There’s some irony there…
In this thread full of squirrel hate; here is a bit of positivity. They bring joy to the masses. Squirrel Lives Matter!!
Squirrel pitch invader gives Man City ground staff the runaround Soccer on ESPN - Scores, Stats and Highlights
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How is this much different than trappers who use submersion sets which are legal in some areas?
The problem with setting traps is you have to use bait. You’re basically inviting the little bastards onto your property. And there are a quadrillion squirrels so unless one has a quadrillion traps set at once it’s a losing proposition. Just can’t win.
I never heard of submersion sets.
It was the way the guy laughed metaphorically on the mailing list about drowning them. Most of us thought he was an asshole.
Meh. I can see your point for, say, fruit trees.
I never had them bother my sarracenia when I lived in the woods. Mrs. Plant (v.2.0, the bitch) had a court order where I could water them once a week, and I lost them all. Grown from annotated seed as to Canadian location, but I digress. 
Squirrels annoy my little dog. We quit feeding birds because hawks came to our bait of birdseed.
Squirrels are just trying to make a living, like what ever animal killed my cats when I lived in the woods, and the supposed coyotes here in the city, so that I go out with the dogs in the morning when they poop.
I don’t enjoy shooting them. I enjoy killing trout. I trap and shoot rats and squirrels in the interests of pest management only. I wish I didn’t have to do it, but squirrels don’t share well.
Oh, shit. Something has moved into our attic. Suddenly tonight we’re hearing lots of thumps and rolling sounds, almost like they’re bowling up there. Squirrels with acorns, I suspect. 
So, I’ve been googling about getting rid of them, and the consensus seems to be trap them, transport at least 10 miles(!), and close off all the holes they got in through.
My question is, why does it seem to be assumed we can’t just kill them? Nobody expects you to trap and release mice and rats. What’s so sacred about squirrels? It’s not like squirrels are endangered species. And I’m a meat-eater, meaning I’m perfectly willing to take responsibility for other, larger animals being killed for me, why should I hesitate over squirrels?
Are they somehow specially hard to kill? Wouldn’t ordinary rat traps be enough to do them in? How about poison baits? Yes, I know that would mean having to deal with dead bodies. I’d far rather do that then have to spend hundreds of dollar on extermination services and such. Besides, since this just started, surely it’s only a squirrel or two at this point?
I think some people are emotionally attached to them. They are cute, what with the fluffy tails, and the scurrying across suburban lawns. I, myself, hate the furry little bastards. They destroy my garden, bury random seeds that turn into plants all over my yard, and break into the attic and wreak havoc. They are vermin in a slightly more attractive package.
My vote is rat with fuzzy tail. I encourage you to treat them as such. Do what you are comfortable doing. I would caution against poison, unless you have some level of confidence about where the bodies are going to end up. If it dies in your walls, then that’s an unpleasant problem. If it dies in a neighbor’s yard and a dog or cat gets it, then that’s a problem.
People may have gotten more squeamish, but the company I hired 15 or so years ago used deadly force. Came home one day and had a squirrel hanging by it’s neck next to the hole it had been using to get in.
Update: so, I gathered up a broom, dustpan, and trashbag, and head up to the attic this morning. I found… nothing.
Literally, nothing. We used to store tons of crap up there, but we got our act together this past spring and cleaned it out completely. There’s nothing but a lightfixture, an old rotary TV antenna way out at the far end, and a bare wood floor.
I found no animal droppings, no litter from munched whatever, no acorns lying around. No signs of light coming in from any holes around the entire perimeter, as far as we could tell, but the insulation might block them, I suppose. (The wood flooring stops a few feet short of where the roof meets the, um, rafters(? whatever it is that the flooring was laid on.)
Would our invisible squirrels chose to nest UNDER the flooring, in the fiberglass?
There were a couple mice traps up there – we’ve left them up there and check them when we think of it, ever since a minor problem some years back – and one of the traps is entirely vanished, the other has been sprung and the peanut butter it was baited with has been cleaned away to the last molecule. So clearly something has been up there since August-ish, and took one trap home as a souvenir?
And no way we were imagining the noises we heard last night.
Going by some Internet suggestions (yeah, I know) we will leave the lights on up there, and plug in a radio tuned to a talk station. I’ll pick up some mothballs and ammonia while I’m out later on. Apparently the theory is if the squirrels are just moving in, they’re still skittish about human noises and they dislike the scents of mothballs and ammonia and will hopefully decided there are plenty of other fishes, er, houses in the world.
And then we await further developments. Fingers crossed. We’ve already had a bunch of other unexpected household expenses this year, I really don’t need another at this point.
Look before you sit down.
Heh!
While I was picking up a few groceries, hubby got a start at the hardware store. By the time I arrived he had a gallon jug (!) of ammonia, the mothballs, five traps (“The Better Rodent Trap”) that claimed they would handle rats, chipmunks and gophers (again, no mention of squirrels) and something called a Pestinator.
Which is a small plastic box you plug into a household socket that supposedly uses the ‘neutral wiring’ of you house to generate some type of field that humans can’t hear and which won’t interfere with your other electrical gear but is unpleasant to rodents and ‘may’ help drive them away. (Such a ringing claim, eh?) Personally I’m highly skeptical – sounds sort of like the Emperor’s New Clothes. “You can’t hear if it’s doing anything, but maybe it will.” But, oh, well, hubby liked the fact it claimed its (undetectable) field spread over XXX square yards or something.
So I just down-sized the ammonia jug and added a few mouse traps and we went to the cashier. Who surveyed our pile and said, “Looks like you are starting a war!”
Hubby’s made some wistful comments about his old boyhood rifle and how he used to be death on rats. NOT IN MY HOUSE, I tell him.
Anyway, magic box plugged in, traps and smelly defensive barriers set up. So far no noise from the attic, but I did hear some faint scrambling/scratching noises in the wall of one room. I’d like to think it was something hauling ass for better environs.
Rat traps won’t cut it. Squirrels are a lot bigger and stronger than rats. And please don’t poison them, scavengers can move the poison further along the food chain.
Roaches and ants are attracted to the sixty cycle hum.
They are planting their own traps. Be careful!