goes pretty easy. Make sure you use both trap bars or the animal might suffer. (Maybe that's what happened in other reviews where people said the animal did not die right away? Not sure...) ALWAYS Use the safety latch when setting and baiting this trap.2. Instead of mounting the trap onto something with the mounting hole at the back of the trap, I weighed the trap down with some pavers to anchor it as other reviewers said to make sure it was weighed down or mounted to avoid the trap flying in the air. Any weight on the back will hold this trap down.3. I tried putting the bait in the back of the trap like the demo video and had no success, so I started putting a handful of peanuts in the front of the trap just beyond the tripping mechanism inside the trap. I did not leave any food outside of the trap as recommended. I found that putting about 20 shelled peanuts inside worked better than even peanut butter which would wash away in the rain, attract ants, and just overall make a mess on the patio parking area. Sometimes Bluejays would take the peanuts directly at the entrance but would not set off the trap. I learned quickly to use 20+ shelled peanuts (handful) as the first 5 peanuts would be taken by the Bluejays and the trap was bait less after that. Bluejays are very smart and will rob your trap without setting it off. The Bluejays rob this trap often, which is why I recommend using a handful of peanuts spread out from just beyond the tripping mechanism inside the trap. Make sure the peanuts go all the way back to the nail inside the trap. Make sure to set the safety latch, BEFORE BAITING, if the trap is set while you bait it!!! Using this method of baiting, I have caught 5 squirrels in the last two weeks. 0 in the first two weeks trying the video recommendation baiting method.4. Use gloves when setting this trap to hide your scent. I do not use gloves on the peanuts, just when setting the trap or handling the trap. I also leave the trap outside so the rain washes away any scent including any urine from the dispatched animals, etc... Once it rains and the peanuts get soft/soggy, I empty the trap and use fresh peanuts as bait. Fresh peanuts make a world of difference compared to soggy watered down peanuts (squirrels would not even look in the trap with soggy peanuts). Fresh peanuts the night before usually ends up with a catch the next morning.That's about all I can think of at the moment. I posted a pic of how I bait this trap also. This is a great lethal trap for squirrels and other possible rodents. It works quickly and seems quite durable so far. Highly Recommend this trap if you need a lethal squirrel trap!!!