You Want to Kill Squirrels?

Need squirrel removal in your hometown? We service over 500 USA locations! Click here to hire us in your town and check prices - updated for year 2020.

After you read the below information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How much does squirrel removal cost? - get the lowdown on prices.
How to get rid of squirrels - my main squirrel removal info guide.
Squirrel job blog - learn from great examples of squirrel jobs I've done.

You don't need to kill squirrels. If it's legal in your state, it's easier to trap them in live cage traps and relocate them. Or install a one-way exclusion door over the entry/exit hole. Even if you do intend to kill the animal, it's easier to catch in a live trap than by lethal means. Some folks like to shoot and kill squirrels, but if you just want them off your property, you can have a professional trap and remove them. You can avoid putting out bird seed. If they are chewing on something, hot sauce can prevent that. But for general squirrel problems, especially when they are getting inside a house, trapping or exclusion are actually the easiest and fastest and most efficient means of solving the problem. Killing squirrels is generally a bad idea.

Here we see a squirrel caught via a 60 Connibear or body grip type trap. These photos came from a trapper in another state. If this type of trap is legal in your state, you can set it over the hole they are using, and it will catch the animal coming in or going out. This type of trap will very quickly kill the animal. It's not the type of trap a homeowner could likely buy, and definitely not the type a novice could set, so call a pro if you want this type of squirrel exterminating. My company cannot offer this type of service, and I only do live cage trapping and exclusion through one-way exit doors.

For more squirrel information, go back to the squirrel removal page.
For do-it-yourself tips, read my how to get rid of squirrels page.

Squirrels cause a number of problems for people. The most common conflicts that occur with squirrels involves their desire to live inside of buildings. Like all members of the rodent family, squirrels are excellent chewers, and they will chew their way into your home or commercial building. Once inside, they may even chew on wires or pipes! People often hear the squirrels running about in the attic or ceiling. They often bring in nesting debris, and can create a fire hazard, not only due to the debris, but also by chewing electrical wires. Squirrels will also chew on the woodwork of a home. Everyone knows about how squirrels steal food from birdfeeders, but that problem can be solved by buying squirrel-proof feeders. Squirrels have two litters per year, and reproduce quickly, like all rodents. This means that at times the squirrel population can grow to high numbers, and extra pressure is placed on buildings. Squirrels will move into attics or chimneys, or even places like drier vents. Most trained wildlife control professionals have excellent experience in solving squirrel problems, so if you need squirrel control, click the links on this page to find a wildlife removal company in your neck of the woods, and get rid of those squirrels once and for all.

Is Poison An Option?  I've seen a few squirrels killed by rat poison.  The reason I've seen this is because the squirrels died in the attic of course, and caused a horrible smell.  What a lousy idea.  It would have been so much easier to block the squirrels outside or trapped them in a cage trap than dealt with the stink of a dead, rotting squirrel.  Of course, most of the time, squirrels won't die from rat poison.  The primary reason is because they rarely eat it, and they rarely eat anything inside the attic, unlike rats.  But also, they have a different body composition and the poison doesn't work as well.  Poison is not only inhumane, it's mostly ineffective, and if it does work, great ready for a stench.


AAAnimal Control is a professional nuisance wildlife control company located in Orlando, FL. We offer solutions to wildlife problems throughout the Greater Orlando Florida area, including squirrel control. Wildlife services include animal trapping, capture & removal, plus animal damage repairs and preventative measures. We also offer biological cleanup and many other services. Give us a call at 407-729-6946 any time to discuss your wildlife management issue and schedule an appointment. You can always browse this site for more details and info, and you can even check out prices ahead of time. If you live elsewhere in the US and have found this site and need a local trapper in your area, click here for a nationwide list of 100's of professional squirrel removal experts.

Here's an example email from someone who wanted to kill squirrels: "Hello! We have some gray squirrels hanging out in our roof...in at least one part of our attic. We hired a company and humanely trapped one young squirrel in a cage near their hole on the roof. They tripped the cage several times after that and we caught nothing.. Today the cage caught two young squirrels but they gnawed their way out before the animal control guys could get them. Our guy says he never had one escape before. I don't like the idea of kill traps, but don't see how these cages can get the rest of squirrels. When are kill traps an option. I much prefer humane traps but they are not working. Also, do we need to take out all the insulation we had blown in a couple of years ago? We bought into the idea of installing steel along the top of gutters to exclude critters in future. Do you like this idea? Thanks, Rhonda"

Dear Rhonda - Your trapper doesn't sound very good. All quality squirrel traps are made of steel, and there is no way a squirrel could gnaw its way out of steel. I've trapped close to one thousand squirrels, and I've never seen or heard of such a thing. As for the cage being tripped with no catch, that's another sign of an amateur who didn't know what he was doing. But you don't even need to trap the squirrels at all - the installation of an exclusion device - a one-way door that squirrels can exit through, but not enter again, can be mounted on the squirrel's hole into the house. You don't need to resort to killing the squirrels, which is more difficult than trapping or exclusion anyway.