An old timer once taught me, "You can't catch a squirrel in a rat trap".
At the time the squirrels were getting in my garden shed and ravaging my stocks of bird seed, actually eating through the 5 gallon plastic pails I used for storage.
I ignored the old man and bought the rat traps, which were like giant old fashioned mouse traps. I sat one outside the garden shed at the bottom of a white plastic 5 gallon pail. I scattered some black oil sunflower seeds around and in the pail.
I sat back on the deck to enjoy the show. In less than 5 minutes a squirrel took the bait. He gobbled up the seeds on the ground and hopped up on the rim of the bucket.
He dropped into the bucket, I heard a loud snap as the rat trap went off and the squirrel shot out of the bucket and at least 6 feet into the air.
I guess the old man was right.