Someone said the following to get rid of squirrels in my backyard:

"Here's an effective way of getting rid of the little monsters. Although inhumane, it is effective: Fill a 5 gallon bucket halfway up with water (we'll call it the pool) and cover the pool with sunflower seeds (they float). Then lean a board against the bucket going from the ground to the top of the bucket (diving board). Have a few seeds sprinkled leading up the diving board. That's it. They see all those seeds and them greedy lil varmints can't resist. They jump in but cant get out. One after another they'll jump in."

Does this really work?

I can't comment that squirrels would 1) be so attracted to sunflower seeds that they would bail into a bucket, and 2) not be able to either jump or clamber out of something as small as a 5gal bucket, or at least just stand up in the water to avoid drowning, but I'll share an anecdote on a similar line...

In any farm stock tank (water tank) near trees, most farmers keep some sort of log or post tipped inside the tank so that squirrels could get out if they fell in the water trying to get a drink. If you don't have a way for them to fall out, they can wind up drowning.

So in theory, it COULD work. But again, questions 1 and 2 above are still outstanding in my mind. I'm not sure that you'd get a squirrel to jump into a bucket after sunflower seeds, and not 100% sure a squirrel would drown in a 5gal bucket.

as long as you had the bucket full enough so they couldn't touch and couldnt climb out, I'm sure it would work. I've never used it for squirrel, but Ive done the exact same thing on mice. 5 gal bucket abt 1/3-1/2 full with a stick from the outside up to the rim, and a handfull of cornmeal in the water is definitely a good mousetrap.

why ya wanna get rid of them?
RR

And when you go to skin them, their fur's already wet and won't get all over the place.