Here in San Diego I am not allowed to shoot a BB gun or pellet gun anywhere in my neighborhood and the cost of professional exterminators is prohibitively high when it comes to squirrels. One quote was almost $400 for three days of trapping with no guarantees.
I've used the Rat Zapper with good success, but a Rat Zapper baited with peanuts is no match for a squirrel going after peaches or oranges.
I like the idea of placing rat traps in the fruit trees, but I'm also afraid of birds getting caught by mistake.
It's technically illegal to live trap and relocate the squirrels, but I think I'll give it another try because I'm tired of seeing them run off with my fruit in their mouths. Of course, because of the nighttime visitors (possum, skunk, racoon) I'll have to limit the live trapping to daylight hours when I'm home to monitor the trap.
I now know people in the neighborhood have been feeding the squirrels because I just tried to chase one out of the yard and it scampered up to me like it was looking for a meal.
I am beginning to think everything is illegal in California except what should be illegal.
Whereas, in Alabama, I shoot squirrels and chipmunks on a regular basis, with no issues, and have been doing so for the past two years, averaging a squirrel per week during that time, less than that for chipmunks. They seem to come in waves, though. I will kill a dozen squirrels and eight chipmunks in a week or two and not see any for a couple of months. Then, my yard will instantly be filled with those pests in numbers just like I hadn't done anything, all of them digging and chewing and being as destructive as possible. So, I repeat the process.
My pellet gun does not make enough noise to bother my neighbors, though I make sure not to shoot anything in my front yard or in any direction towards the neighbors. I leave the carcasses out in my backyard for my resident box turtles to eat, an entertaining (if gruesome) spectacle.
I trap raccoons. They are too big to kill with a pellet gun (though with a very well-placed shot it can be done), and I am not going to shoot an actual gun in my neighborhood; even in Alabama that is frowned upon, as it should be. Luckily, there are plenty of wooded areas near me with property owners who are more than happy to have their property stocked with game animals. One of those, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," type of situations.
The irony is, I would leave the squirrels, chipmunks, and raccoons completely alone if they were not so destructive. It is one thing for them to take a little bit of fruit or some bird seed. But, they destroy plants, pots, bird feeders, garden hoses, and anything else they can sink their teeth or dig their claws into. There are all sorts of animals that I let have free reign over my yard, such as deer, groundhogs, voles, and many bird species. None of them seem to do any appreciable damage, probably because there are enough woods in and around my yard to provide them with everything they want or need. And if they take a little bit of fruit, that is fine since they never destroy the crop or the plants producing the crop. That is the difference between wildlife and vermin, and why I treat them differently.