A decade ago a friend was storing expensive electronic equipment in a warehouse... Picture a dozen electronic cabinets 6 feet tall and about 20-24 inches on a side. The warehouse had rats and mice (mice can get through any hole bigger than a dime). The base of each cabinet had several cable entrance holes ranging from 1 inch to 2 inches...
He tried tarps with sandbags to weight them down around the perimeter... they chewed through them. Equipment got damaged.
He tried poison... found a few dead rodents, and more chewed up wiring in the equipment.
He called county pest control... They told him that rodents LOVE wire covered with PVC insulation, it's like candy. They gave him a tub of "bite blocks".
Blocks: https: //
www.homedepot.com/p/Tomcat-4-lb-Bait-Pail-BL22244/205566244 Lowes and Amazon also has them.
Bait stations, in case you need them: https: //
www.amazon.com/Tomcat-Killer-Resistant-Refillable-Station/dp/B01N6O3IB3
The final solution for the equipment in the warehouse was metal plates over the cable entrance holes, a couple of cats and continuous refreshing of the bite blocks inside the equipment racks and in the poison stations.
I have a friend that lives in a rural area and he has a squirrel problem... he made two of these and the problem is less... they are still there, but there are a lot fewer squirrels:
https: //
There is also a device called the A18 Squirrel Trap made by a company in the UK called Goodnature. Unfortunately it's not available in the USA...
Watch this... it's impressive.... https: // youtu.be/TL1HvJfID-4
if you know someone in UK they are available there. Google it...
The smaller A24 is made for mice and rats and is available here (and works!) from
https://www.automatictrap.com
It would probably work on small squirrels.
I'd love to find a source of the A18s... Locally the squirrels will destroy an avacado crop... they will knock one down off the tree, eat one bite from it, and go do it again. A friend has a tree in his back yard and found one or two partially eaten ones lying on the ground in the morning.... total was 45 partially eaten ones and two intact ones for the entire season...
Mike