I think I have a grey squirrel in my garage attic. I bought a large hav-a-heart and baited it with nuts nested in peanut butter. The next day I found the tray thoroughly empty (not a hint of anything as if it had been washed!) What's the solution- wire down the nuts maybe? Or do I really have a squirrel or something else? Help appreciated! Frank
Maybe it's mice - lightweight enough to not trip the pivoting platform. Or, assuming it's a squirrel, did you put the bait past the platform so the squirrel has to step on the platform & trip the door?
Try some peanut butter to glue nuts down, yea maybe a mouse got there first. Test the tray to be sure it releases easily.
Make sure the tripper works and it should be a hair trigger or easily released. Make sure the trap functions properly. Sometimes mine has to be squared up or adjusted so doors readily fall. I've had mouse traps and Hav-a-harts lose their bait without trapping anything. I also had a raccoon that I could not catch as he was too big for the trap and it would not close on him.
My son just had a dead squirrel removed from the area between his fire place chimney and the surrounding pipe. Took a contractor to remove siding and fireplace guy to cut and repair the pipe. Cost several hundred dollars. You never want squirrels in the house and should do everything to get them out and keep them out.
So a raging fire in the fireplace couldn't cook the critter to a charred nothing.
I discovered that squirrels would reach into the Hav-A-Hart from the side and get the bait without entering the trap. I wired a small piece of hardware cloth on both sides of the trap. I was catching 2 or 3 squirrels a day.
It was in the space between the vent pipe and the insulating pipe. Trying to cook it out could have set the house on fire. If my son had routinely used the fireplace, the squirrel would probably not have nested at top of fireplace. Along with other repairs, fireplace cap was fixed.
You could also take a standard mouse trap and fasten it inside the trap and then wire the snapbar to the trigger of the havahart so that when the mouse trap is tripped, it pulls on the havahart trigger with much more force than a crafty squirrel. Sort of like giving a power boost to the havahart. Then put all the bait onthe mousetrap. The mousetrap, being more sensitive than the havahart, should trigger when the squirrel even sneezes on it.
-dickm
Frank,
I had a similar issue when I used too large of a Hav-a-Heart trap. My guess was that the squirrel was too light to trip it. A friend loaned me a smaller one that he had and it did the trick.
That said, take a look at the following link:
You could probably make your own. When I looked into it at the time, I found that Grainger's carries strobe lights of the same candle power.
In my case, it only happened twice and each time it was a red squirrel that apparently didn't like the rain. Since the Hav-a-Heart trap worked, I never got around to making and installing my own strobe lights.
By the way, they claim that these are also good for installation under decks or porches to keep critters from taking up residence there as well.
Hope this helps.
Peter
I once had a racoon that had taken up residence in my attic. A piece of wire mesh had become loose on a louver. As I looked into the attic, I saw a pair of large green eyes staring at me. Racoons can be very nasty so I tried something that I had read about. I placed a very bright light and a loud radio up there and closed the door. No more racoon. Reattached the wire mesh and all was well. Clint
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