INFORMATION ABOUT GROUND SQUIRRELS
Quick Ground Squirrel Facts:
- Live in colonies with several ground squirrels per burrow system.
- Holes are kept open.
- Ground squirrels hibernate in the winter with males surfacing a couple weeks earlier than the females, usually in February.
- Ground squirrel season extends from February till the food supply is exhausted, usually into August or September.
- They will usually have one litter a year numbering from 4 to 10.
- They eat green surface foliage and will denude the immediate area around their burrow openings.
- They will forage up to 100' from their burrow opening.
- The Belding ground squirrel can multiply at a very rapid rate and can exceed 100 rodents per acre.
- Holes can be part of a huge mound or partially hidden with no mound.
- Mounds can be several feet in diameter, over 12" high and packed very hard with squirrel traffic.
- Main holes can be 12" in diameter at the opening and burrows several feet deep.
- Different holes and burrows within a colony may or may not be connected.
Additional Ground Squirrel Information:
Ground Squirrel Treatment with PERC:
- Old mounds should be harrowed or otherwise reduced prior to treatment.
- Populations can be reduced by 70 percent or more from first treatment.
- Two or three subsequent treatments can reduce populations by 95 percent.
- All active live holes must be treated and sealed with dirt.
- Only fresh active open holes need be treated a second and third time.
- Treating ground squirrels in hibernation is not successful.
- Old infestations are difficult to treat due to the huge burrow complexes.
- Economic viability of treatment has to be determined by the farmer/rancher.
- New infestations can be totally eliminated with PERC treatments.