Though adorable and friendly they may be, squirrels can misbehave. They can steal your bird seeds, feast on your garden, and burrow holes in your yard.
Despite that, it doesn’t mean you have to capture them and treat them harshly like pests. They’re still beautiful living beings, and so, the gentle and humane way to deal with them is what we will be recommending here.
So what can you use for squirrel bait? Here are the safe and healthy baits you can give them in order to catch them.
Healthy Baits to Catch Squirrels
Squirrels are eaters of many sorts of food, but to treat them right, you should only feed them healthy baits.
Below are the healthy baits you can give them:
- Nuts or foods with nut ingredients
- Walnuts or acorns
- Seeds and grains
- Fruit (especially apples and oranges)
- Bread
Now, let’s see how you can use these baits to catch the squirrel:
1) Nuts
Nuts are the best bait for squirrels, as they’re their personal favorite. Any unsalted peanut will do.
If you want to make a humane squirrel trap, you can spread peanut butter on a clean paper plate and add shelled or unshelled, unsalted peanuts. Don’t give them too much, though.
And another word of advice: be careful to not feed them raw peanuts, as these may contain fungus that can harm the squirrel.
2) Seeds and Grains
Squirrels snack on various types of seeds and grains too.
One of them is bird seeds, which is the reason why they dig into your bird feeders. Also, they eat plant seeds like sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and poppy seeds.
As for grains, you can easily bait them with Corn Flakes, shredded wheat, Grape-Nuts, or whole-grain cereals. They love them because they contain sugar, which gives them an energy boost.
But remember: don’t feed them excessive amounts of grains or cereals because these often contain high levels of artificial sugars.
3) Fruit
Apart from nuts, seeds, or grains, you can lure the squirrel with small pieces of fruit. They’re great fruit-eaters and love all kinds of fruit.
They particularly love apples and oranges, but they also eat cherries, bananas, watermelons, and melons. In the hot summer weather, sweet, juicy, and aromatic orange slices will certainly entice them.
4) Bread
If you don’t have all of the foods above, then a morsel of bread should work. To make it better, you can spread peanut butter on soft bread and then place it on a paper plate or a shallow holder.
If you want to glue the squirrel to trap it, maybe you can add a tempting gooey marshmallow on the bread too!
Ruling out Poison Baits
Using poison will not only harm and kill the squirrel, but it will affect your yard or inside your home too—if it’s managed to come in.
As a squirrel moves about anywhere—in holes and within walls—there’s a chance it may die in these hard-to-access areas.
This will transmit diseases or attract unwanted pests to your house. Also, if your cat or dog found the bait and ingested it accidentally, it can poison them.
