I have been having issues with my squirrels for the past month. Pretty much ever since the acorns started falling. Every year at this time the squirrels frantically and furiously run around digging here and digging there; and here, there, and everywhere. I was pretty diligent about running around and sprinkling red pepper or red chili pepper around the bases of all my newly planted plants. That does seem to help for a while until it rains and then you have to quick fast run out and reapply and often times the squirrels and rabbits have beat you to the locations you need to sprinkle. I ran out of my bulk red pepper and chili powder and had made a mental note to pick some up in quantity again from Sam' s Club. Sam's Club was out so I made a mental note to call around and locate it. Well, that was last week and I forgot to call around. This morning, I found 20+ ferns uprooted and at least 50 other plants that had all the soil dug up from around them leaving the roots exposed. I have been out there adding more top soil and adding pine nugget mulch over the top of that to try to save them. Unfortunately, I wasn't over on that side of the porperty for about 6-7 days and it looks as if this happened a few days ago. I will most probably lose a considerable number of plants, yet again.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do to help save my plants? I have lost them to deer, I have lost them to rabbits, I have been losing them to feral and stray cats that dig in fresh soil to poop, now I am losing them to squirrels, and I am even losing my aquatics to raccoons. I am close to tears and am about at wits end with what the squirrels did.
I look forward to anything anyone is doing who has similar critter problems.
I'm having major problems with squirrels, any suggestions?
Wish I could help but can't...our squirrels here are few..but have had those critters in the past..our main enemy is those darned gophers, and they are destructive..lost 6 of my favourite rose bushes this past summer..I could have cried..and they are after our fruit trees all the time [ top results are the same..dead and dying]
My husband uses traps..real glad to have our neighbor gone [ sorry that doesn't sound nice] but her housekeeper fed every living thing around here...[ as in the wild critters] there were so many racoons around it looked like a day from the zoo..they fished my one Koi out of the pond [ she was my baby 14 yrs old] never ate her..just left her on the ground and we found her early AM was I upset..a game with them I guess...since the house was sold nextdoor and no catfood left out to feed the wild stock..the racoons have visited less and less...but all my good fish have gone now...tears galore !!!!! LOL with the squirrels...[ most of us know how it feels]
410 guage shotgun! :-(
my husbands name is john [ bite your tongue girl]...how is it you all think alike ???
I dunno.
Wish I could give you an easy solution, but there aint none. Do a DG search on squirells and you'll see lots of similar posts. I'm lucky. I live in a place where I can shoot a .22 rifle safely. Every so often I have to thin the population down to acceptable levels. Nothin like a Brunswick stew made with squirell and other game. A bait o' fried squirell heads ain't bad either. Only thing you can't eat is the teeth.
OOOOOhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
Very lean and lotsa protein, too.
You guys are all baaaaaad. Half of the squirrels I have here are red squirrels. They are native and they are endangered or threatened. As destructive as they are, I like them. Do not think I am nuts it's just that they belong and I do find them entertaining most of the year. The gray squirrels I am very seriously thinking of taking out of the picture. Maybe if I could get their numbers down the red squirrels wouldn't be so much of a problem. Perhaps it is time to seriously consider your Brunswick Stew as my husband has got to be sick and tired of my incessant whining.
Sorry about your koi Marion. That's exactly what all the stray cats do to my chipmunks, frogs, and birds around here and they don't even eat them. At least the feral cats eat what they kill. The strays just drop it when they are done playing with it. I have no use for feral or stray cats. What they make animal feed smell like around here when they spray it is absolutely horrible not to mention you then can't use it as feed. And.... I have a neighbor who is feeding feral cats. She's got an entire colony going over by her. Not much I can say as her heart is in the right place. I feel so bad when they get nailed by coyotes or hit by cars but the worst is when I see them and parts of their ears are gone to frost bite. This area is not hospitable to ferals.
Update- the rabbits just nibbled down all of my hollyhocks. That was incredibly depressing. And no, I am not interested in a Rabbit Stew recipe, they're natives here and I have a few owls that pluck them off. No rabbits = no owls.
Equil, know how you are feeling, you really want to ring their little necks at times...I smile when I think years ago..we used to visit Big Sur a lot [ gorgeous place just up the coast] right at the beginning of the drive is a motel and we would stay there and have every racoon in the neighborhood visit us upstairs..used to buy bags of grapes to feed them until the owners posted messages about how destructive they were...now this is coming back to haunt me as they would climb on top of our roof to go after the birds which roost up there..chew the wood posts and used to chew the shingles before we had those replaced [ now we have a metal roof so maybe not as easy to hold on to as the shingles were...it used to be fun [wrong] listening to them during the night thumping around on the roof like a herd of elephants..well, that was one problem gone...and the rats went [ yes the old dear next door brought the RATS in too] she told us [smile] that WE SHOULD CONTACT THE AUTHORITIES AS SHE HAD SEEN SOME RATS RUNNING ALONG OUR FENCE...when I say she had gone..I meant she had died...[but she was 92]
The cats stink up our place too, I do sprinkle hot chilli powder around our front door, and that does discourage for a while but you cannot do that out in the open...
Wild life can be such a pain at times, cuter watching them on tv .....[ I think that stew still sounds GROSS !!!!]
Not nearly as gross as 'gamey' pheasant. (I saw Shogun). LOL
Er Uh, cats are not NA wildlife. They were introduced by the colonists. Cats eat NA wildlife. Rats are not NA wildlife either. They are another introduced species just like the Cane Toad. I'm thinking the gray squirrel stew is sounding better all the time, too bad I can't bring myself to do anything about them even though I know their numbers are out of control.
I have big dogs who can't catch a squirrel to save their lives, but the barking, dog fur, and dog poo seem to convince the squirrels to mostly leave the garden alone. Not sure if this is much of a trade off-dogs are pretty hard on the garden too! Want some dog hair? I'll mail it!
Why thank you salvi74 for your offer of dog hair. Wanna swap? I have 8 indoor only cats that are meticulously groomed and I toss their hair out the door to the wind. I also have a few canines from the animal shelter myself and I use a curry comb to groom them and I stand them outside to let their hair blow to the wind too. Not that it seems to help but the squirrels and a few birds seemed to like that idea and last spring I found cat and dog hair used in the construction of several nests. Isn't that special! My husband was shocked and about all he could say was that it figures! Now about that dog poo... I gave up on that. I tried to spread it around strategically but the squirrels didn't seem to be phased. They just dug around it and went on their merry way uprooting my plants.Now me on the other hand, I was phased as I had forgotten where I had spread it (blends in quite well after a while) and I kneeled in it more times than I care to admit. The kids hold their noses and chant stinky mommy. I tell ya, gray squirrel stew keeps sounding better all the time.
Wow, you really do have a serious problem if all that hair and poo isn't helping! I found a furry nest this year too. Cozy baby birds, that's for sure. Maybe we can find more squirrel recipes. Roasted, stuffed, fried?
I have squirrel problems also, they constantly dig to the roots of my flowers, and plant their winter nuts, I did purchase some spray that works for awhile (if it doesn't rain) but it is expensive $14 for 1 pint. it is called Deer Off but it is for Deer, Rabbits, and squirrels.
Try human urine .... for the squirrels.
Yep, will keep the deer from browsing also ...
But, of course, the same goes, that after a rain ... you'll have to re-treat along the beds.
But it's cost-free, virtually labor-free, and no trips to the stores!!
However, the scent will drive your outside dogs plum batty - for they'll constantly be
attempting to re-mark their territory !!
nothing to do with squirrels but when we were having so many problems with the racoons... someone suggested getting some urine from the San Diego Zoo [they were serious] to spray around....[ from the wild animals]...I never carried that one thru [?] although I did hear that racoons leave those gardens alone that have dogs [ we have had ours... 2 little ones for I guess 4 yrs now] possibly that has cut down on our visits from them...not sure...
It does not help with the stray cats tho...and they sure can run fast......
Peterson89-
we tried fox urine for the racoons. All it did was attract foxes. I am being totally serious.
Equilibrium-
I have heard you should put down mulches that are sharp. They don't like to "hurt their widdle paws".
I tried this after they dug my most rare mint up three times in one week. I nearly lost it. I had shelled a bunch of nuts recently for a recipe, so I put the sharp nut shells around my mint, in a thick spread, like mulch. They haven't touched it, since.
I've also heard that chicken wire buried just under the soil surface, will discourage them, too. This is great for over bulbs, as they can still grow through the chicken wire.
Save your nut shells and sharp things. In a pinch I've even set sharp wooden shish-ka-bob skewers pointy side up, in the soil...it works, but not as good as the nut shells. The shells are more aesthetic than wooden shish-ka-bob skewers, too.
I remember as a kid, my mother would put broken clay pot shards on the top of her houseplants to keep the cats from peeing in them. That worked really well, too.
-seedpicker_TX
When we were having our racoon problems we got a business to come over and trap them..only problem was they were having to come over twice a week, and charged $35 everytime they came [ they took them up to the mountains to a wild animal hospital that checked them out then released them]..we figured after a while that the same released animals were finding their way back to our yard again..so my hubby decided to trap them..but did not have the magic touch I guess because they were too smart I guess except for the opossums..hubby came running in one morning ..told me this opossum was in the cage with all its ''guts'' hanging out..you can imagine...it was sleeping and had babies in its pouch and their little tails were hanging out...honestly some mothers do have them...and I ain't talking about the 'possoms either !!!!!
Hi seedpicker_TX., I am really liking your chicken wire idea. Last year I planted over a thousand bulbs and as fast as I could get them in the ground, the squirrels were digging them up. This is no exageration either. I was beside myself. My husband was ready to go postal on them just to shut me up.
I will check around for sharp mulches. I have not tried this before. Can you tell me the name of a sharp mulch product. Do you have any sources?
Hi magpye, I think I have an unlimited source of boy pee. Oh how they would love to be able to pee outside and I think I just might let them! What the heck! It's for a good cause and all I need to do is get them to pee where I want. Now that's going to be a trick.
Hi kareoke, Sadly, I tried the Deer Off. It provided little relief for me. The deer numbers are too out of control over here and one can never underestimate their destructive habits when they are starving. They are trying to address the deer population explosion here and that will ultimately provide relief. The Deer Off did seem to help with the rabbits and squirrels... until it rained. For me, it is just too expensive to use and I ran out a few times too many. I do think this would work great for people with a few garden beds they are trying to protect.
I've even seen square wire cages that lock,in catalogs, specifically for bulbs. ...Just burry the cage, and the bulbs pop right up through it...
I don't know of sharp mulch sources, but I'll bet you can find some. The gardener in the article I read, had used hazelnut shells, as they were a byproduct of a local nut company in his town.
There may not be a nut company in your town, but I'll bet if you went somewhere like a farmer's market, or some place that sell nuts, shelled, or whole, you could get to talking to them, and request the empty shells. I'm sure they'd be happy to unload them to you. I'm sure that otherwise they just go in the trash.
I located a carpenters shop once, and used to go by weekly and pick up their saw dust for mulching my beds. It worked great! And, it was small enough that it decomposed and turned to worm food very quickly. Just have to be sure you don't use the shavings from "treated" wood...or the poison will leach into the beds.
Try some broken flower pots. I'm sure you can find a nursery that has some in the trash, if you don't have any, already...
-seedpicker_TX
Fresh out of nut venders in the area but it is something to keep in the back of my head should I ever run across anyone who has enough to cover about a 1000 sq feet of area about an inch to two thick. Tee he, I am dealing with a good sized area most unfortunately. I am relatively sure I don't want to put cracked pottery on the ground. Too many kids running around. I would love to see a link to those bulb baskets if you can readily put your finger on it. My best guess is that I lost over 500 bulbs last year to squirrel pilfering. I was ready to go out of my mind. One squirrel boldly tried to drag off a small bag of tulips while I was standing about 5' away from him. Ugh! I went after him wildly waving my arms and yelling and he dropped the loot! Big fat squirrel jerk!
Guess it's back to chicken wire or squirrel stew!
I used to live trap them in my basement and then spray paint the little buggers to see if it was the same three I was continually catching. Then I would take them far, far, far away and let them go. I caught one almost every day last year. It's a lot of work, but worth it... just a thought. Mere
Hplover - One a DAY? Good grief you must live in squirrel heaven. And Equilibrium, the scene you describe sounds like a script for a cartoon. LOL at you chasing the squirrel.
All joking aside, I couldn't live trap and relocate any squirrels as then some unsuspecting person inherits my issues and they'd probably come back anyway unless I drove 50 miles away. Everyone around here is having problems with squirrels. I won't destroy the Red Squirrels as they belong here. I truly do enjoy them. We have a love hate relationship at this time of year. The Red Squirrels are threatened so I'll just work around them somehow. The Gray Squirrels are going to get trapped. My husband is tired of the financial ruin over here and equally tired of me running out to repair the damage. I sort of have to agree. Besides which, they are competing for limited resources with the Reds. We'll release any Red Squirrels we get. I am going to check into the bulb baskets. I did some preliminary searches and came up empty handed. I need massive quantities as I probably have at least 4,000 rhizomes/bulbs in the ground here which is another reason I was thinking the sharp nut hulls or the chicken wire might be the way to go for me. The vast majority of what is in the ground would be Bearded Iris rhizomes but I also have Dutch Iris, Allium azureum, Allium triquetrum, Hyacinthoides nonscripta, Delft Blue Hyacinths, White Elegance/Snow Parrot/White Bouquet Tulips, Thalia Daffodils, Crocus, Mount Hood/Dark Eyes Muscari, Camassia cusickii, Camassia quamash, and Puschkinia libanotica. I'm sure I missed something but that's about all I can think of right now. Who knows, by now I probably only have about 2,000 bulbs and I don't even know it!
I am going to try to find nut hulls. I haven't had time to go searching for those yet however it is on my ever growing list. The other thing I want to try is Irish Spring soap shavings. One of my neighbors said she had heard that might work. I think it is worth a try and it is readily available.
I had to laugh about hpluver spraying her squirrels to see who was making their way home. I have done that with mice I live trap in my home and gosh darn it... they find their way back in the house with their fluorescent green tails. I also did it with a skunk that kept ending up in my cat trap. Gosh darn it... the same bright lime green tail kept showing up in the cat trap. She's so used to being released now that she doesn't even "go off" when I flip the latch to let her go. We used to have to use a telescoping pole to trip the latch because she kept "going off" but now I can walk right up to let her go and she sort of just saunters off glancing backwards at me occasionally- ingrate! I think I have trapped that skunk at least 20 times.
And Blooms! I went after a heron once and some day I'll tell you what happened to me. I wasn't able to laugh at the time but now I can.
Oh-oh!
No, I didn't kill the heron John. I only tried to scare it and get it out of my pond. My scare tactics didn't work.
Ha! You were the one that was "scared!" Your tactics backfired.
Oh it's a new fashion trend for squirrels!! I'm going to spray mine in purple and yellow to match my coneflowers! No, just kidding-but that really makes me laugh to think about those bright colored animals!
Well John what basically happened is that I had been so frustrated over losing fish from my pond that I saw that heron standing in the middle of my pond one day so I decided to let my dogs out. I yelled "sic em" and opened up the front door. My dogs shot out the front door like bullets in three different directions oblivious to the heron that stayed put and never even bothered to move. I think it took me a few hours to gather my dogs from the neighborhood.
A few days later I noticed the heron was back. I was upstairs getting dressed at the time. I was so irate that I figured I'd take care of this myself. I flew down the stairs and out the front door and went right for the heron. He took off up to my roof where he began preening himself while he looked down at me in my underwear. One big problem, self closing front door and in my haste to "deal with" the heron myself, I had locked myself out of my own house.
Yup, my tactics backfired. I wasn't scared... just totally humiliated trying to duck around in my front yard to avoid being seen until my wonderful husband opened the door to let me back in. He had been in the shower at the time so I had to toss rocks up at the window to get his attention. And, when he finally realized I was locked outside he took his sweet time opening that front door. He said he needed to compose himself and had difficulty walking down the stairs without tripping because he was laughing too hard. Har har har, funny funny funny. Husband (under penalty of death) has fixed the front doorbell now so it works. Guess some good came out of the incident.
Chalk one up for the birds!
Equilibrium!-Hilarious!
Don't worry! You are not the only one who's ever been totally humiliated by something, or someone.
Makes for a funny story. Thanks for sharing.
-seedpicker_TX
Oh Seedpicker, wanna borrow my husband? Great father, great provider, but slightly lacking in the compassion department though and all too easily amused.
Ever wonder if critters 'laugh' ? ? ? ? ..
Oh my .. I'd have done the same as your hubby !!! ...
However, I'd have prolly went one drastic step worse .. and TOOK PICS !!! ...
(visit me .. Yuma prison, cell block B) .. LOL ..
Ya know, he probably would have if he had thought of it. That's the kind of loving and doting husband I have. Oh what fun he would have had passing those photos around the Thanksgiving Dinner table to share with friends and family. He takes photos of me napping on the couch with cats all over the top of me virtually smothering me and he has taken other extremely flattering photos so I am glad he missed that Kodak moment.
THis is really chuckling time...sounds like you and I have the same peas out of the same pod Lauren...funny..my hubby used to take photos of me when I was eating or had my mouth full you know those type of pics.. ha ha ha..at our expense...oh well, moving right along..we had a real pesky heron who actually ran around the yard [ more like sprinted] with me chasing it..when ever I got too close it would then take off for a few then land back on the ground again..never did catch it of course...it also had this habbit of kicking on the glass patio door..[funniest thing really as it made such a racket] however to spoil it for me my husband told me it was hitting its own reflection in the glass with its leg...[ I thought I had it domesticated] It really never caught many fish and then our dogs took care of the rest after we got them..so it took off and very rarely see them...I had not tried chasing it in my underwear tho..maybe my nightie...:›)
My heron ate all of my fish. Not once, not twice, not three times but try about 5 or 6 times. I am relativley sure I've got him foiled this time... no fish left. Seriously, the monofilament fishing line actually works so next pond season I am going that route.
Silliest thing happened. Almost every afternoon I go out and survey the damage to my plants. It's been like this for about a month which is when the acorns began to fall. My husband found an old plastic wide eyed owl that we had used for a Halloween party a few years ago. For what ever reason (probably to trick me into thinking it was real to see if I would sneak up on it to try to get a few photos), he put it up on a stake overlooking the path that always seems to have the most squirrel damage. Interestingly enough, today there was no squirrel damage. I had him go out and add another stake. We are convinced the squirrels aren't coming around because of that ghastly looking fake plastic owl. If we rotate it from stake to stake and keep it on the move, maybe... just maybe... I will get a much needed reprieve until they figure out the owl is a prop at which point in time the squirrels will most probably come back with a vengeance to make up for lost time. I have got to remember to take a picture of this horribly tacky looking plastic owl. It is the ugliest thing I've seen in the longest time.
Reminds me of something from BBC news just recently Lauren...fishermen in Scotland have invested in this [balloon] an enormous full sized killer whale which they have tied down in some port...the seal poulation was so great and eating all their fish..since then seals have disappeared and the fishermen have all of their fish accounted for....you see..you can fool mother nature....sometimes....
Meet Mr. Owl.
He's my new friend.
Today marks the second day I did not have to replant 50 uprooted plants.
