I’ve seen a tutorial for fried squirrel on YouTube, and it looks amazing. I’m eager to try that, squirrel bone broth, etc.
I live in Indianapolis, and we have some very chunky squirrels running around. Here’s the critter I’m thinking of trapping: the fox squirrel: DNR: Fish & Wildlife: Fox Squirrel
It’s legal to trap on one’s own land:
Resident landowners and tenants can live-trap a fox squirrel that is causing damage on their own property without a permit from the DNR. The fox squirrel must be euthanized or released within the county of capture on property in which you have permission.
I’m thinking of using this trap:
So questions:
• They say to worry about disease. Rabies? I suppose normal cooking makes it safe?
• How should I kill what I trap? I don’t own a gun. Drowning seems a bit gruesome, but I can’t think of anything else.
• Should I hang up the meat overnight, or any other prep I should do?
Twenty years ago there was a “mad squirrel disease” scare in southern Indiana–you weren’t supposed to eat their brains anymore. I assume that still holds true. So don’t eat the brains, k?
Squirrel can be tasty. But it’s mainly how you cook them. Generally the meat is tough without a lot of fat.
Most people that kill and eat squirrel, hunt them in the woods with a low caliber rifle, like .22. I never met anyone that trapped, killed and ate a city squirrel in a residential neighborhood. You would be the first I’ve heard of, but probably not the first to actually do it.
Since you don’t have a gun and you don’t want to drown it, I would suggest hand to hand combat, but I would wait to release until you get the trap inside your house. Otherwise he’ll just run up the nearest tree.
Doesn’t sound like you’ve ever killed and cleaned an animal before. A fish? You don’t need to hang it up overnight. Cut it’s head and four paws off. Eviscerate it, and skin it. Wash it, and then cook it according to your recipe.
Yep, the recipe I saw involves corn starch batter, flash frying in an iron skillet and then slow pan frying for an hour on low.
Yeah, they are not eating garbage. My neighborhood is full of big oak trees, and they are gathering lots of acorns now.
So drowning would in fact be the best method? I’m not going to go at it with a knife!
Yeah. I’m interested in hunting but it was never part of my family life growing up. I would like to hunt small game and birds. I’m happy to take joints of venison and elk off people’s hands as well. Hunting seems to me to be one of the most environmentally friendly and “real” ways to eat.
Skip the in between step. Investigate lethal traps and see if they fit your overall situation.
You could buy an air gun. They aren’t regulated as firearms in Indiana. They are sometimes used for squirrel hunting when they aren’t already trapped. A quick look shows this thread on INGunowners.com from 2010 that makes it look like that’s not an option for Marion County though. That might not be an option if it’s Indy proper instead of the Indy metro area outside Marion county.
Leg hold traps can be kind of gruesome, and Havaharts work well for cats I can attest (err… not for eating, that’s how we got my childhood cats). However the slats are small and the metal plates make it hard to get a pissed off squirrel out.
Drowning sounds wrong. Invest in a .22 or at least a pellet gun. Obey local laws* which then might mean driving the trap to the country first. Maybe use a gentle but firm grip garbage pickup stick or net to secure the animal and empty the cage before dispatching such as breaking the neck. I would use a blade or freezer above drowning.
I wouldn’t hang unless a recipe calls for it. But you could try it both ways.
Lots of animals get spongiform encephalopathies, although I haven’t heard of it coming from squirrel and most of the links point back to the same article so links seem vague. Like this article would get a Mythbusters “Plausible” stamp, but isn’t certain. CJD is scary, so I would avoid brains anyway.
*ETA: often firearms discharge limits include air rifles, so don’t assume that it’s okay in the city because its quiet.
Contrary to popular belief, rodents and rabbits don’t really get or carry rabies. They can at least in theory but it almost never happens in the wild possibly because they can’t survive a fight that could give it to them long enough to develop or transmit it. That isn’t something you need to worry about.
“Small mammals such as squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, chipmunks, rabbits, and hares are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in any unusual manner and rabies is widespread in your area.”
However, there is still other types of risk. Make sure you aren’t dealing with this little guys relative before you resort to hand-to-hand combat because you might get your ass kicked.
I grew up in the South where hunting and eating squirrels is fairly common. They taste pretty good when prepared correctly. However, I never knew anyone that trapped them to eat them. There was an official squirrel season and people got them with a .22 rifle or a smaller gauge shotgun.
I’d have thought the sorts of lethal traps available for killing rats might work - if you place them inside a tube and suspend them in a tree to keep them away from cats (and rats, I guess).
In terms of cooking, any recipe that works for rabbit ought to work for squirrel - they are similarly lean meats - often needing a bit of added fat to keep them moist (bacon is a good adjunct)
There are other things to be careful of. Squirrels can carry tularemia - its more common in rabbits - but it can be fatal in humans and while its curable with antibiotics (as far as I know), it might not be diagnosed quickly. If the squirrel has gotten into poison and just hasn’t died yet (they’ll happily eat rat poison or bunny poison, you’ll get poisoned as well. Those things are rare however.