This PVC tube homemade squirrel trap is useful for getting rid of pest squirrels and also for trapping wild squirrels for food. This trap is humane, in that it doesn’t kill or harm the squirrel once caught (providing you check it regularly). It’s up to you, if it is a pest squirrel, you can either re-home it somewhere else, or you can kill it. Obviously if you are using the trap for hunting, you’re going to kill it.
All you need for this trap is around a five foot length of 6 inch PVC tube. You also need an end-cap or something to securely plug one end of the tube.
Once you have your length of PVC tube with the end capped off, it’s time for bait. I think it is a given that peanut butter works best; smear a little around the open end of the tube and then keep adding a little more down to around an arm’s length down the tube. I also got a slice of bread (which I covered in peanut butter) and dropped it down to the bottom of the tube.
Ok, so now we have the baited squirrel trap, it’s time to set it. Set the trap where you know there is squirrel activity. You want to set the plugged end on the ground and rest the open end against a branch etc. You don’t want the tube to be fully vertical, as the squirrel won’t go down the tube. You want to set it at around 60-70 degrees. This way the squirrel will go down after the food, but cannot escape due to the slippery surface of the inner tube.
A few tips –
- You can spray or smear some cooking oil around the inside of the tube, around an arm’s length down. This will make it doubly difficult for the squirrel to escape.
- If you are planning to dispatch the squirrel, the easiest way to do this is to hold a hessian/burlap bag over the open end of the tube and simply tip the squirrel out into the bag. A heavy whack with a piece of wood etc should kill the squirrel quickly and humanely.
- If you are hunting squirrel for food, make several of these homemade squirrel traps and set them in several locations.
There you go, a low cost (free if you have some PVC tube laying around), zero skill way to trap squirrels. Happy hunting!
Related books: Guide to Trapping & The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
