The ground squirrels behind Tucson calls
Rock squirrels
Rock squirrels are the big ones, gray and brown with a bushy tail, often mistaken for tree squirrels.
They live in rocky areas, washes and the foothills, and they move easily into yards with block walls, rock landscaping and patios. They climb well and raid fruit trees, bird feeders and vegetable beds.
Round-tailed ground squirrels
Round-tailed ground squirrels are small, sandy-colored and quick, with a thin tail.
They live in colonies on flat desert ground and in yards, parks and vacant lots across the city, digging many small burrow openings under shrubs and along walls.
Signs of ground squirrels
- Open burrow holes, often several, under shrubs, along block walls and at the edge of the slab or patio
- Fresh soil fanned out from the entrances
- Squirrels running between the burrows and the garden during the day
- Fruit, seed heads, tomatoes and young plants eaten or cut down
- Drip lines and irrigation tubing chewed through
- Settling or cracking pavers and patio slabs over tunnels
Unlike pocket gophers, which plug their holes and stay underground, ground squirrels leave burrow entrances open and are active above ground in daylight.
Why they cause problems
Burrows under a slab, a patio or the footing of a block wall wash out in monsoon storms and can undermine the concrete.
Squirrels chew irrigation lines and pool equipment, eat gardens and fruit, and their burrows give other animals, including snakes looking for prey, a reason to visit the yard. Like other rodents, they can carry fleas.
How ground squirrel removal works
Inspection
The technician walks the yard to find every active burrow entrance, how far the system runs and where the squirrels are getting into the yard, whether from a wash, a vacant lot, a neighbor's yard or under a wall.
Trapping
Traps are set near the active burrows and along the paths the squirrels use, then checked and reset until the activity stops.
Trapping avoids loose poison in a yard used by children, pets and wildlife, and it is the method most homeowners prefer. Arizona wildlife rules on trapping and relocating animals are followed.
Closing the burrows
Once the squirrels are gone, burrows are collapsed and filled.
Where squirrels keep digging, such as along a block wall or under a patio edge, an L-shaped barrier of buried hardware cloth or a concrete footing stops them from tunneling back in.
Protecting gardens and fruit trees
Raised beds with hardware cloth across the bottom and sides keep squirrels from digging up vegetables.
Wire cages over young plants, baffles on fruit tree trunks and picking ripe fruit promptly reduce what draws them in.
Bird seed on the ground is a squirrel feeder, so a catch tray under feeders helps.
Seasons and activity
Round-tailed ground squirrels go quiet underground in the coolest months and come back out in late winter and spring, when young are born and the colony grows quickly.
Rock squirrels are active most of the year in Tucson's mild climate.
Spring is the best time to act, before the young of the year start digging new burrows of their own around the yard.
Squirrels, pack rats and other rodents
Yards with ground squirrels often have pack rats and roof rats too, because the same things draw them: fruit, seed, water, rock piles and dense cover.
When the technician is out, the yard is checked for pack rat nests, rat runs along walls and gaps into the garage, so one visit covers the whole rodent picture.
Homes near washes and the foothills
Homes that back onto washes, desert open space and rocky slopes in the Catalina Foothills, Tanque Verde, Oro Valley and Vail see a steady supply of new squirrels.
There, follow-up checks in spring and late summer catch new burrows before the system is rebuilt.
What to look for near Catalina Foothills
Call when you find several open burrows, see squirrels digging under concrete or walls, or lose the garden to them.
Call now and tell us where the holes are and how long you have been seeing squirrels.
Ground squirrel quick facts for Tucson
- Round-tailed ground squirrel (*Xerospermophilus tereticaudus*): small, sandy colored with a thin round tail; lives in colonies in open, sandy yards and lots.
- Rock squirrel (*Otospermophilus variegatus*): large, gray with a bushy tail; lives in rocky areas, foothills and retaining walls and climbs well.
- Harris's antelope squirrel (*Ammospermophilus harrisii*): small, with a white stripe on each side, often seen running with its tail held over its back.
- Damage: burrows under patios, walkways and slabs, chewed drip lines and eaten fruit, vegetables and flowers.
- Activity: most active in daytime from spring through fall; many slow down in the hottest and coldest months.