Ground Squirrel (GS) Invasion

We’ve made our home in remote NE Washington State on a family farm for nearly twenty-five years. For the past decade the population and burrowing of GS has become an issue. We use zero poisons or pesticides and with an abundance of wildlife, birds, raptors etc.have to use methods that do-no-harm to the creatures finding dispatched GSs or harm to soil. There are hundreds of these nibblers, perhaps thousands out in the pasture, and with literally countless burrow openings fumigation would mean plugging-up means of fumigant escape. I’m considering woodsmoke, but how to facilitate?. Cats could probably help but cats kill a lot of birds. Watering & mowing keeps the burrowing around structures in check, but the fresh grass is quite an attractant for above ground activity.
Walking across areas w/mowed lawn finds GS poop in the cleats. Shoes off & on entering homes isn’t easy for the busy to abide so a brush-off boot cleaning gizmo at the door helps. We need to do something pro-active before next Spring when their numbers double, triple.
Has anyone done smoke fumigation? Are cats the only non-chemical solution?

Hi Ray;
Yes, here in the inland empire (N.W. Montana) we have Columbian ground squirrels aplenty.
Their burrows can snap the leg on livestock if they step in one wrong.
A real pest!  Although, we have never had the problem of poop sticking to our shoes!
I tried gassing them, and as you say too many escape holes.
Poison is not an option.
You'll need some large experienced cats to try to take on a ground squirrel...
They have large teeth and are carnivorous.
Perhaps introducing a few badgers to your pasture might make the itty bitty squirrels pack their bags and move on to greener badgerless pastures!

The only answer for us was target practice with a 22-hornet. (22 longs seemed too slow)
This does work, as our population is now down to just seeing a few a season.
It took about 3 years before we really noticed an improvement.

The raptor and coyote populations definitely increased during that time with the feeding availability.
It will take time, as they will consume their fallen buddy if the birds do not snap them up.

I had quite a lot if them. Now I have much less.

1. My two cats love their taste because since they were kittens I was feeding them with ground squirrels that I shot with pellet rifle.

2. I used some caged trap with one way entry but got only 4 this way (I used apple and peanut butter as the bait). The best trap ever was leaving a 100 Gal tub 30% filled with water in the middle of the field. During the peak of the dryness and heat of the summer they would be jumping to drink and drown. At least 30 were eliminated this way. One time I saw drowned party of seven.Most of them I would feed to cats. I did not set the tubs on purpose - I just used them to manually water the trees before I had the irrigation, but quickly noticed this is the best method. I will repeat that it only worked when it was extremely dry and hot.

3. I use my 0.177 pellet rifle with lead-free pellets - I don't want to have too much lead on my land. If they are within 20 m distance they may end up dead. It requires patience. After a missed shot they will hide to their burrow and usually will emerge in 15-20 minutes.

I also have less of them because I'm visiting my orchard twice per week, my sheep and hens scare them off from the other parts of the property and also when we are building we use power tools that obviously make noise.

Wow! Thanks to fellow Permies for the thoughtful replies. We’ll keep the forum informed of our progress. Thanks again!

Thankfully, this is not an issue on my land, however I was curious whether there were specific raptors which might target these or similar critters and I found this:

Ground squirrels play an important role in the ecology of Alberta’s wildlife. Ground squirrels are a major source of food for many predatory birds, mammals and reptiles.
One species of raptor, the ferruginous hawk, depends almost entirely on ground squirrels to fledge their chicks.
Similarly, many other species rely on ground squirrels as a major food source

This was from: https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3471/$file/684-2.pdf?OpenElement
and clearly the Alberta government agencies aren't on the permaculture page yet, so please ignore any of the inappropriate suggestions!

So that brings us to Ferruginous hawks and a different level of government:

Habitat
Ferruginous Hawk requires open habitat, including grassland, shrub-steppe, or desert, typically nesting on elevated features such as trees or nest platforms. Nesting density and the likelihood of re-using nests between years is higher in landscapes with less than 50% cropland. The availability of preferred nesting and wintering habitat has declined by over 80% historically and continues to decrease.

From: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/ferruginous-hawk-2021.html

So maybe by building some nest platforms, you could help an endangered hawk and limit your ground squirrel problem at the same time? I realize you're in the US, but last I saw, birds didn't pay that much attention to borders, so it's more determining whether or not you're in their range.

Grey squirrels are a non-indigenous species in my area and I have a friend who shoots them and either eats them himself, or feeds them to various neighborhood owls. I'm hoping he'll make me a couple of owl nest boxes, but we'll see.

I represent a company that just released an organic burrowing mammal deterrent that simply mixes in water in a spray tank and is applied to the ground. We saw a decrease between 55-95% several weeks after application. This product simply moves the animals from the treated area.
https://penergeticsolutions.com/products/penergetic-b-zv-small-mammal-deterrent/

What species is the problem in NE Washington State? I'm not sure one size fits all -- perhaps it's best to match the control method to the species.

On the Canadian prairies, it's the Richardson's ground squirrel that can cause headaches in pasture land.