On 16 Mar, 11:08, "BAC" wrote:
So what is it these particular squirrels are doing in your house/garden that
merits the death penalty? If you really need to kill them, and you can't
manage it properly yourself, why not hire an expert to do it for you, as
quickly and cleanly as possible? A person who has qualms about the use of
poison bait would also be wise to avoid shooting at free animals unless and
until confident of making a clean kill, by the way.

Hi BAC and others, I didn't realise I'd generate so much interest.
Many thanks for the advice so far.

Anyway, I don't really want to enter into the difficult ethical waters
of why kill the cute furry animals! There seems to be plenty of
argument about that in plenty of other threads I've seen. I just
wondered about the practicalities of these bloody traps.

I would get the pros in, but frankly I'm too mean, and as I understand
it they would either use Fenn MkIVs (or similar spring traps) like I'm
trying to, or put down poison. If I can coax the buggers into the
traps they are just as quick and clean whether they're set by me or
the man from Rentokil. I do take your point about my poor marksmanship
and the poor squirrels. I'd rather not half half-wounded nutkins
limping around, so I will be focusing my attention on the traps for
now.

Cheers!

Martin