The flaw in Plan C is the release part.

I got a Kania trap and it has worked wonders. I thought it would be difficult for me to use a lethal trap but it actually felt good to rid the neighborhood of such pests. I don't even dispose of the carcasses, which I thought would be my main problem, I just leave them on the ground beneath the trap and something seems very grateful for the cache it finds.

With as many as you seem to have it may take a while to put a dent in the population. I have not seen a squirrel in my neighborhood for several days now. My neighbor and I have removed about 25 from the area just in the last 6 weeks.

Just smear a little peanut butter above and below the trap to get them interested and put some inside, obviously.

I plan on keeping my trap set and ready, and I believe it will be especially effective in the winter when food is more scarce. Maybe next year you will have more luck with your peaches.

There is much talk on squirrels on this site; in fact it is probably the most talked-about topic. They can jump at least 4 feet, I've read, so unless your peach trees are giants they will be targets even with metal. In my opinion the metal would produce too much heat for the peach trees to handle.

Get a Kania.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kania 2000

Well, what I did was to keep my trees small by keeping them in pots. I then wrapped my trees in chicken wire cages. This was working great I harvested plums, then doughnut peaches, and then nectarines. But by the time my latest ripening peach got to harvest time the damn tree rats (I think) figured out how to get inside. I think they may be squezzing in the seems of the chicken wire but I'm not sure as I never witnessed it first hand. The cages at least slowed them down and I was able to harvest most of my late peaches but I'm worried about next year. I am now considering trapping my self. I am concerned with what to do with a carcass though as I dont think I'll be so lucky as to just be able to count on a predator to carry it off. What would I do with 25 dead squirells? Bury them? I'm afraid the garbage man might get suspicious if every week there is a dead rodent in my garbage.

Thanks,
Scape

Think squirrels are hard to get rid of, try raccoon. Once I quadruple bagged one. One plastic trash bag inside another. Ah man that won't stink. Well about 4 days later you couldn't go near the dumpster. It was so bad I thought someone would call the city on me.

If the squirrel can't jump into the tree and must go up the trunk, I'd think you could make the sheet metal work with 6ft of trunk. It does sound a bit difficult to install and keep in place without leaving a toehold for the varmint.

My neighbor said he actually uses the city trash cans that are around the parks and such. They empty those trash containers more frequently than the usual trash pick up. You just have to be stealthy about it.

I accidentally realized there was a predator when I left a squirrel overnight. It was eaten then next day, but it left the offal and skin. The next day I got two squirrels and they were both completely gone.

Just now I saw a coyote or maybe a fox running down the street in the middle of Denver.

Here the squirrels don't jump more than 4' from the ground and so if you've got 4 feet of branchless trunk you can staple 3' of aluminum flashing starting a foot up the tree or set 4' of duct pipe starting at ground level.

I've been smearing the flashing with grease but others say it can get dirty and squirrels will climb it then. This hasn't happened yet.

The problem is if you haven't trained the trees right for this- peaches in particular can be difficult to retrain.