squirrels &^%^$##@

wondering if anyone has had good luck with hot pepper spray on their plants with both squirrels and various vine boring insects that bother melons etc. thanks.

I have not tried the pepper spray yet but will this summer. Also, this coming season, I am going to try wrapping a piece of plastic window screen around the lower part of my zucchini and melon plants and twist tie it loose enough to not hurt the plants but tight enough that the bugs/borers cannot get to the plant. The side of the screen by the ground will probably get tucked under some soil or mulch to hold it in place. The leaves will probably have to be cut off on the lower part of the plant in order to do this. I thought of this the other day when I came across a partial roll of screen in the garage.
Has anyone else tried this?

http://www.livevideo.com/video/9CC08D2C794A49E2BD546611753AD6DC/squirrel-a-pult.aspx

Hey, that's a sling shot of another kind! Darn buggers are digging all in my flowerbeds.. We also have Bambi and a chipmunk that come around. My dear in-laws used to have a beautiful garden every year that produced tomatoes that Mom canned and made juice out of, plus made 14 day pickels from the cucumbers she grew. The beans and corn went into the freezer for the winter months. The last few years they were alive, the squirels would stand on their hind legs and reach for the largers and prettiest tomatoes to eat. It was so frustrating and Dad borrowed a trap from next door neighbor to catch the squirrels in and one week, he hauled away 17 squirrels at least 1 1/2 - 2 miles away and would release them in a park setting. Dad would drive back and swear those same squirrels beat him home! LOL! I planted 90 new daffs in the Fall of 2008 and I know probably only half came up. I swear the squirrels must have been watching me plant them and the next morning, there were little holes dug all through the flowerbed. We have tried several products to ward off Bambi and friends, but find Liquid fence seems to help best and that is also supposed to help the squirrel situation but it has to be reapplied after a rainfall or in so many days. I've been looking online and in gardening catalogs at a product called Critter ridder but calling around to the local garden centers and nurseries, it is hard to find so I might end up ordering it from a gardening catalog. If anybody else uses a better product for the pesky squirrels, let me know, please! Squirrels are adorable and very smart animals but they can also be destructive.

I feel your pain. In some ways, I like that my house is in an area with some wildlife. But between the squirrels, rabbits, deer, and birds... well, my garden is constantly under attack.

I was super depressed this weekend. My crocus were finally starting to come up. Ahh, first sign of spring, right? Well, the next day they were chewed to bits with holes everywhere. *sniffle*