Just looking for a bit of advice on trapping Grey Squirrels.
Does the location of traps make much difference? The traps are baited cage traps. Baiting mainly with maize and occasoinally peanuts
I fortunately come from an area that still has a lot of red's and trying to keep it that way, so not that familar with grey's and there habits etc. Trying to run them for as little time as possible as catching a lot of reds and do not want to stress them unduly by trapping them esp with this colder weather..
Not high numbers of greys but a lot of reds about so really want to target greys as much as possible and catch them quickly to leave the reds in peace
Caught a few relatively quickly even without pre baiting the traps, but my neighbour had a go before me and really struggled to catch his fisrt 2 despite them being seen every day at a feeder. I still think there is another 1 or 2 in area and 1 was seen yest. I had some traps out pre baiting but not set. Food has been disapeearing pretty quickly from the traps.
Set some of them this lunchtime and had a quick check at dusk had 3 Jays and 2 reds out of 6 traps, thought i caught a glimpse of a grey near a trap but both were already ocuppied.
Do traps catch better on larger trees? Ie if any area of medium sized trees would the largest tree attract them, or a windblown tree?
Or does the bait attract them and siting makes little difference
Do trees on fence lines catch more than further into the wood? At one area a few 00m's of hard wood strips about 40-50m wide, would 2 traps either side be better than 1 more central in the wood. Bearing in mind got limited traps
Is there any way to discourage birds from entering the traps? Since i've had them pre baited the food has been disappearing quickly but seemingly by jays. Would a flap on the front discourage Jays?
Cheers for any advice