Best bait for squirrels

[Foxyboy43]

Afternoon chaps.
Just got some new ground with a broadleaf forest on it so thought I might have a go at the local tree rats - advice please on best baits?
The harvest will of course be repurposed as bait for other much larger critters with even bushier tails…

 

[shakey jake]

Peanuts and maize both work well

 

[Foxyboy43]

Peanuts and maize both work well

Thank you sir - does whole wheat work at all (I have lots!).

 

[Rhodesianjess]

Try putting a drop or two of aniseed oil on the trap plate, they're generally suckers for it. Kibbled maize and wheat, same as I feed the pheasants,handfull thrown up the tunnel certainly helps.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Autumn

K

 

[shakey jake]

Thank you sir - does whole wheat work at all (I have lots!).

Ive never tried, whenever i trap i want quick results so go for a real draw. They hammer bird feeders so id guess wheat or sunflowers would work

 

[GWP]

They love my pheasant feeders with wheat and are partial to the plastic drums when empty

 

[Greenmist]

Peanut butter with grain mixed in, you can smear it at a chosen ambush point or on a traps trigger plate

 

[Foxyboy43]

Try putting a drop or two of aniseed oil on the trap plate, they're generally suckers for it. Kibbled maize and wheat, same as I feed the pheasants,handfull thrown up the tunnel certainly helps.

Great thank you sir - that makes it easy for me.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Peanut butter with grain mixed in, you can smear it at a chosen ambush point or on a traps trigger plate

Funny thing is that I was going to try the PB plastic jar screwed to a tree trick.
Thank you.

 

[merlin]

Afternoon chaps.
Just got some new ground with a broadleaf forest on it so thought I might have a go at the local tree rats - advice please on best baits?
The harvest will of course be repurposed as bait for other much larger critters with even bushier tails…

If you are shooting them, I use whole maize. Much cheaper than peanuts, and the debris left under a feeder after they've nibbled the heart out of a kernel is a positive indicator that squirrels have found your feeder.
(Once they have found it, let them keep using it for a week or so for their confidence to really build.... then sit somewhere comfy and wait for them to come in. And then hit them hard.)

 

[Foxyboy43]

If you are shooting them, I use whole maize. Much cheaper than peanuts, and the debris left under a feeder after they've nibbled the heart out of a kernel is a positive indicator that squirrels have found your feeder.
(Once they have found it, let them keep using it for a week or so for their confidence to really build.... then sit somewhere comfy and wait for them to come in. And then hit them hard.)

Yep - shooting it is. I can get a bag of maize next time I am lifting wheat for the phezzies.
Much obliged M.

 

[Greenmist]

Yep - shooting it is. I can get a bag of maize next time I am lifting wheat for the phezzies.
Much obliged M.

You can also get feeders which have a built in back stop that go on the tree and you shoot from a hide

 

[merlin]

Yep - shooting it is. I can get a bag of maize next time I am lifting wheat for the phezzies.
Much obliged M.

Good luck

 

[BLUEROLL]

Peanuts and maize both work well

I have found that if you mix them they will discard the maize to get at the peanuts.

 

[enfieldspares]

In my cage trap in my garden I use smooth peanut butter. I just buy the cheapest. My friend in his garden uses in his cage trap whole monkey nuts in their shells. Both work.

 

[Leupsak]

for Baiting I just put pheasant feeders 50m from my highseats and for Fenn traps cheap peanut butter in trap compliant tunnels as any seed there just draws in the black birds and pheasants

 

[Foxyboy43]

Thank you all - PN butter, nuts and maize/wheat meze it is!
Plan to put a camera up first so we shall see….

 

[Cyres]

I use whole maize. You could use whole maize cobs if they grow maize around you as there will be masses on the ground post harvest. Put them in a cage type feeder so squirrels have to work to get fed. Squirrels are sight feeders so attached by colour or movement hence a bird feeder next to your squirrel feeder is v handy.
D

 

[Bowderdale]

They will pretty much eat any seed/ nuts but I’ve found the top choice is whole monkey nuts followed by peanuts, sunflowers, split maize, wheat. Whole Maize is always the last to go out of the box if used in the mix. I spray the box and tree with aniseed oil not the feed.
Put your feeder on the dividing line between broadleaf and spruce, ideally on a rough oak tree.